I was so up for this, but between my band and the play that runs all through November I simply can't without sacrificing all Adam time. At least I can make my own personal challenge for December. ^_^
Don't forget Vonnegut's 8 rules for writing short stories:
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. 2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. 3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. 4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action. 5. Start as close to the end as possible. 6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of. 7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. 8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
Is it bad that I really like doing this, and have always done so? I think my main characters should probably hate me.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
Is it bad that I really like doing this, and have always done so? I think my main characters should probably hate me.
I think that's good. I plan on screwing with some of my characters in my idea for what I'm gonna try to do. If bad things don't happen to your character, the story doesn't work super well.
If bad things don't happen to your character, the story doesn't work super well.
Furthermore, if bad things don't happen to your characters, you really don't even have a story.
Because one of the central parts of a story is conflict. Without some kind of conflict, there's nothing. Even a passive observer can still have conflicts, still have bad things happen to them, albeit indirectly. A happy story is not a story.
So far I've decided on a general setting: 1940s steampunk on a planet that is, basically, a slightly warmer version of Hoth. The main character might be some sort of train-hopping hobo (in the old, Hobo-Code sense of the word). I think I need to actually sit down and think abot this; it isn't going to get much farther by sitting in the back of my head all day.
Maybe I should have clarified a bit more and said that I actually try to do the worst things I can think of to my characters. Really no good reason for it, I just like to. At least most of the time, things don't end at the height of tragedy.
The idea I've had germinating involves a poor college student or recent graduate trying to get a job and failing. She eventually finds that she has a talent for cold reading and ends up getting in on a psychic fair. Still haven't decided whether to make her a believer or a skeptic, but once I decide that, I have a few possible story threads in mind for each version.
The idea I've had germinating involves a poor college student or recent graduate trying to get a job and failing. She eventually finds that she has a talent for cold reading and ends up getting in on a psychic fair. Still haven't decided whether to make her a believer or a skeptic, but once I decide that, I have a few possible story threads in mind for each version.
Sounds like a good yarn to me -- I'd like to see her start out as either a believer or a skeptic, and wind up the other by the story's end (the story of a cynic who teaches a bunch of dyed-in-the-wool new agers to make money by fleecing their customers could be a lot of fun too!)
I have a sort of Sci-Fi idea, where psychics are a sort-of X-men-esque breed of mutants who are born with different latent psychic abilities, from telekinesis to clairvoyance to telepathy, etc. The main character discovers that he has these powers, and is now an enemy of the government, who is brutally hunting down all the psychics for fear of an uprising. He meets a few other psychics and learns of a gathering of all the psychics on the other side of the country, where they will try and find their freedom. It goes a lot of places from there, but along the way, he'd be hunted and persecuted against by many humans and the government and such. I've got a good idea of the ending, but I don't want to spoil it.
Sounds very, very, very generic and pretty dull. Haven't we all heard this story a thousand times before?
It wouldn't be focusing on the main character's discovery of his powers, more on the mistreatment given to them by the government.
No offense, but have you ever read any science fiction at all? Or seen a science fiction movie? Or read a comic? Mistreatment of "special people" by governments is, and I'm not kidding here, one the most explored themes of the entire genre. The fact that you call them X-Men-esque gives away that you've not even come up with an original premise or concept, let alone new plot elements or thematic explorations. And using the tropes of science fiction doesn't make something science fiction. It's like saying Star Wars is science fiction because it has spaceships, when it is really a pure fantasy story, with spaceships instead of chariots. It attempted to become science fiction (remember midichlorians?) but really, it shouldn't have bothered.
Sounds very, very, very generic and pretty dull. Haven't we all heard this story a thousand times before?
It wouldn't be focusing on the main character's discovery of his powers, more on the mistreatment given to them by the government.
No offense, but have you ever read any science fiction at all? Or seen a science fiction movie? Or read a comic? Mistreatment of "special people" by governments is, and I'm not kidding here, one the most explored themes of the entire genre. The fact that you call them X-Men-esque gives away that you've not even come up with an original premise or concept, let alone new plot elements or thematic explorations. And using the tropes of science fiction doesn't make something science fiction. It's like saying Star Wars is science fiction because it has spaceships, when it is really a pure fantasy story, with spaceships instead of chariots. It attempted to become science fiction (remember midichlorians?) but really, it shouldn't have bothered.
I know it is well-explored, but my intention was to show it differently. I don't intend a typical look at this, with them having "hopes for humanity" like every X-Men ending ever. It would actually deal with the real issue, and the fact that they will never be treated normally. X-Men portrays it in an unrealistic way, that by being heroes, people will wind up accepting them. The characters will never be really accepted, and that's part of the story. They don't become a team of psychics fighting evil, or anything.
