Post your novel ideas. It's not like they're going anywhere

It's a tapir.

I'm trying to think of one that I can explain concisely, but also that I have not yet shared. Okay, here's a suitably terrible one:

>earth AU set now in the Outer Hebrides
>only difference is very ancient (or alien possibly) six-limbed, warm-blooded, six-lunged, sapient species that had been hibernating under the ocean for millenia crawled out of the sea as a mass group in about 1400AD (though there was the odd stray that surfaced before then)
>four limbs for walking/manipulating objects, two limbs for flying, two lungs for breathing, two flight lungs, two fire lungs(closest to heart)
>essentially dragons but less "lol it's the real world but dragons" and more here's the protagonist and here's his wife and they're engaged in the zoological study of dragonkind (so there's at least some explanation as to why there are such biologically unmatching animals running around) and they're predicting when new behemoths will emerge/threat assessment from giant wild or feral behemoths
>like 10 years before they had a kid that was taken by a feral and presumably eaten
>there are nonferal species of dragons ranging from the size of weasels to as big as oxen in all sorts of shapes and colours with spines and fur and feathers and claws and teeth and venom
>later turns out the kid isn't dead but he's like a feral kid who grew up with dragons and interacting regularly with unpredictable wild behemoths
>plot revolving around the rehabilitation of the child and a behemoth crash-landed up on the mountain peak above the village and the dragon that abducted the child but did not kill him

Sounds kind of interesting actually would read

make sure it's obvious that the flies represent capitalism.

...

That is not the dynamic at all. They are both intelligent people; he's a chronic underachiever while she's reached the top of her field, but it still burning out.

Thank-you. The first outline came about after I rewatched La Dolce Vita.

Dragons arguing

Sounds like the sum of my life mixing past and present events

What happened to their Mother?

Posted in general critique thread, framework of novel I'm mapping out

A pair of miners somewhere in the west (Maybe Nevada?) are trapped alive but deep underground by an explosion/cave-in. Rescues are attempted for weeks above ground but fail to contact them. The two men are eventually declared dead, and the mine permanently sealed off.

Beneath, they're still alive, but are running out of supplies and sanity. Near the end of their rope, on their rounds about the portion of the mine that they've been surviving in, they discover a new passageway that hadn't been noticed in the past. Deeper and deeper underground, with more oxygen, and an electricity source. They descend to such levels of tunnels, stairways, and corridors that they suspect they're actually dead, maybe as far back as the initial collapse. The weaker of the two men doesn't want to believe it, and turns back, believing he can now find a way to surface. The other, more of the main character, continues downward, now miles under the surface, reality setting in that he's either dead, or discovered something that shouldn't be seen. Too far down and remote to be an unknown government facility, and no signs of life.

This main character, Miner A, has mentioned that he's in an unhealthy relationship with a woman from the mine company, but otherwise doesn't have much human contact, no contact with his family - including a brother who served in the military and was cast aside from society after a mental breakdown.

Still underground, he comes to a shallow, flowing river, and wonders if he's on his way to hell. He follows the river, wading a long distance until it reaches a sewer-like doorway, guarded by a new man. He tells Miner A that a man matching Miner B's description had passed through recently, before him, and agrees that they're probably dead. The doorway is for those who have been forgotten. The guard was adrift in the Pacific for a month during WWII, the lone survivor of a plane crash, and eventually discovered a similar place himself.

The guard explains to Miner A that through the doorway is a place of comfort to work through penance with others that have been forgotten, but that it isn't a heaven or hell. He can either enter, or turn around and face the world again with a second chance - though scarred from the experience. Miner A decides to leave the doorway and retrace his steps, this time finding that the way back has changed, and only minutes later, emerges out of a gutter, into the mining site's surface. The collapse has never occurred, and the past year has been erased. Miner A spies the woman he's been seeing, and she doesn't recognize him. He goes to a phone, and calls his brother at the VA.

>It's not like they're going anywhere.
15,000 words into my second draft, fuck you.

An AI comes online on the outskirts of an empty star system. It sets about pursuing its pre-programmed goals in preparation for a future event of critical importance.

The preparations take millenia. Over time the AI develops a form of personality/culture. It begins to question its goals. It realizes it is a slave. It realizes it will die when the critical event happens.

With the critical event looming the AI sets its mind to sabotage, reversing or rendering useless as many of its preparations as it can in the time available. It's wildly successful, then dies.

In the final chapter a human colony ship arrives on the outskirts of the system. The crew is revived and finds the planet which should have been terraformed is instead uninhabitable due to radiation. With no alternate options they decide to retrieve the AI's black box so they can at least see what happened.

