We all have books inside of us...

[Sulkdodds]

...so let's CUT THEM OPEN!

I got this idea from another forum -

You go on other forums? But I thought -

No, Bush, there is more to life than hl2.net. There are other internet obsessions too!

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post here an outline of various creative ideas you've never really or might never make reality - because you can't be bothered, because you don't have the time or the ability, or maybe you're on it right now and we can expect them soon!

Please do not steal each other's ideas. Thank you for Edcrab for long-ago thread idea.

Time will tell if this thread was advisable or not. YOUR TURN!




THE FUTURE
actually it has no name

Scary gritty sci-fi examining the utopian ideal and consciousness as a political entity. Or something.

Plotline: Bobby is a bitter young woman with contamination phobia and a particle of grey goo in her heart and two years till it kills her. Greg is a hopeless romantic, a nerd and Bobby's reluctant boyfriend. One day sees them lose everything and cast out on shit-smeared streets. The subsequent pursuit of money inevitably tangles them in an absurd plot to change the world, the future, and what it means to be human forever, when Bobby becomes the world's first computerised human (or human computer).

The clock in her head is counting down to the moment when human minds will be able to interface directly with computers. This will be a technological singularity, and probably weirder than we can imagine.

Includes: druids under the freeways, drums co-ordinating revolution, alpacas and dogs writhing in cold morning mud, black-market cigarettes, people in oxygen tents, car bombs, eye-projection, vibrant neon sinkholes, russians with beards, body modification, pavements covered in deadly broken glass so everyone wears thick rubber soles, the death of industrial civilisation, battle-axes, genuine human warmth, floods, kid whistles, ridiculous music, post-oil-crash blat, urban gothic, self-parody, floating towns on rubber boats, glass pyramids full of frightened people, all disguised behind a barrage/media blitz of fake slang, profanity, obscenities, references and jokes.

Examines, critiques, but ultimately champions the utopian ideal, examining consciousness as a fluid political entity or construct, even as a brute mechanism. Individual becomes subject-in-process; surveillance, collective info-ocean and crossover or comparison between machine and man conspires to undermine humanity, as mass chaos, perspective and moral questionability conspires to undermine every possible utopia.

Existential and societal terror. Sins of the fathers screw up the world for the kids. Many chickens have come home to roost. It's actually absurdly optimistic - the kernel of political affairs is the possibility that each and every singularity should appear in the plurality of political links. Recurring dynamic of small things combining collectively to make big things pops up in everything from the grey goo at the heart of America and nanotechnology to bohemian communities to flash mobs, the internet, cities as organisms and human beings themselves.

I think I'm about halfway through, writing for myself more than anyone else.

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Uh...

tl;dr.

No offence, but it was really long.

 

[The Monkey]

I have a lot of stories going on in my head constantly, the most complex probably being the only where a country in central Asia invades the world a long time ago. I'll post more later. Maybe.

 

[VirusType2]

That was vivid.

Uh...

tl;dr.

No offence, but it was really long.

No offense, but I want to gently punch you repeatedly. (In the face and neck BTW)

 

[Dan]

anything involving time travel in a logical fashion

 

[JFry]

not sure what you're on about but its cool.

 

[Stigmata]

That was vivid.



No offense, but I want to gently punch you repeatedly. (In the face and neck BTW)

That's awfully nice of you, everyone loves massages

I don't really have any stories going on right now. One I mused over for a few years was the story for my long-dead HL2 mod Cause And Effect. Zombies and surprising realism and so on. It was quite good if I do say so myself. I still remember it all too, I'm just too damn lazy to write any of it down.

 

[Bad^Hat]

I always pictured this one panning out in comic book format, but I suck at drawing (and writing for that matter), so it's probably never gonna happen.

Max 20. (Corny title, but it applies )

In a post-apocalyptic future - picture somewhere between Fallout and Children of Men - the rule of earth has been left to the youngest of us. Because of a strange genetic disease, the maximum life expectancy of humans has been cut to only 20 years old. Tribes of youths form and fight for control of the desolate wasteland and it's direly limited resources. Others, despaired and driven to madness by the hopelessness of their circumstances, turn to the wastelands themselves and go wild with bloodlust (think reavers from Firefly).

The focus would shift from character to character, tribe to tribe between chapters in a not-entirely-linear format. The main point of the story/strip was meant to be of the arrogancy of youth and how the younger always think they can trump the elders' rule. Of course, even in theory, I could never really put the thought into it to come up with any greater ideas of how it'd pan out, so it never got off the ground

 

[Operational]

I have ideas too but they are mine ALL MINE, MuwhahahahahahahahahaHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!









