Post Your Concept

Any historical fiction novel ever.

Most history textbooks.

@Eagle: I would just like to say that I really like your idea

[EDITED]

edited 14th Aug '13 11:23:38 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

I guess the question for my concept is if people would be willing to read a story about time travel without any actual time travel.

Depends on what you're planning to do with the time travel aspect.

Well there are tons of political and economic ramifications of time travel in this story but none of the main characters actually do any time travel.

I'd read that

It actually sounds like a good idea - and quite different from the usual "travel through time and have adventures/sex with Madame de Pompadour" stories.

"The consequences of this will be quite dire. You're just going to have to trust me on this." "...Uh huh."

What about mine? Any thoughts?

@ Jabrosky: I love the idea of Friar Tuck lugging around a giant encyclopaedia, hilarity potential right there if Real Life Ensues and it becomes ridiculously impractical, or it already being in shambles and barely keeping together so much so that no one but Tahar can effectively find any information in it, because it's burnt in places or pieces are missing

My thing: warning: mention of rape A story that takes place during the final years of a decade long war between to shinobi clans, and its aftermath. The world is a crapsack one, where children are trained from early age to be soldiers, life expectancy is low, girls get married young, homosexuality is not tolerated, and sexism is rampant, particularly against women. Men fight on the front lines and women are expected to either be docile housewives, or if they get a chance to contribute to the war effort, they are usually expected to use sex as a weapon (rape is a common occurrence, also men have developed a warning system to avoid bedding these women – basically girls who have been outed on these mission get a scar on their cheek, and have their hair cut off), or become healers. Combat training for men and women differs (swords for men, spears for women).

The two main characters are leaders of their respective clans, who became clan heads at relatively young ages, and they're about 14 years apart from each other. She fights her way to the top and becomes head of the clan by being stubborn and unyielding, and a genius swordsman, all characteristics her father appreciated. He regrets the fact that she was born a girl, which is where she inherited her misogynistic attitude from (this will change due to the magic of character development). As a child she witnessed a case of marital rape (her older sister), and she didn’t want to end up like that. During a sparring session with her older brother, who’d been teaching her sword fighting in secret, she made it so that he would slice her cheek which would leave a scar similar to that of women who’d been caught on missions – this would prevent her from having to do them. And it’s during this training session that her father notices that she’s most likely a better fighter than her brother, and begins considering her for a leadership-oriented role, because of Authority Equals Ass-kicking (also has shades of Never a Self-Made Woman, but considering the setting I believe it’s plausible).

The one thing she is afraid of the most is rape; death and torture is fine (she’s been tortured during the war and survived, and she’s generally unperturbed about pain and injury, although rape is a form of torture, it’s more the aspect of being hurt by someone she trusts that terrifies her, she expects from the enemy that they’re going to harm her so she takes the torture in stride).

The guy is a talented medic, which also makes him a good fighter or rather the other way around (Martial Medic). He has an aversion for torturing enemies, which is why rape would be an OOC moment. Anyway onto the main issue. Sometime during the war she kills his younger brother, thinking it was him, and doesn’t find out that it wasn’t him until after the battle when the clans exchange corpses so they could have a proper burial. Eventually the clans form a truce, and the two are forced into an Arranged Marriage, which would’ve been a Perfectly Arranged Marriage if not for the fact that he is obsessed with finding out who killed his brother, and that keeping it a secret is eating away at her. The reason they don’t object to the arranged marriage is that they’re both driven by duty, and while not in love with each other, they respect each other as warriors and leaders, and think of each other as equals. There are signs of a budding friendship, but they still don’t see each other as human beings (which is a requirement for feeling love, and it’s easier to kill your enemy if you don’t consider them human – a side-effect of being raised in time of war). The tension culminates on their wedding night, when he receives a letter which identifies her as the person who killed his brother. Naturally, he confronts her about this and she admits to killing him. Here he crosses the Moral Event Horizon by raping her. This is the point where they both lose respect that they previously harbored for each other. She stops respecting him for obvious reasons, his crossing of the moral event horizon is external (i.e. the audience doesn’t need to be told that what he did is wrong, they see it for themselves), she, however crosses an internal pseudo-MEH (she has a “how did I LET this happen to me?” mindset about the whole thing, because she once prevented a rape attempt – she’s been forewarned about it and ambushed the guy – she thinks she let him do that to her when in fact he just overpowered her, the fact that she wasn’t expecting it disadvantaged her greatly as well). It basically boils down to this point: he ‘’’does’’’ a bad thing and realizes it, but only after the fact, she ‘’’thinks’’’ she’s done something wrong and doesn’t realize that she hasn’t.

