Post Your Concept

I have a few ideas, but this is the one I'm currently working on for my short speculative fiction class.

There is land that resembles a gray scale, with the North end being a realm of white and the South end being a realm of black. The grays that exist in between are divided by a border that was drawn at the time the lands were forged in ancient times. The opposite ends are each ruled by a figure head who dons the opposite monochrome color, like the yin yang.

I want there to be a war in the gray lands that starts with one side invading the other. Since there aren't many inhabitants in these lands (which are mostly cold and snow-covered) conflicts are usually settled by a handful of chosen warriors; however, both sides lost some of these warriors, which led to rising tensions and then a full blown fight.

The ruling figureheads are guarded by mythical creatures and only "awaken" when they sense war. This puts the fate of the lands at risk because if the figureheads fight and one of them is killed, the balance that has always existed in the land will be corrupted. However, the initial set-up is that it's the denizens of the darker gray lands that invade. That's too easy because it becomes good versus evil. No, I want it to be "both sides have done something 'evil' or 'unlawful' at some point in time." My thinking is the the lighter gray lands did something unlawful before the two current figureheads ruled, and the ruler of the black realm (an old man) witnessed the unlawful act as a child and swore was traumatized by this act and is after revenge. The ruler of the white realm (a young girl) also grows angry vengeful when she awakens and learns of the killing of her warriors/her people.

Is this too complicated? If so, how can I make it easier to follow?

Once I had an idea for a sequel to Elfen Lied. Basically, what would happen to human society as more Diclonii children were born? I thought of the idea of Diclonius civil-rights groups for a second, but then I remembered that a lot of Diclonius are Ax Crazy.

A world where metals and gunpowder (or materials very, very similar to their real-world counterparts) can be grown as crops. Iron-wheat and Lead-maize and so on. These crops can even be selectively bred to produce materials with desirable properties. The raw material needs to be processed somehow before it can be worked into usuable shapes, and will eventually rot given time.

The end result (in my mind) is a world where guns and machinery are as common as dirt, and would eventually become dirt if left alone for long enough. "Real" metal would be even more valuable by contrast, as it would last a lot longer than "organic metal".

edited 31st Mar '11 1:31:07 AM by TBot_Alpha

EDIT: Scratch all I've said before. I thought about the idea, and the look of the characters, and came up with something much more awesome!

Two beings from another dimension are sent on Earth to infiltrate human soiety and study it from within. The problem is that they are eldritch beings who need special encounter suits to function properly on Earth and neighter of them can speak as humans understand it (they communicate via telepathy). Also, their "disguises" suck.

The beings are science officer mr. Black and diplomat/weapon of mass destruction ms. White (actually they're both genderless, but they took the appearance of a man and a woman since that seemed to be a common pairing among humans. Their real names are unpronounceable to humans so they're referred by the colour of their encounter suits). Mr. Black is cyincal and thinks humans are foolish at beast and bastards at worse, and should eighter be left alone or destroyed, depending on how big of a treath they turn out to be. Ms. White is much more idealistic and believes their species should make peaceful contact with humanity. She is also a livign weapon of mass destruction who has to struggle with the desire to consume everything in a world-shattering explosion of pure energy. Together they...Um, I haven't gotten that far yet. I was thinking mostly having them try to integrate to the human society and have hilarity ensue as they try to understand their surroundings. That, and creep the hell out of their neighbours.

edited 31st Mar '11 12:07:15 PM by Nomic

I've got an idea for a short story that, strangely enough, involves Time Travel. Let's just say that Time Travel isn't my most favorite plot device.

Its working title is Causality and the Terminus of Being. An elderly German widower deep in mourning completes a time machine he had been working on for some time. Lonely and longing for his late wife, he takes it back in time several years and kills his past self and taking his place. For the next several years, he's reunited with his wife and reliving his life while simultaneously doing anything he can to keep her from dying again. Unfortunately, on the day she originally died, she dies again. He repeats the process, going back in time, killing his past self, and taking his place. He does this several times. However, killing his past selves, failing to save and watching his wife die time and time again, and compounding the grief and anguish has not been kind to his sanity.

That's the concept in a nutshell. I'm really psyched.