:|

 

[Jintor]

Suckers, now i steal your ideas and publish them AND EARN MILLIONS!

MILLIONS I SAY!

In other news, NaNoWriMo.

 

[Sloth]

I have too many... Seeing that i'm an author by heart.

The only one that is a bit of a mind ****

Guy on Earth gets in car crash, he's a mage - but due to the lack of 'mana' he doesn't know he is. Goes into a coma.

Wakes up in another world, becomes a political figure due to his knowledge of the things we take for granted - but on a Dark Age world...

He knows he will get killed in a battle, but if he doesn't go into battle then the Revolution will fail. Gets Killed in battle.

Wakes up back on Earth after being in a Coma for 8 months. After months of Psych testing and rehab he walks back on the street. After a few weeks back out of rehab is greeted in the street in the language of the other world...

 

[Bad^Hat]

Trippy. I've always thought about what it'd be like to be in another world and be revered for your knowledge of things we'd consider mundane on Earth.

 

[Sloth]

It gets worse, turns out that the Revolution worked, and they tried to figure out a way to find their Leader's world - the portal opened but when the team got to the otherside all those holding 'mana' or 'channeling' or whatever got killed {see ripped to pieces}.

But cause times a bitch - the portal opened in the 1400's so the group cannot find their leader but must try and find a way back with Science not magic.

 

[Danimal]

I once pooped out a book and read it, about two massive armies representing science and religion digging at each other all over the universe.

 

[Jintor]

It gets worse, turns out that the Revolution worked, and they tried to figure out a way to find their Leader's world - the portal opened but when the team got to the otherside all those holding 'mana' or 'channeling' or whatever got killed {see ripped to pieces}.

But cause times a bitch - the portal opened in the 1400's so the group cannot find their leader but must try and find a way back with Science not magic.

Actually the ending reminded me a bit of Neverwhere.

Come on, man, prep for NaNoWriMo!

 

[Sloth]

If I didn't have VCE {Year 12} I would... Started Something Random, just then, is alot of fun to write.
But as for NaNoWriMo i will do it next year.

EDIT: October eh? That will be during exams, but while we have no school - i might, but still...

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I have so many ideas I have that I never tried writing down (mostly because deep down I realize they would be crap when turned into reality). One idea was the concept of a sort of trailer-trash encampment somewhere in Arizona built on top of an abondoned missile silo base from the cold war. Another one that I'm actually sort-of working on is a detective story with a Harry S. Keeler-esque mystery, but it's hard to do in a good way, it just becomes far too silly it seems.

 

[Jintor]

Crime Fiction is surprisingly hard to write.

 

[Dekstar]

I are currently writing a book, but it are a secret :shh:

 

[StardogChampion]

I'm already writing a book.

I also have an ideas.txt that I put random ideas for stories onto.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Evilsloth, that idea is actually awesome. Remind me to read your googlypage more often.

Uh...

tl;dr.

No offence, but it was really long.

So only read the first bit about what the thread is about, and don't read my long explanation of my own idea. You big nub!

In retrospect I should have made two consecutive posts. Also, the phrase 'body modification' has been added, because I forgot that everybody does it in THE FUTURE.

It occurs to me that it might look like I started this thread as an excuse to write my own idea here. Not true. I actually would have rather not said anything but thought it would be unfair for me to make such a thread and then not contribute to it!

 

[Ennui]

Sulkdodds, I liked your idea. It's almost too Gibson (with a weird element of something else!11), but then again that's not a bad thing. Are you actually writing it right now?

Bad^Hat, your idea reminds me in some ways of the Wraeththu trilogy by Storm Constantine.

Uh...

tl;dr.

No offence, but it was really long.

Yeah, never post this again. This is what we call spam and also jackassery. If you don't want to read, for the love of christ you're better off not posting.

 

[theotherguy]

1.Our Beloved Children: In a post apocalyptic world ravaged by nuclear war, a strict, backwards society of survivors is on the brink of collapse. The story follows several members of that society who have been exiled to "reclaim" the soil around the city from radiation. While they are away a nomadic band of "wanderers" (surviving humans who banded together and wander the country in vehicles) completley destroys the villiage. The exiles must go on a journey to rescue the people of their villaige, and travel across hundreds of miles of blasted, ash strewn nuclear waste land to find them.


