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What would your story be?
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Jonas, is this meant for the non-authors, or should I move this to the Authors folder, so that authors can also respond?
I don't think so. I aint no author, and I'm not asking authors. I'm asking non-authors that don't plan to write anything. Just if anyone has any ideas.
Cool, that's what I thought. So please keep that in mind as you respond!
I've never dreamed of writing a book or being an author. But there are stories that I'd like to read that have not been written, so maybe I should think about it. What I want to read is something about someone like me, a woman of a certain age, who isn't doing much with her life, but finds friends or a purpose... (which has been written)... in a believable way... (which hasn't [as best as I can tell]).
Now if it could have an SF setting, that would be cool.
The closest I've found is Remnant Population which I do want to reread.
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When I was younger I used to write long letters which were greatly appreciated by my nearest and dearest and several people remarked that I had a nice turn of phrase and should write a book. But epistolary novels are hard to write and not terribly popular. There is also a whole story about how I first met my father. Friends often get confused about the details and say I should write a book so they don't have to feel embarrassed asking me questions.
That I have considered semi-seriously and have written a few 'anecdotal bites' of the story. However instead of sitting by butt down and getting it finished I always end up doing the laundry or the dishes or chatting in the forums on GR!
I came up with some neat ideas when I was a kid that I would like to flesh out. I think the best was a concept I came up with when I was 11 years old. In truth, it's not all that original - or wouldn't be if I did it today. Global disaster, half of humanity takes to the stars, the other half lives under the oceans. What happens when they come back together. But for an 11 year old it's not too bad. I think if I ever get the chance, I might fiddle with it and see what happens.
Brian, Esther, I'd read those stories!I've not heard of Tehanu. I'll check it out. Maybe I'll finally like something by Ursula K. Le Guin....
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Allison wrote: "Ha! Either way, you're right we need more stories about people older than 30!"Yes please :)
Maybe somebody will get inspired by this thread? Because all the ideas sounds really good!When I was a teenager I read a lot of books with dragons: Eragon, The Dragonriders of Pern, His Majesty's Dragon etc. Also I day dreamt a lot, making up stories just to pass time in class.
One of those stories were about dragons in which they were viewing us as, lovable but sometimes with weird quirks, partners. The same we look at our dog partners.
But from our side we would look at our dragon partners with some exasperating, because they needed to have their ego stroked all the time. A bit like how we look at our cats.
It would be cool to read a story with both points of view but with no middle ground. Both parties are convinced they are the smarter and thus the higher life form. The reader would have to 'decide' who is which.
Also a battle of some sort against a common enemy because I like those kind of stories.
Ooh, another one that I'd read....But I wouldn't want to choose which is the higher life form... after all there are geniuses and dullards in all species... dragons and humans could all be all of the above, and just unable to recognize each other's full merits.
Ada wrote: "One of those stories were about dragons in which they were viewing us as, lovable but sometimes with weird quirks, partners...."So, I just found out about A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans... until Ada writes her story, I'll read this....
When Im in deadly boring situations and dont have a book with me i "work" on a lil story about mermaids.Its set in the golden era of piracy and the gist is that whenever a woman dies out on the open sea she will come back as a mermaid (not a zombie mermaid although that would be cool too)(inspired by that myth that women on ships are bad luck. I like the idea of women being the lucky ones at sea instead) A newly born mermaid cant remember where she came from, though.
Enter Unnamed Female Pirate Captain who meets Unnamed Mermaid Lady (not really the Arielle kind of mermaid. More the no-bra-voice-like-a-chainsmoker kind of mermaid?)
Mermaid is confused because killing sailors is kinda her thing but so far they have all been male. What if theyre female? She decides to leave Pirate alive for now until she has figured this philosophical conundrum out.
Oh and also. Pirate cant swim. (that wasnt even very unusual. Look it up!)
~insert 3 minute montage of shenanigans during which mermaid and pirate fall in love~
If course Pirate has to suffer from her piratey hubris.
An attack on a gold-ladden trading vessel turns out to be a ruse. It was a trap set by the navy. The pirate's ship burns. Pirate falls into the sea. Mermaid suddenly remembers where she came from and pulls pirate under (its all very tragic ok?)
and then they live happily ever after :)
WOW that got long sorry. I just like playing around with this idea in my head, I could never write it because writing is hard!
I have this sort of half idea that I keep thinking about, which was inspired a bit by something that happened at work while we were dealing with an old gentleman's Will after he passed. He'd left a safety deposit box specifically to someone who lived abroad, who we couldn't trace. Eventually it just went back in to the estate, but my imagination ran away with me and I started thinking, what if there was a secret magical artefact in the box, and it had to get to the right person or the safety of the whole world would be put into jeopardy! Or, like, there was a curse on it if some greedy beneficiary were to open it instead? So it would be part a human story, but also a bit of magical realism / fantasy as well. When I'm not typing up people's Wills, I should maybe have a go at it!