The thing that I’m concerned about most is how to externalize her struggle; I want to avoid ‘telling’ about it, but rather ‘show’ her struggle. And there’s the issue of Unfortunate Implications, how much is too much? The way the characters think, is it plausible/realistic considering the situation?

Overall I’m thinking about ending the story on a semi-positive note – after years together (both of them agree to keep what happened a secret – out of shame and pride at the same time: he’s ashamed of what he did, and she’s too proud to ask for help, not that it would’ve done her much good, considering the state of the society) they finally start seeing each other as human beings, and eventually regain the respect they had for each other, on the downer side, they die in battle next to each other, the society hasn’t changed much (i.e. the situation for women hasn’t improved), there is another war, but a ray of hope is their daughter who becomes leader of both clans, and it’s implied somehow that she’ll try to make things better, maybe in a distant epilogue or something similar.

Here's another one from me:

Three Stone Age huntresses get driven out of their hunting ground by a dinosaur and find themselves looking for a new home in an Iron Age civilization.

Any comments on mine?

Telling an adaptation from the Po V of a different character than the source material is a fairly creative twist, though I am curious as to why you apparently prefer to adapt existing stories to creating your own. Mind you, I've toyed with adaptations myself, so I'm not necessarily being critical, but when I do adaptations I change more than just the setting.

It's not an adaptation. It's a steampunk novel imspired by Oliver Twist,which uses the character names and basic attributes of the Dickens characters but nothing else.

And tbh I have to ask; where do you get the idea that all I'm changing is the setting? I'm changing a LOT more than transplanting the story to a post-apocalyptic, steampunk version of a New York slum. For example, all my Fagin character has in common with the Dickens character are that both of them are Jewish, fences, and have gangs of homeless or orphaned kids living with them who steal for them. My character isn't a miser, lives in much better conditions but still in a slum, and engages in baby farming (in fact that's where he gets half of his pickpockets). He doesn't live alone with his gang, either; he has a female accomplice, Hannah, who's the Dodger's mother and plays a significant role in the plot. The den is a house overlooking a junkyard which is much cleaner and nicer than the den in Dickens' novel.

The guy who plays a role similar to Bill Sikes is an Irish-American mobster, boxer, and political enforcer whose depression despair and anger caused by poverty and losing various boxing matches might have had a bit to do with his sinking into alcoholism and abuse of his lover Nancy, who was one of the babies taken in by Fagin and Hannah. Oliver adapts very well to life at Fagin's and ends up in a middle-class house (Mr. Brownlow, however has absolutely no connection with Oliver or his family at all) along with the Dodger when their foster parents are arrested with the help of enforcers from the Monks Gang and a con Oliver was pulling goes bad. Monks isn't Oliver's brother either, but one of Fagin's rivals who's a cyborg due to a genetic defect.

(Whew! Sorry for the long post and hope I don't come off as defensive. I just had to get everything out. This isn't an attack on you, but not every thing I have is an adaptation. I'd call this heavily inspired at least. I'm even planning to mention the book Oliver Twist in the text at some point.)

edited 16th Aug '13 2:00:13 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

Considering that most fiction has inspiration from other fiction anyway, I suppose there's nothing wrong with what you're doing. At least you've found yourself a foundation to work from.

A cyberpunk tactical RPG, with Animesque graphics and story.