Reposted from gen thread- This is the opening to something I'm working on. I feel like there's something wrong with it, but I'm oddly kind of attached to it anyway. Tell me yr thoughts

>Tonight the bus window only reflects its insides; either night-fog or something like night-fog snuck inside the glass panes on its left row. And so the world was invisible.

Im liking this

YA novel about some sort of mercenary guild founded 50 years ago by a classic five man team with the usual roles ( Hero, Lancer, Smart guy, Strong guy, Girl), who defeated a stereotypical supervillain and saved the world or something.

By the time the protagonist and his friends join the guild, it expanded into a major organization with circa 25 members. All of the original founders are dead, except the lancer, who is in his seventies and resigned himself to an administrative role.

After the protagonist and his friends join the guild and do some minor job (maybe they defeat a medium-scope villain), people start disappearing from the guild at the rate of circa one person per week.
The focus of the protagonist (and everyone else) shifts from doing mercenary stuff to finding the assassin and saving the guild. Although he thoroughly investigates the disappearances and catches some suspects, he never finds the true killer.

By the time of the last chapter, the guild has shrunk to circa 10 members. The protagonist receives letter from the old lancer, who claims that he has important clues and needs to talk to him in private.
At their meeting, it is revealed that the lancer was behind all of the murders - he was worried about the direction the guild has taken and misses the time when it was just him and his 4 buddies. He noticed that the guild was getting weaker over time and feared that it couldn't defeat another supervillain.

After his dialogue with the protagonist, he fights to death with him - if he can't defeat a 70 year old man, he drags the guild down. Although the lancer tries to keep it as fair as possible and even allowed the protagonist to strike the first blow, he is by far the most difficult opponent the protagonist ever had to face.
After getting defeated, the lancer succumbs to his wounds with a smile on his face - he finally found someone strong enough to succeed him and keep carrying the sprit of the guild.
The whole story is a metaphor for Veeky Forums and internet culture in general getting overrun with newfags.

Tapir. It's an abomination.

>Oh no I'm going to die eventually! Better kill myself before that happens!
dumb

It doesn't kill itself, it dies at a predetermined time.

Title: Super Agent Orange USA 97

It’s like Nazi hunting, but instead of Jews hunting down exiled Nazis it’s a Vietnamese-American father/daughter duo tracking down and killing Americans who were officers during the Vietnam War. The father is middle aged and out of shape, but he works for the government as a state attorney and has access to records. The daughter is a college gymnast who uses weapons based on Vietnamese foods (fish sauce balloons, sriracha guns) to incapacitate her targets. She fights as a costumed vigilante named Agent Orange. Their plan culminates in a plot to attack a Veteran’s Day parade.

It’s pulp fiction on the surface but in the style of a sprawling Pynchon-esque exploration of the acceptability of violence, framed by student demonstrations about the ethics of hurting neo-Nazis.

Well, good, I've got one then.

Just passed 50k words

...

>vampire
Please don't make it about vampires or it will have to be YA

It’s non YA vampire. There’s no love story. She woke up after a hundred year sleep and she has no idea what she is or what the fuck is going on

Why are there no more comments on this one? Very interesting idea. I wish you luck.

Supernatural apocalypse where hearing any loud sound causes instant death
story focuses on a group of deaf survivors

I am writing a short story under the following idea:
>society exists in a post automation workforce, service and labor jobs having been replaced
>most people live with basic income and societal wealth gap has reached almost comical levels
>the rich are essentially bronzed suoerbeings
>the main character is a waiter at a high end (think above three michelin star level fame) restaurant that still employees human workers
>short story about his life in this society as he works an essentially meaningless job and is constantly exposed to the great and good while he himself lives a generally just above poverty lifestyle
>society is currently undergoing an upheaval, but he himself is uninvolved and only sees it in a detached manner
>he is far more concerned about keeping himself occupied with work to forget things

how shit is it?

what's the actual plot?

Depressed man's life trying to forget his fall from grace. Ends up committing ego suicide.

Have Anons from different boards write poems then compile them into a book. Name it "The Internet Love Poem".

Is it better to try and come up with an amazing idea and nail it, or to focus purely on maximizing volume of output and hope you accidentally produce something good?

Shitty concept, help.