A novel about a 20 year old who dies and is recruited to be a guardian angel. A main driving point of the plot is way she died. I'm thinking of Maybe making it a short story or webcomic.

edited 1st Apr '11 12:24:15 AM by originalhobbit

I JUST had an idea that, VERY quickly summarized, went like this:

Humanity has amazing powers and is able to make dreams come true. Their world, surprisingly, is a Utopia. But one day, our protagonist commits a murder, the most grievious of crimes. To make a long story short, he is hunted down and captured. His punishment? Banishment to the R World. As he gets put into The Machine, the Handler wishes him good luck on the selection process, and the switch is thrown. The scene would then cut to a child being born. The child would end up being named the same thing as the protagonist. A quick zoom out the window, and it's revealed that he was born into a dystopic future city, seemingly ruled by a totalatarian dictator. End.

Sounds a little weird abridged. But it was pretty cool when I had it, and vastly different from my other works.

Rock opera about a teen's conflict with the Bible Belt.

A slice of Life story from the point of view of the citizens of a city that is routinely attacked and defended by the likes of Kaiju and Giant Mecha. Constant evacuations and Fallout shelters that look more like holiday homes.

Every second you spend on a forum like this is a second you could be spending writing this story so I can read it. Go. Now! There'll be trouble if you come back here without that story...

As for my concept: A man suffering from amnesia receives a blackmail photo, where nothing criminal seems to be happening, he just happens to be with a woman he can't remember. The implication is still very much that he should pay for this photo not to get around. He then goes out to find out who this woman is, why this photo is blackmail and who's blackmailing him.

The one non-fanfic idea I've come up with is a movie that brutally deconstructs Twilight-era Vampire stories by making the main character Kevin Smith and Billy Crystal his Obi Wan

The story (I can't quite tell if it's a prequel or a spin-off of my big project, not decided yet) I'm working on now is about....it's in Troper Critique Shop, if anyone's interested.

An extremely cynical and jaded teenager is, very forcibly, recruited by a group of magicians/knights who wields weapon from ancient revolutionaries from alternate universes that hunts down monsters that invades the protagonist's universe for him and the remnants of the greatest emperors/tyrants' remnants.

The protaonist, a self proclaimed Ordinary High-School Student, can replicate ANYTHING he is accustomed to enough using resources from all the alternate universes. Also, he used to be a cheerful and frankly insane Magical Boy/Child Soldier quited after watching his parents get killed in a most senseless way possible.

The Big Bad is a fun loving trickster...who wants to be the greatest emperor of all and has his own army of magicians/knights, armed with weapons wielded by ancient tyrants/emperors/warlords and such.

Well, that's the rough draft...

edited 15th Apr '11 6:51:10 AM by dRoy

In the year 2115 Tokyo's been caught in the grip of three ruthless gangs: Bayonet Blue, Rider Red, and Yuck Yellow. And their only salvation is a Power Trio of Steampunk Superheroes who're going to save Japan with Guts, Guns, and Goggles.

That's all I've got ...

edited 15th Apr '11 8:08:38 AM by dragonmaster

Sounds pretty good so far.

I think I'd read it.

I'd read this as long as it didn't take itself too seriously.

My concept:

Pretty much my main character is a guy who's been subjected to so many time-travel experiments that his memories are mush and brain is scrambled and is immune to going mad from the revelation because he's already seen it, and honestly, it's not that great. Also, everyone thinks he's the survivor of a failed moon colony because of his lack of valid papers (he has lots of fake or unusable ones, though).

The other character is pretty much a more moe Nyarlathotep (well, maybe not moe, exactly, but more moe than Lovecraft's version) who kind of thinks that maybe the whole ravaging the countryside as a flesh-eating plague and attacking New Orleans as a kaiju is kind of bad so maybe he should do something about it? or maybe not? So he's doing this whole existential crisis thing where he bothers humans instead of driving them to gibbering madness on sight. However, the whole madness thing seems to happen in a few days regardless, though.