Compared to other cyberpunk stories, this is Lighter and Softer. Our cyborg hero is a hacker, who has no purpose in life until discovers a government secret: the internet is being secretly monitored by the government. First he doesn't care, but then misterious people starts to hunt him for no reason. Later he becomes a highly wwanted terrorist after leaking the information, and meets with people who either discovered the information or worked at the government but they got enought from the spying of the people. At the second end, we will meet the big bad: a megacorp which has a good publicity (mostly because the "freeness" of their services), but actually supports censorship, strict copyright laws, and the right to read other people's e-mails.

The gameplay is mostly turn-based, and relies on action points. Every action takes action points, then it gets resetted to maximum at the end of the turn. Also cyborgs can be upgraded with money, and have to be as they level-up differently than ordinary humans.

I'm currently in the process of devising a play, the concept I have is this:

Six [Australian] friends, (three girls, three guys) have just finished their final year of high school, and are going away to Bali for schoolies week. However, disaster strikes, and their flight is delayed indefinitely. So, rather than go home, they decide to spend schoolies week at the airport. Hilarity Ensues.

The play will be a comedy drama, with a bit of farcical comedy. Originally it was going to be all comedy, but given that making half of it comedic is challenging enough, I decided to add some actual conflict, while doing my best to steer away from teen drama.

Any C&C would be very welcome.

Since I live in Bali for over 15 years, I could help if you want to make references about it. So is it like some of these guys , only with more comedy and drama later on? I think mood whiplashes would be effective here.

My current concept I had in mind could be summed like this:

She's a journalist who works at a Weekly World News expy. He's a ghost under The Grim Reaper's employ to hunt rogue spirits. They hunt supernatural stuff !

edited 19th Aug '13 8:46:58 PM by Bleedingbreath

Thanks for the tips. Most of it is focused on the characters themselves, but that could come in handy, so thanks! It's a slow moving project, but if I have anything to ask, ill be sure to drop you a PM. :)

Yes, only the drama isn't so much about the fact they're stuck in an airport, as it is about the characters themselves, and some of the unresolved issues that took with them to schoolies. The protagonist and has a girlfriend who is at schoolies with them, but they are not speaking. As the play goes on, it is slowly revealed that a friend of the protagonist recently committed suicide, while not being on great terms with the protagonist's somewhat neglected girlfriend. The other friends at schoolies are also involved in various ways, and there are other issues that are touched on as well (coming of age, the image of today's teens, the way others and ourselves see us, etc.) The lighter issues I intend to tackle more comedically and satirically. Audience age wise, I'm thinking about 16+ years of age, although it will contain swearing and whatnot.

As for your concept, if you pulled it off, I would totally read/watch that. ;)

I like the idea of having a tabloid journalist be one of the main characters. This sounds like major setups for Hilarity Ensues.

Anyway, mine is tentatively called Supermen:

It's 1998, and Erik Watanabe and Johnny Alvarez are two lifelong Ordinary High-School Student friends from Honolulu who are constantly getting into trouble, mostly at Erik's behest. After getting one too many detentions in school, they're grounded by their parents and subsequently sneak out to go for a late-night ride on Johnny's tiny motorboat. They then see a glowing meteor crash into a small nearby islet, and Erik insists on investigating it.

Discovering the glowing, supernatural-looking rock, Erik decides to touch it to see what it is. Johnny, cautious and a bit scared of the thing, grabs him and tries to pull him back, and a scuffle ensues that leads to Johnny falling and touching the meteor, releasing a massive burst of energy that knocks Erik back into the tiny metal motorboat. The energy from the meteor gives them both superpowers: Johnny, having directly touched the source, gains Ki Attacks, while Erik, who touched the metal boat under the influence from the energy burst, gains powers over metal.

They decide to become Honolulu's resident superheroes, but that is a much more difficult task than it seems, even for Supermen like them. Erik soon grows overzealous with his powers, further exacerbated by a tragic event which I will not go into in detail at this time ^{though if you really have to know} A small boy who Erik often babysits is killed by home invaders and Erik becomes obsessed with tracking them down and avenging the kid, and as Johnny struggles harder and harder to keep him in check, their lifelong unconditional friendship is strained and stretched to its limit.Hint: it fails.

