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Some story ideas

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  • Some story ideas

    I wonder which one I should pick?

    Possible story idea

    A young woman with the desire to help others encounters her evil counterpart and defeats her.
    A young woman defeats an evil dictator.
    A girl and a boy defeat an evil overlord.
    Four girls go on an adventure.
    Two boys and two girls go on an adventure to save the world.
    A family escapes from a dystopian future
    A child goes through a scary storm. (Lame! Maybe for a children's story?)
    A time traveler prevents a bad future(been done many times already!)

    Is it even possible to tell a truly original story anymore? And I could pick a number of possible settings for the above basic plots! How do I choose!
    If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

  • #2
    I've pretty much given up on a story idea that's truly original. I'm just an amateur, so take this for what it's worth, but I'd say just tell the story that you want to and don't worry if someone else has done something similar. I think there will be really similar ideas most of the time, but two writers' executions will differ wildly.

    Also, as a personal anecdote, my writing that I'm most proud of came from an idea that's relatively basic and not all that original, whereas an idea that took me years to come up with, that I think actually is pretty original and unusual, has proven to be very difficult for me to write. It's on hold for now, while I explore the more basic idea that's worked in practice (AFAICT).
    I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

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    • #3
      I have a hard time starting and ending stories.
      If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Christianbookworm View Post
        I have a hard time starting and ending stories.
        Once upon a time....


        ...and they lived happily ever after.




        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
          Once upon a time....


          ...and they lived happily ever after.




          That only works with oral storytelling! And you still have to have a hook that goes beyond "Once upon a time" or "It was a dark and stormy night"!
          If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Christianbookworm View Post
            That only works with oral storytelling! And you still have to have a hook that goes beyond "Once upon a time" or "It was a dark and stormy night"!
            Talk to Sparky about hooks.
            Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Christianbookworm View Post
              I have a hard time starting and ending stories.
              Tell the story - don't get hung up on the mechanics. A good middle story will get you to the point where you can tackle the hard parts. Just tell the story.
              "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

              "Forgiveness is the way of love." Gary Chapman

              My Personal Blog

              My Novella blog (Current Novella Begins on 7/25/14)

              Quill Sword

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              • #8
                There's no such thing as an original theme. TV Tropes exists for a reason, after all. However, every story is original. Every author brings something new to the table. Their perspectives, their flow, their dialogues...all of it. No one can write your stories but you.

                Expect, too, that a lot of your initial ideas are going to feel plagiarized from things you think are cool. That's normal. Figure out ways to twist them into your own, but don't worry about it too much. A lot of beginning anything is getting all the crap out of your brain until it can start producing quality work. That's as true for carpentry as it is for writing.


                The cliche advice is to start at the beginning and end at the end. Start at the first important thing that happens. Move to the next important thing that happens. It's not an issue if those events are years apart. When the important things are over, stop.
                I'm not here anymore.

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                • #9
                  A dashing, lovable, ol' pirate goes into the near future, where the democrats have started a zombie apocalypse through a smartphone app, and saves the world by luring all of the zombies into the sea with bacon, where giant robot sharks with laser beams in their eyes destroy them all.

                  Then in thanks, the pirate is made ruler of the world and given all of the gold and bacon in the world.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                    A dashing, lovable, ol' pirate goes into the near future, where the democrats have started a zombie apocalypse through a smartphone app, and saves the world by luring all of the zombies into the sea with bacon, where giant robot sharks with laser beams in their eyes destroy them all.

                    Then in thanks, the pirate is made ruler of the world and given all of the gold and bacon in the world.
                    That's a daydream, not a book.
                    I'm not here anymore.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Carrikature View Post
                      That's a daydream, not a book.
                      ...and although he was opposed by the evil Carrot of Death, the lovable, dashing pirate prevailed. And the evil carrot ended up as a cake for mossrose's little grand daughter.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Christianbookworm View Post
                        I wonder which one I should pick?

                        Possible story idea

                        A young woman with the desire to help others encounters her evil counterpart and defeats her.
                        A young woman defeats an evil dictator.
                        A girl and a boy defeat an evil overlord.
                        Four girls go on an adventure.
                        Two boys and two girls go on an adventure to save the world.
                        A family escapes from a dystopian future
                        A child goes through a scary storm. (Lame! Maybe for a children's story?)
                        A time traveler prevents a bad future(been done many times already!)