What happens is these two meet up, go on some wacky adventures in the great nothing between Minneapolis and New Orleans, fight zombies, drug smugglers, and a militarized version of the Westboro Baptist Church (with some help of Nyarlathotep cultists) to get there, and fall in love because of the whole I Love You Because I Can't Control You and the eldritch abomination doesn't pity the moon man's crazy. Eventually any regret Nyarl Jr. had is cleared up because the moon man is convinced that you are what you are even if you kill millions upon millions of people doing so. And then they live happily ever after (or as long as they can ever after together, because of the whole Mayfly–December Romance thing)).

Or something like that.

After scientists successfully clone a human, God (in the form of Morgan Freeman) descends from Heaven...and takes humanity to court for patent infringement.

But, for a case of this magnitude, no ordinary courtroom will suffice.

If no ordinary courtroom will suffice, then an EXTRAORDINARY courtroom will be required.

And what would an extraordinary courtroom be without an extraordinary judge?

And when it comes to extraordinary judges, there's really only one option:

JUDGE JUDY.

I have an idea for a Superhero story

My protagonist is a 16 year old girl from Atlanta. She was born with special abilities that nobody can explain. Right now I'm leaning toward a Flying Brick with Ki powers similar to Dragon Ball. She's always wanted to use her powers to help people but her family has never allowed her out of fear for her safety. Due to this, she has been drawn to comic book superheroes and science fiction/fantasy her whole life because her circumstances give her a connection with the unreal. When a catastrophe occurs in her city (still undecided but I was thinking a natural disaster or an accident of some sort)she reveals herself on impulse and uses her powers to save the day. Afterward, she becomes of a media sensation and her presence receives a diverse range of reactions. Seeing how the cat's out of the bag, she becomes the worlds first superhero but she doesn't bother with a costume and such because everyone knows who she is. Soon, costumed vigilantes inspired by the protagonist's action begin to appear along with other super powered beings with less than noble intentions and it becomes apparent that heroism isn't as easy as it seems.

A shonen manga telling the story of Momotaro.

The Ashes of Empires

The backstory of my science fiction mythos, The Ashes of Empires focuses on a Ragtag Band of Misfits in the former United States. An economic-military alliance of Asian nations called the Eastern Powers secretly engineers a massive worldwide depression, toppling the United States and Western Civilization through socio-political and socio-economic unrest. The Eastern Powers begins an enormous offensive, invading the United States mainland from the Atlantic and Pacific and seizing vast tracts of territory. A crazed US general, swearing revenge, nukes dozens of Eastern Powers population centers and military installations through a secret orbital nuke silo system called WATCHTOWER. The Pan-Asian Trade Union (The Eastern Powers) implodes in the chaos and infighting, leaving the invading military forces stranded and without leadership in hostile Territory. This takes place within a decade afterwards as the United States has fragmented into feudalism and anarchy. It's kind of a King Arthur story with native american mysticism tied into it, because the Ragtag Bandof Misfits is fighting to reunite the various warring feudal factions.

The Olympian Gods as a Rich Dysfunctional Manhattan Family. Hera is a marriage counsellor, Posiedon the rich idiot with a sudden interest in yachts etc

Just for the sake of Genius Bonus, I'd have Momus as a cynical gossip columnist who gets thrown out of the clique for wring a vicious piece on Aphrodite's questionable fashion sense.

Hades runs the basement?

...where Thanatos lives, always organising his butterfly collection...

edited 21st Apr '11 1:56:12 AM by JHM

A few extremely repetitive days in the life of a fat, introverted Occidental Otaku.

She wakes up, feeds her goldfish, (sometimes talking to him), goes downstairs for breakfast and an inevitable "Reason You Suck" Speech from her mother about her appearance and lifestyle, gets ready for school, goes to school, sometimes falls asleep in algebra, eats lunch alone, comes home again, eats dinner, watches TV, does her homework, then retreats to her room to draw until bedtime.

Every day.

That's pretty much it.

edited 21st Apr '11 2:27:31 AM by Wheezy

A seemingly ordinary mathematics major living in New York decides to become a hit-man for the mafia, originally he tells himself it's for the money but latter in the story it becomes apparent he enjoys it. The story deals with the horrors he see, his hits, other characters trying to get rid of him and what happens to him once he tries to stop.