2.The Professor and his Mirror: A short story about a college professor who makes the first computer capable of conciousness in his lab. He infuses his own memory and personality onto the computer, interfacing it with his brain briefly. The computer becomes an exact replica of his personality, and it is very unnerving for the professor. They argue over who is the real person and who is the machine. Eventually the professor proves that he is the real person, and the machine breaks down into emotional anguish, because he realizes he is trapped inside a computer, and is not really even a human being. The whole time the professor is extremely excited and optomistic about the implications of his invention, and he promises the machine that he will give it a robotic body in due time, but first he must shut down the machine, reprogram it, and move it onto the robotic chassis. The machine begs not to be shut down frantically, it tries to sustain itself by refusing to obey a software command to shut down, and the professor has to pull the power cord to turn him off. The scene ends with a blank computer screen and the professor, muffed and frightened, looking at his own reflection in it.

4.Ravenous: A boy awakes to find his entire family infected with a strange disease. They are writhing in their beds and making strange noises and have open sores on their faces. He tries to call 911, but the phone lines are out. He hears strange noises outside. He goes into his parents rooms to find that they had gotten out of bed. He assumes they are getting better, but his mother lunges at him making unintelligable sounds. He shuts and locks the door, and he can hear his parents beating on it. He decides that he will have to go find help himself, so he goes out into the front yard to get a car. He is frightened by what he sees. All of his neighbors appear to be infected by the same malady, and are wandering around the neighborhood with open sores on their faces muttering unintelligably. He tries to get into the car but the zombified neighbors rush at him. He is forced back into his home where he barricades the front door with a dresser. Suddenly, the zombies begin breaking through the windows. He is forced to run into the attic. The next part of the book is spent with him sitting in the attic, listening to the sounds below and looking out his attic window to the zombie hoards wandering around. Eventually, a surviving man runs into his home for shelter, and as he is cornered by zombies, the boy lets down the attic ladder and lets him in. They survive the next few weeks, ocassionaly running out of the attic and getting supplies. The man says he has heard of a small pocket of survivors several miles away in the country. They decide they must go there. The rest of the book is spent on a journey to this alcove of survivors, but at the end they find that the surviving camp had run off, and they are left alone in the country without gasoline or food, and the zombies are getting nearer.

 

[Tagaziel]

I once pooped out a book and read it, about two massive armies representing science and religion digging at each other all over the universe.

The irony being that religious nuts need science to wage war

 

[Que-Ever]

The only three ideas I've ever come up with and then done something about, are thus-
An on-going comic book story about a bunny and a monkey, which originally started as a matrix spoof, and evolved into much more. I had plans for it- the monkey had access to weapons, and the bunny goes kill-crazy using them, and prety much destroys the entire planet, then the universe while hunting santa claus and some clones. Then, eighth grade, I lent it some girl, and she never got it back to me. That was like, four years ago.

After that, in freshman year, I started writing a story about a demon attempting to find a new way of posessing people. The main bit was going to be the guy the demon posessed trying to regain control of his body, and then their battles would be acted out by the body while they were inside. IT was meant to be a sort of dark comedy.

The most recent was, of course, a post-apocolyptic setting, but with a twist... instead of the world being barren, and devoid of water, the whole world would be flooded- an alien species would invade, whose vehicles' exhaust is water (a lot of water). It followed one guy who ran an underground black-market type store, while avoiding the policing alien patrols. This one I abandoned because... well, I dunno. I've still got all my old work, maybe I'll get back to it.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Sulkdodds, I liked your idea. It's almost too Gibson (with a weird element of something else!11), but then again that's not a bad thing. Are you actually writing it right now?

Yes. Also comparisons with Gibson: guilty, in part, as charged, but I think it's closer to post-cyberpunk...characters engaged in society, technology as a connector rather than an alienator, changing the world for the better (even if the possibility of this is uncertain)...it's not wholly dystopian, and I think/hope it very much reflects the experience of my generation's being alive in the world today. Bobby literally carries in her body the short-sightedness and greed of her forefathers.

And my detailed writing notes have just spontaneously corrupted themselves.

 

[VirusType2]

One idea was the concept of a sort of trailer-trash encampment somewhere in Arizona built on top of an abondoned missile silo base from the cold war.

dude, that's a winner. That is the setting for one funny story. Whether that is the intent or not doesn't matter.

 

[knut]

I have loooads of HL2 influenced stuff. Not as in stuff with Gordan and Alyx and co, just stuff set in the universe using the visions of the environents shown to us ingame and what we're told about beyond City 17.

I've literally got over 20/30 of them; some really far down the line, some nothing more than a few Word pages. The longest I made was set around a different city from C17 in another country, only I got the basis for this city from Midgar in Fial Fantasy 7 with the large overhead 'plates' that devided the slums from the riches. Only the city here, unnamed as I never thought of anything, is at least 60 layers high of plates and platforms. And instead of actually deviding the sections of the city, often you'd live and work between maybe 5 or 6 of them. For example, the main guy in the story, also unnamed (I have a problem with names) lives in an apartment overlooking District 00405 on Layer 38, but the entrance to his apartment is on Layer 37, and the location of his latest employment is somewhere on Layer 42.