But you are right, my bad for calling it science-fiction. That was wrong.
I think you should check out The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. It's a great book, and may give you some good ideas about alienation because of mental powers.
Mistreatment of "special people" by governments is, and I'm not kidding here, one the most explored themes of the entire genre. The fact that you call them X-Men-esque gives away that you've not even come up with an original premise or concept, let alone new plot elements or thematic explorations.
God forbid Axel be allowed to write about what he wants.
Mistreatment of "special people" by governments is, and I'm not kidding here, one the most explored themes of the entire genre. The fact that you call them X-Men-esque gives away that you've not even come up with an original premise or concept, let alone new plot elements or thematic explorations.
God forbid Axel be allowed to write about what he wants.
God forbid Axel be allowed to write about what he wants.
God forbid he spend a whole month at a few hours a day working on something that, when he reads it through, turns out to be utterly derivative and devoid of anything new. A tiny bit of effort BEFORE you start a project like this can go a long way to making the huge journey ahead something inspiring and exciting to travel, rather than a path so well trod you can walk it backwards in the dark.
Regardless of if he's right, it's still pretty insulting and condescending.
I'm used to it, sadly enough, that I no longer feel offended by it most of the time.
God forbid he spend a whole month at a few hours a day working on something that, when he reads it through, turns out to be utterly derivative and devoid of anything new. A tiny bit of effort BEFORE you start a project like this can go a long way to making the huge journey ahead something inspiring and exciting to travel, rather than a path so well trod you can walk it backwards in the dark.
And I'm still working out the final details. My initial idea isn't completely devoid of originality, although many parts are. I still have almost a month to continue planning this out, which I intend to do.
Regardless of if he's right, it's still pretty insulting and condescending.
I have as much right as anyone else to be insulting and condescending. It's like Axel is saying "Hey, I have this idea, right, that the world is actually a computer simulation, but nobody inside knows it!"
Seriously? We're not going to point out the Matrix and dozens of other stories with the same idea?
Ignore the Luke of the present, follow Luke of the past's advice and be confident in whatever you want to do, Axel.
If you are going to do something, why not be confident? Everything I've ever tried in life I've acquired enough skill to impress myself, and that is what is important to me.
Ignore the Luke of the present, follow Luke of the past'sadviceand be confident in whatever you want to do, Axel.If you are going to do something, why not be confident? Everything I've ever tried in life I've acquired enough skill to impress myself, and that is what is important to me.
Hey, that's good advice! Notice my confidence in the songs I wrote, but this was specifically tied to me doing something new each time. One song was written from the point of view of a painful leg, singing to the the rest of the body. The next song was about spending time in a relaxing part of a city, talking to a girl once and then she just disappears. The third song was about how listening to a Jack Johnson album can make you cry. I'm not saying all these songs are good, or even that the ideas have never been explored before, but the very act of trying something different was what made me proud.
The idea of people with mental powers being alienated? That is to science fiction what a song about how much you love a girl is to pop music. To tell that same story well, you've got to be REALLY good... as in, The Beatles good.
This summer I tried writing a novel that was a retelling of an already established story. I only got half way through. It turned out that retelling a story is HARD, and I was struggling to put my own spin on it in the way I wanted. All the other story ideas posted on the thread so far have been something new, or at least slightly new, and it is that push for originality which is the foundation for confidence and inspiration when the going gets hard.
I understand that. But I'm going to try anyways, because the idea is stuck in my head, and it won't leave until I probably crash and burn. I understand you're trying to help, but the truth is, people really do have to make mistakes on their own in order to understand things. Just knowing that something could be and probably will be a mistake doesn't stop the mind.
Comments
Here's my profile in case you're interested.
I need to decide on an idea, but I've got several.
My profile, huzzah.
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
But you are right, my bad for calling it science-fiction. That was wrong.
Seriously? We're not going to point out the Matrix and dozens of other stories with the same idea?
Come on, let's at least TRY!
The idea of people with mental powers being alienated? That is to science fiction what a song about how much you love a girl is to pop music. To tell that same story well, you've got to be REALLY good... as in, The Beatles good.
This summer I tried writing a novel that was a retelling of an already established story. I only got half way through. It turned out that retelling a story is HARD, and I was struggling to put my own spin on it in the way I wanted. All the other story ideas posted on the thread so far have been something new, or at least slightly new, and it is that push for originality which is the foundation for confidence and inspiration when the going gets hard.