The latter part of the book is set in the modern day, as grown-up Erik and Johnny (now Juan) face being reunited after a long period of trying to forget the traumatic events of their teenage years without revealing to anyone else what really happened, or just who the Black Knight and the Monk really were all those years ago.

edited 20th Aug '13 7:08:02 AM by somerandomdude

Sounds a lot like that movie Chronicle, but with an aftermath period.

My own idea sprung from creating what initially appears to be a Twilight-esque book and shares an element or two, but anyone who reads two chapters into it will see that it's completely different.

It stars Fifi, who's crazy about this boy Leon. Literally, natch. She starts stalking him when they leave school one day, but he turns into an alleyway with no exit and disappears. She asks around about this for a bit, but then decides to drop it since she has plans to poison him anyway. When she actually tries, however, Leon reveals himself to be even more unhinged than she is, knowing about her poison plan. There's a bit of evidence, so he uses that to blackmail her into taking a job he has for her - help with his own job, namely, murdering and covering the existence of extradimensional beings, Men In Black style. He also reveals that he's immortal and has teleportation, shapeshifting, and weapon-binding powers that Fifi can also have as compensation.

He takes her to the world between the other dimensions, where she acquires her powers - the same ones as Leon has except instead of shapeshifting, she can cast illusions. She technically can shapeshift, but that requires so much study to get the forms exactly right that she won't be able to use it for years upon years.

When they return, Leon begins to become aware of some presence that should be extradimensional but isn't. He, Fifi, and Leon's co-workers investigate this for a time, possibly fighting off a few minor threats as well, until Fifi is approached by someone named Grace. Grace does belong to the same dimension as they do, but she is an alien that discovered how to harness some of the powers Leon has and is working undercover as an Earthling to study Earth culture so that some day, her planet can open up peaceful negotiations with Earth. She knows about Leon and what he does to extradimensional beings, but Grace knows she needs the kind of help that someone like him, someone who's been on Earth for the entirety of its existence can provide, and she wanted to get to him through Fifi.

Leon, however, sees things differently. He knows firsthand what usually happens when two unfamiliar cultures meet each other, and the authority from the world between the worlds agrees that this movement must stop, as containing extradimensional beings is easier if the two worlds are kept separate and there's no information flow between them. They task him with murdering Grace and her crew on Earth unless she backs down and assures him that they will work to prevent this from turning into an intergalactic war by telling one side this was the work of one agent and keeping the other side ignorant. As a result, Grace threatens to reveal that she's an alien as soon as she finds out unless they back down. Leon's smart enough to call her bluff but is still worried about the possibility.

Both sides are sticking to their ideals with little choice but to kill each other and Fifi has to decide who she's going to join to tip the balance. Ultimately, as a result of all the intervening character development, her own ideals, and the urging of her loved ones, she chooses Grace's side. This culminates in a climactic duel between Fifi and Leon. She finally manages to figure out his weak spots and kill him for good.

With their primary agent on Earth dead and a fiasco on his hands, the sole governing official from the world between the worlds, the Supracosmic Arbiter, comes to Earth to see what to make of all this. The Arbiter is revealed to be Fifi's father, long thought dead. He decides to make her Leon's replacement and allows her to maintain relations with Grace and her people, so long as they take things gradually with the rest of Earth society. The story ends with Grace revealing her true form on television for the world to see.

edited 21st Aug '13 8:34:38 PM by DeviousRecital

Now that is a really crazy and awesome idea. Especially the fact that both main characters are bonkers. I love stuff like that.

I know I kind of downplayed the post-Time Skip part of the story in my description, but in actuality a full half of the book is set there. I just haven't fleshed that part out enough yet to really talk about it. But a major factor in it is the fact that Adult!Erik wants desperately to get his old friend back, while Adult!Johnny wants nothing to do with Erik.

And yeah, I did borrow a lot of elements from Chronicle, but nobody lays waste to cities or turns full evil or anything.

I don't know what to say other than that its a concept that seems to deliberately run on Crazy Awesome, which can turn out either really good or fall flat on its face depending on how it gets handeled.