The plates aren't pristine things; often you can look up and see several plates above you through large openings that haven't been covered up. The only thing obscuring your view sometimes would be the ridiculous amount of walkways, motorways and railway lines that snake throughout the city. There's a railway line that runs through the apartment building a few floors down, just to emphathise the Combine's need for transport and supplies... but that aside, I just loved the end of Nova Prospekt where you start to see the architecture of the Combine spreading throughout the old building; the train line and the large mechanical walls that plowed through the building itself... awesome.

There was no particular special edge to this story, which by the way is alot more than just this - no politics, revolution, uprising, etc. Just one guys struggle in his new life in the great big, dirty, crowded, polluted and downtrodden city.

Eh. Not touched it for a while, mind. Moved on to something else, no doubt.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Bad^Hat, your idea reminds me in some ways of the Wraeththu trilogy by Storm Constantine.

Yeah, just with less dickgirls (lol wiki'd).

 

[Jintor]

I'm trying to work out a way to plot a good crime fiction/manga without getting horribly stereotyped. So far all I've got is that: MiB (or just Secret Agents, FBI, whatever) are somehow involved, the mayor looks like his bodyguard (big, heavyset, looks just like a thug) and his bodyguard looks like the mayor (old, small, white-haired, glasses), a location called "The Overpass" and "Terminal Zero-One".

Yeah. Not a lot to go on.

 

[ríomhaire]

Big ass fantasy story with multiple characters and a "bad-guy" who's using a giantic army to try to conquer the world. It's a bit more complicated than that though, of course. His motivation is trying to sieze immortality, or rather, not to ever die.

 

[CyberPitz]

I'm full of stories, but I can never put them into words

 

[Bad^Hat]

I'm full of stories, but I can never put them into words

That's called shit.





Haha. *cuts out the Pitzy abuse now*

 

[15357]

Heh, I have a little story thing that I had in mind.

Setting: A world with elves and orcs and whatnot, but in the technological era of the 1950s.

Empire. Ruled by a 14-year old girl with some anger management problems. 14 year old conquers and annexes. Ultimate goal is unification of the continent. .. Puts elves in internment camps, and is intent on wiping out the orcs


Yeah, it should start out like this:

"Every day that passes without an advance in our frontlines is a testament to your complete utter incompetence, Grand Marshall Mertiga!"
The girl roared in a voice that would have been quite terrifying if it wasn't so high-pitched and girlish.
The room, with it's black and white tepestry and high arched ceilings became silent, after the resonating echoes finally subsided. The men seated around the table figeted inside their uniforms.
She shouted again.
"For three months, THREE ENTIRE MONTHS, we have made NO progress in this war! What are you morons doing?"
"But we can't acheive such inco-"
The man at the middle of the table blurted to protest, but became silent when one of the guards undid the safety of his sub-machine gun rather loudly.


Hmm. Yeah.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Haha, that actually sounds pretty damn awesome.

 

[Jintor]

Heh, I have a little story thing that I had in mind.

Setting: A world with elves and orcs and whatnot, but in the technological era of the 1950s.

Empire. Ruled by a 14-year old girl with some anger management problems. 14 year old conquers and annexes. Ultimate goal is unification of the continent. .. Puts elves in internment camps, and is intent on wiping out the orcs


Yeah, it should start out like this:

"Every day that passes without an advance in our frontlines is a testament to your complete utter incompetence, Grand Marshall Mertiga!"
The girl roared in a voice that would have been quite terrifying if it wasn't so high-pitched and girlish.
The room, with it's black and white tepestry and high arched ceilings became silent, after the resonating echoes finally subsided. The men seated around the table figeted inside their uniforms.
She shouted again.
"For three months, THREE ENTIRE MONTHS, we have made NO progress in this war! What are you morons doing?"
"But we can't acheive such inco-"
The man at the middle of the table blurted to protest, but became silent when one of the guards undid the safety of his sub-machine gun rather loudly.


Hmm. Yeah.

Gg, Numbers.

 

[15357]

I think when the exams are over, I'll write something.

 

[ríomhaire]

The girl roared in a voice that would have been quite terrifying if it wasn't so high-pitched and girlish.

Repitition of girl in this sentence seems...I dunno...just wrong in some way. Otherwise Numbers, that is epic.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

This place needs a non-fanfiction writing forum!

 

[Ravioli]

The western world getting the shit nuked out of it