Writing Intriguing Sci-fi Premises (part 5)

It always helps to expose yourself to other stories, and you'll find them in good books, TV series, movies, and even story-driven video games. When you come across a story you like, ask yourself why you liked it, and analyze it to see if you can discern what it was that intrigued you. You can learn a lot about story construction just by studying how others do it. Of course, you should never copy someone else's ideas, but by exposing yourself to their ideas, it will set your own creative imagination in motion and you'll devise your own plots. There's sometimes a fine line between being too derivative and being inspired, so you'll have to find that measure for yourself, but if you focus on the concept and not the specifics, you may find yourself generating an intriguing idea for a story. “The 100” inspired me to think again about taking human responses to an extreme because the situation calls for it. The leaders of an overpopulated space station have to make “cuts” and decide who has to die in order for others to live, so they become merciless and exacting with their laws, punishing the disobedient with death. It works because it's believable there are people who would do that in a dire situation like that. What kind of situation can you put your characters into, and what will they do?