How to keep a chunk of city in the air and alien species

authorwithissues Fri Mar 16, 2012 4:10 am

I'm planning on participating in NaNoWriMo this year and am planning months ahead to make sure I can reach 50,000 words this time. I want to do sci-fi, but I'm having some difficulties with the details.

I have a chunk of city that floats in the air and no clue what keeps it there. I was considering some sort of reactor and my sister suggested maglev, but I'm not really sure how to explain that. I also received a suggestion of using "undiscovered" substances with suitable properties and that geothermal power might work. However, I am no engineer or scientist--just a high school student--and am not really sure how to apply any of the suggestions into a seemingly viable way to keep a chunk of city afloat.

I'm also blanking on alien species and wildlife. For the wildlife, I have come up with a species of migrating grass that you don't want to run into (it's carnivorous--it'll eat you), an almost mutant prairie dog, and man-eating leeches. For alien species, I've come up with even less. I have a vague concept of a collective-type species and one with three genders. I'm not sure how to expand on that or how to go about creating more as there will be racial tensions between the lines.

I was hoping that maybe somebody would have an idea or two to get me started on a thread to follow to the spindle. Might there be any help to be found?