forum Planetary wandering....
Started by @ThatBackgroundSlytherin
tune

people_alt 5 followers

@Nevermore

Do you want all of the planets to be visited by the characters or do you just want the reader to know about all of them?

@Azuresbend

Haha, I don't want to come in and tell you how to rock your jam here especially seeing as I don't know your plot or even what you're planets are like but just a tip, a lot of sci fi writers, even really really famous ones (I'm looking at you George Lucas) will write planets that are "the sand planet" "the ice planet" "the jungle planet" etc. and as really really cool as it actually is to have a planet that is just lava everywhere, think about our planet. Earth has so many different climates and cultures its insane. If you were to drop and alien in the arctic circle where all the eye can see is cold dead tundra they would surely think our whole planet is a lifeless hunk of ice, and then if you put that same alien in the Sahara's endless sand and then dark empty atlantic and then the colossal towers of NYC surely they would think they'd been 4 different planets all together. Anyway my point is be wary of the trap that is making a whole planet all the same, if your story is mostly just characters flying from one dimensional but cool looking planet to one dimensional but cool looking planet your readers may get bored. Anyway just a thought. Quality over quantity I guess.

@kat_i_am

Hey I'm here
I agree with Azure, that's a good point, but some planets are the same all over- like, Earth is a Goldilocks planet, but if you look at Mars, it's just red desert everywhere (but it's v cold cause there's not really atmosphere). Essentially, the planet's qualities/climates will depend on where they are in their solar system, their size, and how close they are to their sun

@Riorlyne pets

I don’t know what kind of plot you’ve got going, but either a quest, the formation of a motley crew or a man(woman/alien)hunt could be a way to visit more than one planet. For example, someone building the perfect team for a dangerous mission: they need the tech expert from Zazeen, the trained assassin from Jacthali (who is actually hiding on Skö so guess what now we have to go there) and the top medic from Lwilliar, and because of that they have to visit all those planets.

Deleted user

I have a sci-fi planet wandering series I'm working on, and I always set up ways for the cast to visit different planets.

For instance, the main characters are a crew of space-mercs who go from.place to place according to contracts, but that doesn't mean that they go from planet to planet doing jobs, in fact, most of it takes place on Earth and in the Earthen Colonies (The moon, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter's moon Titan. [all terraformed of course]) But they regularly go to other groups in the Virgo Supercluster/Local Group. In fact, the most commonly visited planets outside of Earth and the Colonies is Zefli'xin: which is an Earthlike planet with similar size, gravity, atmosphere and oceans as well as various environments, Tramadria: titled "the Outcast/Refugee Planet", which is also similar to Earth in the same aspects, but colder, drier, with a notably Sandler, more gravelly crust and planetwide rock formations, and Nanki: which is a smaller planet with three moons, warm, wet climates, rough mountains, a patchy atmosphere, and lakes dotting the landscape rather than an ocean, but (and this is the part you might need) occasionally the main characters will go on vacation, or be in need of supplies, or even simply crash land, and that is the basis for how the planets get explored. Also, Azure is right, it's best to portray Earthlike planets, but once in a while a "desert planet", "tundra planet" or "jungle planet" is cool!

@Seth

A few ideas.
First off, planet names. If your universe doesn't have aliens or completely wacky languages then give your planets realistic names. If it's an uncharted planet either call it by a code like ABC-123456-789 or refer to it as unknown or mysterious. If it is named give it a normal name like "Rocky Road" that people can pronounce and remember. Every planet in are solar system has a normal name. Earth, Mars, Titan, etc. If you constantly use made up words like "Zimflamian Nubkt Tih" it will annoy the readers, be hard for them to remember, and be hard for you to remember (don't misspell your own planet).
Secondly, you could use a very straight forward solution. Make your character an explorer that goes from planet to planet documenting what he sees.
If you already have a story in mind then. Make the explorer an attached legend George Lucas showed off countless planets. He did this by making short stories that happened in the same universe but weren't apart of the main story. You could do this to.
I hope my input was of some help. Good Luck.