I tell myself stories all the time. I don't write because I don't possess that kind of patience. I've tried a time or two - after I'd be stupid enough to tell friends or family about some of my stories - I always get irritated because its all so S L O W. Writing bores the crap out of me but I probably would have made a good bard or (verbal only) storyteller.
I have a million of them - Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Romance.
Ok, so Ada, Ine and Lizzie, those are all amazing and I want to see them as books! Now I'm sad they aren't. And thanks to Cheryl for ANOTHER book in my TBR. lol.
I actually wrote a kids' story once. (But I can't draw and am way too lazy to find an illustrator so it will stay in my hard drive forever.) It was about an anchor who can't sink and a seagull allergic to fish who were best friends. (The whole thing may have started as a joke while I was at a tattoo parlor with my friend and we were asking our artist if she's ever had to tattoo an anchor that says "I refuse to sink." And she of course had and groaned and rolled her eyes. Because that's what anchors do!) I jokingly said "The little anchor that couldn't" and ended up writing a whole story about it being okay to be different.
What I would also like to see is a prophecy involving someone older, like this tumblr post suggests:
https://66.media.tumblr.com/75bf25a54...
@Kristin haha wow coming up with a kids story in a tattoo parlor! thats not something Id thought Id read today.also grandmas doing stuff is the greatest! another of my head stories was about two best friend grandmas going on a road trip to their grandchildren. except the zombie apocalypse happened. (it was years ago tho, I forgot all the neat details I made up for it alas)
I'm not a lawyer, so I could never write something like this, but my dad had an idea (apparently there was a movie made in the 50s with a similar concept).Essentially, you have conjoined twins. They can't be separated without a high likelihood of death. They're at a bar and enjoying a beer. Local drunks harass them for their reality. Brother A breaks his beer bottle and stabs it into the head jerk's neck. He instantly dies. Brother B accuses his brother and immediately dials 911. He gives an honest assessment of what happened. How do you put them on trial? Either the guilty man gets to walk away from murder, or his innocent brother, who did everything right, must suffer prison.
It would be a great drama, but the legal expertise necessary means I could never write it. If anyone knows of a good book with this premise, I'd love to read it.
Phillip wrote: "I'm not a lawyer, so I could never write something like this, but my dad had an idea (apparently there was a movie made in the 50s with a similar concept).Essentially, you have conjoined twins. T..."
That would be a fascinating thought exercise even without the novel, you know?
I can't help but to wonder how a prosecuting attorney would look at something like this.
Mod
Essentially, you have co..."
There've been rumors of such happenings throughout history. Hard to say what's real or not but by and large the stories end with "and they got off!"
I read one thing once where the legal musing is that the court would look at it similar to how the system views pregnant women, which is to say that they balance the needs of the innocent with the sentencing.
Allison wrote: "Ha! Either way, you're right we need more stories about people older than 30!"Is 82 old enough for you? I just discovered Heroics by George Alec Effinger. I've not read it yet, but I will, as the ebook is free to borrow on openlibrary.org.
I used to think I'd be a writer, but as the years go by it's looking laughably unlikely. Could still happen, but it's not even on my radar right now, and I haven't written anything since college, which was about half my lifetime ago. While I like reading sci-fi and fantasy in equal measure, I couldn't ever really see myself writing them, especially fantasy. I don't have the energy to create entire worlds and systems. Also, I learned early on that I don't really like writing the type of stuff I want to read. I hate reading like a writer, and I'd be deathly afraid of accidentally plagiarizing something. So I always felt like there would be little overlap; whatever I might write would be rooted in the modern day. That's not to say there'd be no fantastic or sci-fi elements, but the world I started from would be our world. Something mysterious, but personal. They'd be small-scale stories.
Cheryl wrote: "So, I just found out about A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans... until Ada writes her story, I'll read this...."What? And here I was thinking I had such an original idea. ;)
*Goes off to add a new book to her TBR*
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Is 82 old enough for you? I just discovered Heroics by [author:George Alec Effinger|76..."
Ooo! Please tell us how it is if you get to it!
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Heroics (other topics)Heroics (other topics)
A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans (other topics)
Eragon (other topics)
The Dragonriders of Pern (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
George Alec Effinger (other topics)Ursula K. Le Guin (other topics)
Every time I read a really good book, either it's sci-fi or fantasy, I always start imagine how I would write the story, or if I watch a good TV-series, I sometimes imagine how that show would be in a book, how many details would it describe?
Anyhow, I think I'd write a book where I'd mix fantasy in sci-fi, where it's mainly a science story but with hints of interventions where the unexplained happens. And then explore the story from there. It probably be space related. One of my favorite books is Starship's Mage: Omnibus, and that basically incorporates everything, but it's more straight up mix, with no real mystery behind it.
Anyways, like I asked. What would your book entail? :)