                        Is it even possible to tell a truly original story anymore? And I could pick a number of possible settings for the above basic plots! How do I choose!
                        If those were my only choices, I would combine the last one with the first two, and have the dystopian family combined with the child in storm within that larger story. That way, you could choose 5 of those stories.

                        You could thus have a time-travelling young woman encountering her evil counterpart, a dictator, preventing more bad future than may have happened. A family escapes from the planet tyrannised over by the counterpart. The controls in their "timeship" are thrown out of kilter by a meteorite storm, and the genius daughter vanishes into an alternative reality. She can be saved only if the reality that contains the evil dictatrix counterpart is not meddled with. The genius girl's family and the time-travelling girl now have to make a terrible choice: do they save the missing genius girl, and condemn millons of planets to a horrible tyranny under the evil counterpart of the time-travelling girl - or do they sacrifice the genius daughter, and save millions of planets from unspeakable tyranny ?

                        That sketch is not what I originally intended, but possibly you can find something there ? What is original is not the ingredients in a story, but how one puts them together.
                        Last edited by Rushing Jaws; 08-09-2016, 05:33 PM.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Christianbookworm View Post
                          That only works with oral storytelling! And you still have to have a hook that goes beyond "Once upon a time" or "It was a dark and stormy night"!
                          Some story beginnings, and an ending:

                          "Of old there was Sauron the Maia..."

                          "Long years ago, in the Second Age of Middle Earth..."

                          "In the beginning, there was Eru, the One..."

                          "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit."

                          "Mr and Mrs Dursley, of Number 4, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."...."I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer..."

                          "Marguerite awoke. The cat on the side of her bed let out a soundless, cavernous, yawn. Normally Marguerite would have smiled to see her friend yawn, but not today."

                          The last three sentences are my beginning of my sketch of your story. Apparently it helps if one has an idea of how one's story ends. That makes sense, for then one has a framework within which to imagine and construct one's fiction. I would like to include dragons in a story, in a realistic setting, and there is no reason why there cannot be dragons in a story about a woman travelling in time to undo the tyrannical rule of her evil counterpart. As long as there is a credible in-universe reason for the dragons, and for what is told of them, they would not be out of place. They could be artificial. or evolved from some familiar animals, or be constructed of some alien metal, or have whatever choice of properties and qualities the logic and detail of one's story requires.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Rushing Jaws View Post
                            If those were my only choices, I would combine the last one with the first two, and have the dystopian family combined with the child in storm within that larger story. That way, you could choose 5 of those stories.

                            You could thus have a time-travelling young woman encountering her evil counterpart, a dictator, preventing more bad future than may have happened. A family escapes from the planet tyrannised over by the counterpart. The controls in their "timeship" are thrown out of kilter by a meteorite storm, and the genius daughter vanishes into an alternative reality. She can be saved only if the reality that contains the evil dictatrix counterpart is not meddled with. The genius girl's family and the time-travelling girl now have to make a terrible choice: do they save the missing genius girl, and condemn millons of planets to a horrible tyranny under the evil counterpart of the time-travelling girl - or do they sacrifice the genius daughter, and save millions of planets from unspeakable tyranny ?

                            That sketch is not what I originally intended, but possibly you can find something there ? What is original is not the ingredients in a story, but how one puts them together.
                            How about a third option that saves both?
                            If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Christianbookworm View Post
                              I wonder which one I should pick?

                              Possible story idea

                              A young woman with the desire to help others encounters her evil counterpart and defeats her.
                              A young woman defeats an evil dictator.
                              A girl and a boy defeat an evil overlord.
                              Four girls go on an adventure.
                              Two boys and two girls go on an adventure to save the world.
                              A family escapes from a dystopian future
                              A child goes through a scary storm. (Lame! Maybe for a children's story?)
                              A time traveler prevents a bad future(been done many times already!)

                              Is it even possible to tell a truly original story anymore? And I could pick a number of possible settings for the above basic plots! How do I choose!
                              How about a story of bacon escaping from a dystopian future in a wonky time machine ?

                              Comment

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