Ideas for stories [Archive]

Lizra

06-08-2003, 10:32 AM

I thought of an idea for a sci/fi, or fantasy story, but am too busy (lazy :o) to write it. I thought a thread for story ideas would be fun! :)

*The Venus scenario*
Somehow, scientists delvelop the technology to "pull the plug" on Venus's greenhouse atmosphere. (sort of like cloud seeding, but on a big scale ;) :confused: ) A "hole" is punched into the Venusian atmosphere, the CO2 and heat gradually escapes into space. In about one hundred years, the planet's climate has stabilized and dramatically changed to allow for human colonization. The story could start at that point with fantastical descriptions of Venus's surface, and the tale of the first colonies. Well, there it is! :)

IronParrot

06-08-2003, 02:10 PM

You should really write that sometime, at least as a short story. :p

Lief Erikson

06-08-2003, 04:53 PM

That's not really a plot, but it is a background for a story or book. I'm far too busy to write it, myself. Do you ever write fiction, Lizra?

Gwaimir Windgem

06-08-2003, 05:30 PM

Sounds quite interesting. A good idea for a story. And I disagree, it could very well be a plot; the colonists struggle to survive on a completely new world, without plant or animal of any kind, sounds like quite a conflict.

Lizra

06-08-2003, 05:32 PM

No, no! I don't write fiction! :eek: ;) It's a scenario...OK! :) I'm not asking someone to write it, I'm just saying...let's see some ideas for stories. :)

Lief Erikson

06-08-2003, 09:55 PM

Originally posted by Lizra
No, no! I don't write fiction! :eek: ;) It's a scenario...OK! :) I'm not asking someone to write it, I'm just saying...let's see some ideas for stories. :)
:D Okay. That's rather what I thought . . . just making sure ;).
Originally posted by Gwaimir Windgem
Sounds quite interesting. A good idea for a story. And I disagree, it could very well be a plot; the colonists struggle to survive on a completely new world, without plant or animal of any kind, sounds like quite a conflict.
Of course, they'd have come prepared. Although, there are ways to get around that :D.

I suppose you're right, it is possible to make that a plot. Though it's not the type of story I'd write, unless I was going to write it as a historical narrative, rather like the Silmarillion. If I were to write it, I would do it to give background for some story that takes place at a later period.

Of course, that could very well be just me :). It is possible for people to write stories on that topic.

galadriel

06-13-2003, 10:43 AM

I think it's a great asset for a story to have such a detailed background. But I agree... if you ever turn it into a short story, it needs a focus, a conflict. Of course, the conflicts that could arise from such a mission are endless.

Anyone read Contact, or seen the movie? Great example of a scientific and historical-ish "scenario" becoming a compelling plotline.

Lizra

06-13-2003, 11:32 AM

I can imagine two or three different colonies, with different missions. Of course, human nature enters, and some colonists might dangerously overstep the bounds, trying to be the "first" in the history books for great deeds. Things will be very unpredictible of course! :)

HOBBIT

06-28-2003, 04:03 AM

Lizra, do you have any other scenarios for stories that I could use? :D

I've been meaning to write some short stories but I have no inspiration - and its hard to be original these days - i'd probably end up completely copying my favorite authors.

How do authors come up with new plot ideas these days? Especially in the Scfi and Fantasy genres...hasn't everything been done already?

Lizra

06-28-2003, 08:42 AM

Hmmm, I don't read the stuff...so I'm certainly not seething with ideas! ;) I'll mull on it though! Obviously, I was thinking of interesting breakthroughs in science when I came up the Venus scenario. Try thinking of things that make you wonder..."Why couldn't someone do that", and then the story might come off of it.
I'll post any ideas I come up with! Right now I need to go to garage sales...where I might unknowingly purchase an unusual artifact from Atlantis that seems to have the power to *cure* infections in a matter of minutes. (Of course some infections are "healthy" so it might make me dangerously ill if not handled correctly!) :rolleyes: :D

Lizra

07-01-2003, 08:06 AM

Something about time travel, a story that showed the main character was obviously going back in time (not thru a machine, but by brain chemistry) really enjoying people, places or an incident from the past, with the "twist" at the end...It's a person with Alzheimers, (in a negative nursing home situation maybe) and the normal people don't realize how "wonderful" or "real" the time travel these people do is. :)

galadriel

07-02-2003, 01:01 PM

Originally posted by Lizra
Something about time travel, a story that showed the main character was obviously going back in time (not thru a machine, but by brain chemistry) really enjoying people, places or an incident from the past, with the "twist" at the end...It's a person with Alzheimers, (in a negative nursing home situation maybe) and the normal people don't realize how "wonderful" or "real" the time travel these people do is. :)
That's really, really cool! I love it!

Lizra

07-02-2003, 08:36 PM

Groovy! :) My dad has Alzheimers, he watches documentaries on the history channel all day long. He has taken many vitamins and drugs to slow it down, but he obviously isn't in *reality* sometimes. I always wonder "where" he is!? :confused: :(

galadriel

07-13-2003, 07:11 PM

:( Why does every sad story have to have a *true* sad story behind it?

Lizra

07-14-2003, 01:51 AM

That's what gets us "thinking" I guess! :)

Baby-K

07-14-2003, 07:50 AM

I have an idea for a story that I'd like to share. I am busy writing it at the mo', but I just can't seem to get it done with.....so lately my writing has stagnated a bit (but I have still done a bit of poetry and one or two essays).