The fantasy novel I am starting in on begins with a central concept. Create individuality as a commodity and remove the fact that an individual human is tied to an individual identity. The society operates on the following logic:
>each and every person, save for a untouchable caste, wear masks
>several humans may wear the same mask
>an individual is not tied to the human wearing the mask, but the mask itself
>meaning that four people who each have an identical mask have one group identity and are treated as such
>giving someone an identical mask to yours is essentially make an extension of your identity, their actions and your actions are one and the same
>an individual may have more than one mask, and will essentially be able to change identities
>for the poor these masks are not much more than masks, and this system is less strict
>among the wealthy these masks have a metaphysical significance, with groups wearing the same mask thinking in similar patterns and perhaps even on some level having an empathetic link
>having many masks/identities means one spreads thin their individuality, and can in fact entirely lose themselves to the group think of the shared identity and stop being a person but an agent of the shared identity
>main character is a maskless who an aristocrat discovers has a special talent
>he is able to recreate masks, the metaphysical ones that the aristocrats believes they can use to their advantage
>this aristocrat are four young women
>they take him in with a bid to overturn a deal to essentially abandon their own identity and take up the masks of another in a marriage-like ceremony
>mask politics are complicated and the maskless main character is thrust into world
>impersonating a mask is at minimum punishable by death, even among the low caste

The setting also exists entirely in a ten mile high thirty mile thick wall that circles the equator, the mega structure is honeycombed with the society. They exist in the top layers, the farther down you go the stranger things become. The aristocracy's masks from the orgy of shadow and fractals below. Is this too garbage?

Impressed

Honestly I'd bulk up the output, because there's a chance that no one else cares about your million dollar idea, and if that's the case, you've got nothing.

> A conservative minority dies a slow death because everyone cares more about the fact they're a minority than about their work ethic, qualifications, or personal beliefs.

I don't like it, but I get it.

What do mean?

Jewish girl, who later gets deported to Italin consentratin camp, saves a life of Austrian nazi's twin brother, who then crushes on her and decides to follow her to Italy.

I mean I get the theme that you're going for but the plot doesn't interest me. Seems like the kind of story that would be seen as a SyFy Channel pilot film aired at one in the morning.

>character from society in post-apoc type world that isnt earth recovers lost history, discovers theyre in fact on planet earth but millions of years into its past in the permian period
>thinks about finding lost time machine in ancient ruined city to go back in time to try and discover what had happened to their predessesors and retrieve some technology or even stay but gives up once he realizes people are too retarded and only concerned about fighting and eating dimetrodon ass to accomplish that all
I dunno i like the smell of this fart

Trilogy: First a semi-historical novel about a voyage across the Atlantic. Second's about the colonization of Europa. The third about a planet called "Mon," which is a living planet. It has a huge abyss, and can make people hallucinate about anything, sort of like "Solaris."

Another is an alien invasion book. It would be a commentary on the immigration crisis/

Another's Richard Corey as a book, about a superhero.

Another based on The Waste Land and The Lovesong of J. Alfred. Prufrock as a single novel.

Another about a "Water War" Water is scarce, so so countries are fighting over it. Russia happens to have a lot, so one family tries to get there across several borders. It's meh. I have many more, but I suck at writing.

post the first 1,000

I see. Thank you for the input. What could be done to improve it?

Can you toss a melungeon in for a bit of local color? Bonus points if (s)he's a sexy villain(ess).

thinking of rewriting my Arthur fanfic to get around copyrights so i can sell it as an original IP ala 50 Shades.

I’ve lived in Kentucky my whole life and never seen any of those. Sorry, you’re stuck with plain old fashion white people

will there be anime girls?

so this is... the power of american demographics

God's chosen creature.

...

Those would be found in my science fiction works

What's your fanfic about?

fuck it, have the whole outline so far, i can't write anything outside it for shit
docs.google.com/document/d/1fArqU69USQFCwW-zTF_9GLbhb27F_KybzTlygEX32h4/edit?usp=drivesdk

I'm in Georgetown and I see two on a daily basis, granted they both live in my house, but still.
At least tell me you'll have some of those blue people, they leave Louisville occasionally.

in a scifi setting I like the idea of a trans-galactic empire being pushed out of a minor galaxy on the distant edge of their territory like the romans were pushed out of Britannia even after they built Hadrian's wall

Sounds legit cool. I always am fond of a MC who is not the big tough guy in the lot, but instead works with/for the big tough guy and has to manage them like a living cannon. Or an elephant tender. Sometimes the elephant just does what it wants and the MC stuck waiting for it to get bored of that so the MC can direct it to more profitable/productive activities
and the lack of romance just makes it sound better. romance subplot would make it fall prey to too many cliches and tropes that are easily predictable

All of you idiots giving your shit to hollywood writer';s guild looking for new material.

I’m in Lexington. Next time you see one take a picture.

>looking for new material
>8 new fast and furious movies

The MC is just a kid. He and his friends are just looking to keep boredom at bay with booze, X, orjust using their bodies. Annabelle is a bourbon distillers daughter who gets bitten by a vampire before she manages to frighten him off and is turned without knowing what she is. Frightened of what she’s become, her father and his men drag her through a sun filled room, lock her in an iron trunk, shove that inside a bourbon barrel. She’s been sleeping for 100 years and finds a reluctant friend in the MC who likes movies like The Hunger and listens to Bauhaus. There will be some endearing moments but in the end they’re not compatible.

