World Building on the Run

So, the other day I was sitting down to write the next chapter of Surge and I suddenly realised that I had no idea of the internal structure of how the Celetris worked. Who was in charge, how did the chain of command go if the Captain was killed, where did Tyrin fit in the pecking order. Was he important or not - if he had a high enough rank, it would impact how he interacted with other members of the crew, they might think he didn't deserve the rank - due to his age - they might try to make him have an "accident" along the way. If it turned out he wasn't of a high rank, then would he be treated worse, or perhaps he'd be ignored entirely.

One of my favourite series of books "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" makes all of this complicated back-end stuff seems so simple and seamless...

But, okay.

I had to figure this out.

And I had to figure out what I was basing this all on, and why - and it had to fit into the backstory of the Litin Empire I had sorta-sketched out.

I went researching and compiled much information on Earth militaries and air forces - it didn't have to match - it just had to be enough that it had a structure that would have once been of Earth Origin. I ended up having a lot of fun building the crew of the Celetris around Tyrin. Would he end up interacting with everyone - maybe not - but knowing I now have it worked out means if he does run into someone from the Supply Department, I'll know where he is ranked next to a Mess attendant or the Ship's Cook.

The engine of the Celetris is a really important part of the story - and therefore, I knew the engineering department was something I had to figure out since Little Doc knows Litins therein. So I got to block out Division A, B, C and D that rotate working on the engine/Celetris' upkeep.

I also wanted to hashout what the main deck looked like - who was on the main deck and why would they be on the main deck, what their roles were and how they would interact with Tyrin - since - in the end this would be one of the main "stages" so to speak.

Overall, I had a bit of fun and came away feeling more confident with layout of the crew of the Celetris and how things orbit Tyrin as a character.