Here goes (I'll just give the basic outline of the plot as I have it so far, I'm not sure yet of the journey the tale will take me on):

'Ironic that I should end my days as a number, just as they had started. Prisoner number 337815 of the Pollsmoore Penetentiary for violent criminals to be exact...........'

(I'm working on it........the intro I mean - should I do it first person or third, keep it local or make it international, use real / imagined places....... anyway, I'm sure I'll get there)

OK plot outline:

Mr X (a white man in need of some quick cash) donates a fair amount of sperm to the local sperm bank. Over the next couple of months his sperm is used to impregnate 6 different women, from all over the country - Jill, the 38 year old lesbian lawyer who bribes the doctor to do the insemination, Kerri, the 24 year old newlywed who has to get pregnant at all cost....., Meagan, the successful clothing designer with the violent alcoholic husband Jason, she was 6 weeks pregnant when she lost the baby after he'd beaten her - if he found out she'd lost the child he'd kill her for sure. Jessie (32) & her husband Michael (56), who so desperately want a baby to share their home with, but cannot conceive due to Mike's cancer, Jaye, the 29 year old artist, with the gypsy hair & crystal blue eyes who wants a baby because cats are boring..........besides having a kid will be the only way to get rid of her freeloader boyfriend Jacques. And then there is Jacintha, the young Hindu wife of a wealthy Indian businessman, who is subjected to the worst possible physical abuse & inhumane sexual practices...........surely if she has a child the humiliation will stop.

As the years go on the children of the women grow up & become young adults, (I don't want to reveal too much about the fate of the mothers in some cases). Each child has hopes & aspirations, one is studying to become a doctor, the other has joined the defence force & is training to become a fighter pilot, one is a model, another a firefighter, another is travelling the world before comitting to studies and the twins are studying to become a lawyer and teacher respectively.

Per chance two of the children meet & fall in love, they start dating, have a wonderful romance & decide to get married......

In the meantime Mr X has contracted HIV/AIDS and is dying - he doesn't know when he got it, could have been two years ago, during that wild night with the beautiful darkskinned bodybuilder and his two baby whores, could have been 20 years ago when he did that old guy at the train station to get money for the drugs......hell, it coulda been during one of his marriages, God knows his wives had never been faithful..... Guilt is riding him - he was never one for safe sex, hey man, he's a white man......AIDS is a 'queer' / 'black' disease! & he decides to make things right before man & God - he ventures to track down every man, woman & child he has ever slept with, including the women who had received his sperm 19 years ago................

Ok that's about as much as I'm gonna tell you right now, unless you really want to know more.

(Sorry for butting in on yer thread Liz)

Lizra

07-14-2003, 07:17 PM

That's ok K! My, that story is "LOADED"! :eek: :D You could be the Jacqueline Susann (Valley of the Dolls) of Entmoot! :)

Tanoliel

07-17-2003, 03:08 PM

Cripes, Baby K! That's big stuff...

I'd like to read it, though, when you finish. Let me know.

Originally posted by HOBBIT

How do authors come up with new plot ideas these days? Especially in the Scfi and Fantasy genres...hasn't everything been done already?

In terms of basic plotlines, if you go shallow, yes. All the sort of boy-meets-girl-who-is-really-an-elf-and-together-they-save-the-world kind of thing; yeah. But writers have an amazing capacity to look at things from a very bizarre angle, and out comes something new.

Take a walk and look very closely. That helps. :D

tano

Lizra

07-17-2003, 05:51 PM

Boy meets girl who's really an elf, and together they save the world? :D :D WHAT have I been missing! Hee hee!

galadriel

07-22-2003, 04:18 PM

Originally posted by Tanoliel
In terms of basic plotlines, if you go shallow, yes. All the sort of boy-meets-girl-who-is-really-an-elf-and-together-they-save-the-world kind of thing; yeah. But writers have an amazing capacity to look at things from a very bizarre angle, and out comes something new.
tano
Something new... like girl meets boy who's really an elf and together they save the world? That's about the level of creativity at which my fantasy runs. :)

Tanoliel

07-23-2003, 01:08 AM

Well, yes, but if your characters are interesting and the story contains funny twists and things, it's all good anyway.

Lizra

07-23-2003, 08:05 AM

Oh yes! I would much rather read a traditional storyline handled with fabulous writing skills, than something weird and/or convoluted, just to be "difererent". Just because something is "different", never been done before, or *weird* does NOT make it better. People try too hard along these lines. (IMO) Tell a great story! That's what keeps them reading! :)

IronParrot

07-24-2003, 12:58 PM

Well I'd say that if you want to go with a traditional storyline, you'd better be prepared to try and do it better than any other writer who's ever tried it - and that's no small feat.

Stories are remembered for being a) original, or b) being the best story of that given concept. So if you want to go the saving-the-world elf-romance route - you'd better have the best world and the best elf.

Entlover

07-24-2003, 10:54 PM

Well said.

IronParrot, puh-leeze check into the Entmoot Anthology Forum (http://invisionfree.com/forums/mootanthology/index.php?act=idx) and give me your valued opinion.

IronParrot

07-25-2003, 04:16 PM

Okay - but right now it's giving me database errors up the wazoo. I'll check it again as soon as I can.

inked

12-16-2004, 11:53 AM