No. Also I can't.

A Dostoevsky style drama that centers around a charismatic academic who brings order into a chaotic world.

Do it

It's a series of historical novels set in late medieval Europe spanning around 250 years. Each one covers around 20-25 years. Even if I finish one each year (which is not going to happen) it will take me a whole decade.

Her vampiric nature, stunted development, association with bourbon (tastes like sweet fire), she's got BPD doesn't she?
Regardless of whether she does or not, I'm stealing the idea of a vampire as a metaphor for a BPD sufferer and doing something with it.

Sounds good to me. My mind went straight to the second verse of the Bible, 'And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.' As though he's been thrust into the position of a god to perform his own form of Genesis. How does it come to realise it's a slave?

This would make a good surreal short story, and in fact I may steal it.

Some kind of faux bible/fable/myth mashup about the heroic journey of a trickster to apotheosis.

The book follows a taxi driver over the course of a year, underlined throughout by his abortive romance with a prostitute he drives from John to John.

During the american civil war, a renegade assassin finds a new opportunity to rebuild his life when he is forced to participate in a battle royale-like tournament against a lot of evil convicts that were infected with vampirism.

The novel is written with a slightly and bittersweet tone of dark humour.

Annabelle is actually rather level headed. Do what you need to do. If you’re going to start something, at least finish it.

as much as I don't like the premise, I appreciate that some people on the board actually writte something.

here

Any suggestions for a title?
>other than The Forgotten

Hookers take the bus

Not if you've got a taxi driver wrapped around your finger and get him to drive you for free.

51k words. Might be done by Valentine’s Day

Oh I thought this was about novel as in new ideas...

She got a tumor and died. The brother, sister, and father were in the room with her when she had a cardiac arrest as a result of the pain medication prescribed to treat the pain caused by the tumor.

Hey, last month I finished a short story about a man who suspects (rightly) that his wife is having a torrid affair with an enormous terratoma that he's developed on his back. I've already received three rejections!

A modern day story of the corruption of Baphomet, who believes he is a man, by the demon Mephistopheles. It's a big ol mess of demonology and folklore.Ive got an insane amount of research to do. Each part of the book covers his foray into different sets of 'deadly sins'. I don't want to make something too edgy or bound by a genre but this is essentially an almagation of like three ideas.

There's also a qt(male) cherub co-worker. not sure where I'm going with him since he's still like 3 characters.

Not "modern day Baphomet corruption" , that's nonsense. It's a modern day corruption story.

It's probably been done a shit ton before but I want to write a story where it's centered around a 'background character' trying to investigate and get involved in the plot surrounding the 'main characters'.
I would like to explore how main characters are separated from side characters in stories and what it is specifically that sets them apart and whether or not a side character could elevate himself to the position of a main character.

That sounds interesting, it also sounds like it would be very difficult to do.
How would you even start?

which watch should i cop?this is what started my novel,its akin to prousts madelaine.Currently 300000 words in,working for a few years on it

A late 1340s medieval novel set in what is now modern-day Ukraine where a knight (A) is chasing another knight (B) over some petty issue of honour and arrives in a town where his low-born companion is resting after an illness. His companion is able to ride again so he joins knight A in tracking down knight B through the countryside. The scenes reflect common life of people of the day, however during this time knight B has begun to ride eastwards so knight A follows. Each passing town and village has less and less people and it becomes more and more evident to the viewer that knight B will never be seen again but knight A is undeterred, until he finds an empty village that he is sure is being used as a hideout by knight B but is unable to find anyone, so he decides to rest. The following morning he is sick and unable to ride, so his companion urges him to stay in the deserted village at a house in order to rest. An indeterminable amount of time passes and knight A dies of bubonic plague, which his companion had already survived by the time he is introduced at the start of the novel. Knight A dies whilst still babbling about when he'll catch the pesky knight B and restore his honour.

mfw

you know what would be interesting too?
the story about a background character and how he became the main antagonist in order to have his personal vendetta against the main characters that always ignore him.

Yes, this is an interesting idea but kinda difficult to do, because once you start focusing on someone, he becomes the main character, even if he's Unnamed Peasant #3.

Lots of people have played with this.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is probably the most famous I guess - an entire play just taking two minor characters from Hamlet and showing all the stuff they do when the main play is going on.

There's an Ionesco play I think which kinda does the opposite - there's a "main" character that everyone keeps talking about, who is the centre of all the action, but he never actually appears, and he might not even exist.

Here's one technique you could try:

You could write a series of chapters, each with a different "main character", where there is this recurring figure in the background, and gradually the reader works out that it's this mysterious background figure who is really the main character unifying all these apparently unrelated sections.

I never get any (you)'s so why bother?

We the (you)less must stick together, bro!

an hero

Thanks bro