My concept in short hand is to be a Deconstructor Fleet to various anime tropes and character archetypes, such as shounen style heroes, teenager heroes, Go To School Save The World, Dark Magical Girl, and other things. I intend to do this by examining realistically how a mere teenager can be so skilled at fighting (it involves taking a child and training them to become a killing machine), examining the question of how does this even get done without causing the person to lose their humanity in the process, realistically looking at what the life of a hero is like and the effects of that life on such a young individual. How does one prevent from snapping or succumbing to despair in the face of such ceaseless horror and tragedy? Then there's the myth of the "seemingly fearless hero", which is depicted as being a lie, with the hero being every bit as scared as a normal person, only being good at not letting it grab hold of him.

I can best sum up the hero deconstruction with a Wham Line said by the hero as a response to a naive comment by someone who was recently saved about how great it must be to be a hero. "Let me tell you about the path you idolize. To carry that mantle is to eternally surround yourself in the horrors, tragedy and suffering of a pained world, forever stained in bloodshed, and constantly reminded of the fragility of life. If you cannot accept that fate, then you are not fit to bear that mantle."

Despite all that cynicism, the story is actually closer to a Decon-Recon Switch, reconstructing much of what is deconstructed. I suscribe more to the philosophy of Don Bluth than of Gen Urobuchi, believing in the concept of Earn Your Happy Ending.

The hero is a Bas Ass Normal Anti-Hero (borderline Knight in Sour Armor and Pragmatic Hero) with a fighting style best described as Zero + Bat Man + Deathstroke. He is proficient in swords, pistols, assault rifles, hand to hand combat (focusing on very direct forms of martial arts), and grenades. A cynical, aloof, antisocial Good is Not Nice Shell-Shocked Veteran Hurting Hero who due to the horrific, painful things he's seen (things ranging from acts of terroism, truly vile monstrously evil acts, the ravages of natural disasters, demons bleeding out of dimensional rifts into the human world, having to Mercy Kill a team mate in his past to prevent a Fate Worse than Death etc) has really bad Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (used to deconstruct teenager heroes since young minds are more prone to such conditions compared to adults who suffer the trauma), which in turn also explains many of his social issues. He's one of those characters who appears stotic, but by looking at them it should be obvious to more empathic types is in a lot of pain crying on the inside. His motivation in all of this isn't a pursuit of justice, but out of a sense of loyalty and camradirie to the one person who was truly there for him at his darkest hour (which occured when he was 8 years old BTW). He believes her dream of a world free from the curse of a "zero sum game" is something truly worth fighting for, thus will endure any burden and protect her at all costs to see it through. Yeah, there's some bits of Homura in him as well.

Personally, I believe that a more normal character and their struggles are easier to relate to due to their limitations, which is why I chose a Bad Ass Normal. One of my major pet peeves is just how cliche and over used the uber dark, immoral "hero in name only" grade anti-heroes have become, which is why the hero is on the lighter side of the scale as a Bat Man grade Anti-Hero.

One of the earlier antagonists is basically a Deconstruction of the Dark Magical Girl, also a really powerful one at that with specialization in lightning and wind. Even with a Heel–Face Turn, Defeat Means Friendship is not going to heal the years worth of emotional damage the archetype has on them, nor is an idealistic sort ever going to truly understand them. What I want to do with her is try to make a very sympathetic, tragic type II Anti-Villain who is obviously not a bad girl at heart (True Neutral is more accurate) and make her Nightmare Fuel grade terrifying to the viewer, even post Heel–Face Turn. How I seek to do this is basically Boxing Lessons For Super Man (studies meteorology and physics to get new ideas) + Magneto grade cleverness/creativity in how she uses her powers taken to scary levels (such as borrowing electricity from powerlines in surprise lightning strike directions, lowering air temperature to reduce resitance thus increasing the potency of her lightning, being able to use an opponent's bio-electric field to lock on to them. Of course she does have her weaknesses and her powers have their flaws if said opponents can figure them out.

Will be adding more tommorrow on some more characters. This idea is still rather early thought building stage.