Plot-ideas

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silvermoon

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Just a thought: How about a thread for short story plot-ideas? I don't know if such a thread exists, but if not, here you have one.

Post your plot ideas here, and see whether people can use them for their own stories.:)
 
Plots are like children; would you like it if someone took them away from you?

I always thought authors knew what to write about. It is the equivalent of an artist not knowing what to paint.
 
Someone posts a plot plan, and someone else uses it, and we're all called as witnesses in the subsequent court-case... have you seen the amount of times JK Rowling has defended herself from those sort of accusations? But there have been players here who've asked others to write for them, using ideas supplied by the original player...:eek:
 
Even my discarded, most worthless children -- sorry, story ideas -- if I saw someone else running off with them, I suspect I'd want them back again.
 
It was a nice idea for a thread, Silvermoon and something that could have developed if we were all more willing to share. Sadly I'm with the rest of the maternal members. I'm going to keep my babies (babies until they grow up and leave home in a best seller!) close and raise them well.
 
An idea is just that, an idea. You can keep yours close to your heart and still see a book on the shelves that have the same major plot point.

It happened to me.

I wrote a novel set during WWI, an very important plot point was the murder of an Officer on the western front in 1917. I had finished this novel and was feeling very pleased with myself as I was preparing it for submission. Imagine my horror when on a visit to Waterstones I saw a huge poster advertising Ben Elton's , then, brand new novel, The First Casualty. Which, you guessed it, was centred round the murder of an Officer on the western front in 1917.

I bought the book with a sinking heart, but thankfully the story was totally different to mine, even though it had the same major plot point.

So it is not the idea that's important it's what you do with it. It's the story you create from that idea.

On a side note it was this novel, a paranormal historical mystery, set during WWI that caught me an agent
 
Or you could have a thread about the 7 basic plots... or is that 8? That would be the same as what you wanted, but it gives people the mask to hide behind... to give as little or as much information to meat out the bones of it all.
 
Well, there are certain tropes (basic plot ideas), I think there are about 20 in sci-fi, for example. Not sure how many there are in the other genres...I could look up 'tropes' on the net and find out.:)
 
I could give you a bunch of 'what if' scenarios and you could work up stories from that basis...:)

eg What if the whole of the British Isles (including Ireland) had been taken over by the Romans by 100 AD?
 
What if we all contribute to a very large story centred on some kind of event? There could be a large central plot but we all write our own little piece based on those events, mich like witnesses. And each individual story piece could expand the storyline.

EXAMPLE:
First deep space human vessel is launched with a crew of (how ever many chrons there are in here) and it encounters and alien structure floating in deep space.

The human vessel suddenly loses power and we are drawn inside. Then an alien presence is detected/seen/heard on the ship.

This would allow each of us to practice our craft but with the involvement of the entire Aspiring Writers arm of the SFF Chrons.

Each of us could fill the boots of a crew member. A bit of Role Playing prose.
 
I would love to share ideas. I'm the type of person who love to explore fantasy ideas but just don't have the skill to put it into a story so I don't mind seeing it in another person's work. I specialise in Magic-science, please feel free to prob my mind for ideas. :)
 
I've been working on this particular story-line (trope, if you wish) for a while now; the idea of people being put into a system by an advanced civilisation, which uses time-web technology to create an artificially-induced temporal zone (within the web) that makes time speed up by ca. 1000 times. While everything goes on normally on the surface of the planet, observers from outside the time-web would see months pass in hours, years pass in a day and a century pass in a month.

Three centuries under the web (measured by external time) would produce a different species of humanity, say about 300,000 years or more genetically different from the human race from which they sprang. It would be interesting to then see how they would co-operate with their human cousins, when they were released from the web.:)
 
I was working with this idea when I was writing my own story but since I'm not following through on it, feel free to use it.

Treasure hunters who are dragged into the center of a war by one of their discovery. The war is centered around a race of being (demons if you must) from another dimension which consumes living matter. Much like humans, they attempt to farm those they consider food, coming through a portal connecting the two worlds. The human race had long been defending against these creatures with help from dragons, ancient creatures who despise the demons which came from another dimension. Dragons have a bond with some humans capable of magic, teaching those who have that power. But even with all that power, the demons could still not be wipe out due to the nature of the portal. The dragons understand the demons will consume everything in this world so a seal was made to block them since the loss of life defending against these creatures were too great. The seal was made over the portal but underestimating the demons' own magic, the dragons had to pour even their own life into forming the seal.

Years pass, the dragon mages are seeing signs of weakening of the seal as some mages driven by greed (power or otherwise) open small portals to the other world to borrow the demon's power. With more and more demons starting to come thur the tear in dimensions, a small war is beginning.

Two young mages setting off to explore the world and master their magic decides to become treasure hunters while they complete their magic training. They chance accross old dragon relics with the power to fix or destroy the seal.

As you can see the plot isn't finished. The world, magic and characters are all developed but since I am weak at writing up a plot, I don't have any idea how to continue. The general idea though is very extensive. So yea, if you like to take up this story, I'm happy to give you more information.
 
I think a shared universe thread might be fun. Is there already one going?

OTOH it seems like it just might be a lot of trouble and maybe even legal problems for the site owners, who, I think, are writers themselves, and so busy enough already, so maybe it's not a good idea after all.

I don't see any way to delete a whole post, and just putting up an empty one would be annoying, so please just ignore this. Sorry. :eek:
 
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I wouldn't be too scared of people taking your plot idea. Success of books entirely depends on the delivery, the writing itself. Done correctly, any idea can shine or fail. Ideas are not the writer's biggest obstacle, the problem is execution.

Here's a plot you can steal:

A young boy discovers he has secret powers of an ancient magic long forgotten. He is guided by a wise old wizard into a mystical group hiding from dark forces. Through training the boy learns to control his power and eventually defeats the dark lord who hunts his magical group.

Sound familiar?
 
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