How long do we reckon it would take for a Government to be able to build centres growing crops hydroponically?

To build itself, and for the first crops to grow?

Another thing:

How long would total food reserves last?

At what point would the Government decide to do something drastic like attempting to burn the atmosphere to try to dispel the fog?

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films Another thing: How long would total food reserves last? At what point would the Government decide to do something drastic like attempting to burn the atmosphere to try to dispel the fog?

Well, depending on the time of year, there could be a considerable amount of food onboard ships. Livestock also would not wilt as fast as fast as the plants, and countries will have some strategic stockpiles, so there would be a trailing off of the food supply rather than a sudden collapse. This trailing off is probably more useful dramatically anyway.

I think governments would start drawing up plans as soon as the Fog shows any persistence. Haste in actually trying something would be based on (need for food) times (technical capability), which leads me back to China trying stuff.

Next steps after bonding agents and cloud seeding would be trying to force convection with the Fog-less levels of the atmosphere. Then people start trying to set fire to things.

Quoted from Zack Really like the outline you provided, Rene. It has some real potential. I agree with Frank that the Cult Leader should be someone from the local community who disappears early in the fog. Maybe a local Priest?

Yeah, it's a good outline.

I was thinking the Cult developed a bit quickly, but now I'm thinking the Cult could be a group of people badly affected by the fog, lead astray by the strange ramblings of one particular individual, so it could start relatively early.

Quoted from FrankM Well, depending on the time of year, there could be a considerable amount of food onboard ships. Livestock also would not wilt as fast as fast as the plants, and countries will have some strategic stockpiles, so there would be a trailing off of the food supply rather than a sudden collapse. This trailing off is probably more useful dramatically anyway. I think governments would start drawing up plans as soon as the Fog shows any persistence. Haste in actually trying something would be based on (need for food) times (technical capability), which leads me back to China trying stuff. Next steps after bonding agents and cloud seeding would be trying to force convection with the Fog-less levels of the atmosphere. Then people start trying to set fire to things.

At the moment the start date is January 1st, so that a month later a February freeze hits.

You're the man, Frank.

Give a plausible figure for the point at which food is basically gone. Bearing in mind the Government would withhold some supplies for the Military, Key Personnel etc.

Food runs out in less than three days after supply ends. There just isn't enough. After that, rationing or first come first serve.

Hydroponics can be built quickly and yield leafy greens quickly, but there's no way to make enough. It would service small communities only.

If the fog starts off close to sea level, elevated crops would still function. Food shortages can start small and grow worse until it's a crisis for everyone.

Space isn't needed for a global scale. Mass communication does that. News, pictures, YouTube would show it.

But space is another possible solution. Mirror satellites or reflectors could focus solar energy to burn off fog.

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films Yeah, it's a good outline. I was thinking the Cult developed a bit quickly, but now I'm thinking the Cult could be a group of people badly affected by the fog, lead astray by the strange ramblings of one particular individual, so it could start relatively early.

What if people and animals who are exposed to the fog for too long start to have mold actually grow on them? Again, I'm thinking in terms of visuals. I think it'd be pretty cool, though maybe not very realistic.

Jungle rot, trench foot, and respiratory damage can all occur with prolonged exposure to wet conditions.

What Rene and I were saying are compatible... food doesn’t physically run out in three days (warehouses hold more than that), but once the end of supply is in sight rationing starts. Within days ports of entry may not let food pass through to the interior... except under armed guard to specific places where Important People are.

It would take military or paramilitary force to continue food distribution, and that’s assuming you aren’t in a country where the armed folks would simply seize the food.

Quoted from ReneC Jungle rot, trench foot, and respiratory damage can all occur with prolonged exposure to wet conditions.

Since there is basically no escape from the Fog, I think it might help story-wise if this was a dry Fog. Would also be more plausible that it covers everything from jungle to desert to tundra (even if not at equal thickness). Having the entire human race come down with jungle rot (in warm climes) and trench foot (in cold ones) is probably too deadly.

For a while here we're going to get a jumble of ideas until we hit on a consensus.

I'm not keen on all this focus on cult stuff and science first. It was the one thing about this series: 8 Days https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6374028/
- that threatened to derail the whole thing.

I still think keep storyline/plot small against a larger world is the way to go.

I think we all agree on one thing so far though and that is that we open on the fog. Right?

I'm new to fiction Podcasts so did a bit of digging. There are tons of guiding links like this one below to keep us audio newbs on track.

https://electricliterature.com/how-to-write-a-fiction-podcast/

It all comes down to what are we going to hear first, what's going to appeal to and make an audience riveted from the outset?

For me that'd be the pandemonium, the sound of sirens, distressed voices,  DJ/Newscasters reports all overlapping,the sound of smashing metal and glass, (cars colliding) all building to a crescendo - then we rewind, or, perhaps one voice emerges - either a narrator (maybe a child) or, our hero - this dulcet voice cuts through the rabble of white noise to say something about what a spectacle it was at first - perhaps the fog was a bit of fun, a novelty and people gathered in awe (similar to the spectators of Chernobyl) then it turned sinister and things went haywire.

We need imho to focus on characters. We need individual voices reacting to the first impact of this fog before they join forces. Perhaps a blind character helps a child navigate the fog, she's getting hysterical - walking home from school has suddenly turned into a nightmare - but he's always been in the dark. Perhaps she's just crawled out of a car crash - parents dead.

We need to think characters first, what happened to them when the fog first hit, and then a larger goal/plot - what are they going to do now to survive?

The science of it all, the politics, riots and starvation, emerges later.

For me, I was imagining that the cult stuff would kick in proper in the second season, when society has completely collapsed and small pockets of survivors are living in separate societies and developing their own identities/cultures.

It's not even that they're a cult as such, they've just got an altered sense of reality and are adapting to the way things are.

I think the first season should probably focus more on just a sense of growing madness, and disassociation. A slow, eerie creep of weirdness and insanity.

I think what we have with the mad guy letting out the prisoners is enough, foreshadowing it for the second season.

But then we need some other suitable climax....

@LC

I just wanted to get a relatively realistic time line on things, so we'd know what the characters had to deal with and when and so everyone had a way of knowing where their stories begin and end.


The sort of stuff you're talking about is absolutely key, but that's more for at the point we're ready to write it. Because there will be multiple writers we can't let characters lead the way at first, or everyone will be writing events that are incompatible.

We're nearly done with this, anyway.

I think the first 5 episodes are fairly solid.

At the point the community gets completely destroyed, they need to get a new plan. Maybe the Main Characters have to go to the hospital after being injured during the struggle, and that's where they meet Rene's Doctor character.


Personally I think the Season should end with the Government burning everything, and we leave it on a cliffhanger as to how they could possibly survive...but they do...perhaps some Military rescue them and they go off together at the start of Season 2 to build a sustainable community in the Mountains ...meanwhile the loonys are growing in force down in the Fog.

Anyway, it's three AM here, so I've got to hit the sack.

Tomorrow what I was going to do is settle this issue:


"I know there's a difference of opinion on whether it should be a Shared Universe story or a smaller, contained story. Some people have suggested a mix

So state your preference and give your reasons, and brief suggestions how it'd work, then we'll weigh up the options and make a definitive decision.


My preference was for a smaller, contained story that would then branch out into the world, but I'm open to persuasion".



...and start work on character suggestions.

For the cult, I was thinking something along of lines of ones who embrace the fog as a sign, a cleansing of the wicked and the weak. Maybe the leader is a blind man since blindness seems to be a strength in this world, and ironic (the blind literally leading the blind).