/lit/ - Literature

Urban fantasy. Based in a metropolis, the occult apocalypse is happening. Demons and myths roam around, the major arcana of tarot are personified.

Story is told from the viewpoint of two people, a young husband and wife duo. Viewpoint switches back and forth between them, sometimes the same scene from different heads. At first they're focused on surviving and trying to live as normally as possible but eventually their attitudes change and they want to wreck shit.

>>4170295
Fedora tier.

Sorry, anon.

>>4170302
lol what does that even mean, in regards of fantasy books. I think ALL fantasy books are fedora-tier in that aspect

A grumpy old man likes to listen in on to other persons conversations in his apartment block. He learns one day that he's being followed by a young adult with an interest in espionage. They develop a close friendship which sometimes leads to arguments over the public's privacy.

>>4170306

There's also a neighbour who keeps a young girl locked up and either the old man or the kid discover soiled underwear which lead to one of them breaking into his house and discovering the girl locked up in chains with shit all over the walls. That moment right then and there is when they decide whether or not it's right to tell the public other people are listening in on their conversations.

>>4170306
I like it. It would be nice if they solved 'mundane mysteries' together. Like, if his neighbor is cheating on his wife etc., and they were really into it.

A 20-something, hyperinformed, arrogant and interminably stupid man is influenced by suggestions from the internet to break into and rob the home of a prominent banker, but unbeknownst to him he goes to the house of a civilian with the same name. Things escalate.

>>4170306
That's so 2000 and late.

Guy starts seeing things, like little patches of snow in the summer. Turns out he exists on two planes of existence at the same time.

Guy moves to a small town in the middle of nowhere to come to terms with the fact that his girlfriend was crazy, shot him, and then herself. He skirts alcoholism, doesn't acknowledge rising panic and hides from the relatives of his late-girlfriend, thinking they hate him (they don't).

A Guy finds a naked Lady- somewhere. Turns out she's a demon and a thief and is running away from some demon mafia, or whatever because she stole from them.
After Guy spontaneously convinces them not to murder her in his living room, she goes back to demon world and starts advertising that Guy is PI/problem solver.
Guy has no idea why demons are showing up and asking him to help them, and he doesn't figure it out until Lady comes back a few months later for "her cut of the profits"
Hijinks ensue.

I usually create characters but no story.

>>4170336
Would read.

>>4170317

How's the name Mr Slu(it should have an accent attached to the end) a name for my protagonist? It comes from the Russian word Slusat meaning to listen and the word sleuth.

>>4170289
a lonely but smart boy decides to bomb a bunch of people

Father in family invites a Hamas official into his house because he is polite and offers him coffee. Father rejects offer to join group. White phosphorous lands on his house and burns it down, killing his wife and child. Man joins Hamas and does some rad shit. Realizes the error of his ways and stops participating. Takes refuge in a family members house and resumes his job as a school teacher. His family member's house is bombed and only the child, his nephew, survives.

>>4170336
this pic disgusts me, but anal porn doesn't. weird.

Do not take advice from strangers, specially at such an early stage. Do not seek for acceptance, at least not just yet. As soon as you hear the other's opinion, you'll take it in consideration and your story will be less yours. Do not forget that you can't please everybody and that good ideas depend on their execution.

>>4170397
it's probably because of the creepy little winged babies

Coming-of-age tale of a kid in his early twenties who starts a life in the criminal underworld. Enters the drug industry under the guidance/friendship of a sadistic Russian-American career criminal (a typical villain, yet cast in a supporting role). Becomes successful in the manufacture and distribution of narcotics in Los Angeles.

Most of the story is about the relationship between him, his mentor (power-hungry and riddled with a bad case of God Complex), and a girl he falls in love with (the only character with a positive moral alignment in the ENTIRE fucking story).

Preexisting mental conditions cause the protagonist's state-of-mind to digress into schizophrenia as the story progresses and the stress rises. A con goes wrong, him, mentor and girl all become hunted. They all run away, girl becomes waifu, then dies, then he finally snaps and goes nuts, dies (in first person perspective). Mentor somehow lives to see another day.

>>4170454
Also, much of the story is focused on modern life in America, a dissection of the current generation and the American dream. And it's also about balance; good/evil (girl and mentor), love/hate, altruism/selfishness, and it spends a great deal of time balancing the art of trying to find oneself (hence "coming of age) and not just surviving under the weight of capitalism, while simultaneously finding the weight of morality and mortality.

>>4170289
Low Fantasy, close to fairy tale. A merchant arrives home from distant shores to find the woman he wanted to sell his stuff (silk 'n other such stuff), the Seamstress murdered. Every one of his close friends claims to know exactly how it happened, but each of them blames a different person for the murder. Through the narrations of the merchant's friends the life of the Seamstress and how she managed to get on so many people's bad side is shown and it turns out that she would've been killed sooner or later anyway.

>>4170318
Sounds like a potential episode to a TZ episode.

>>4170385
Could be an interesting character study.

>>4170454
>>4170496
A lot of big ideas with what seems to be a potentially unsatisfying ending.

>>4170502
Kind of funny.

>>4170528
yeah, he feels pretty bummed because he can't sell his stuff for her fine shekels anymore

>>4170407
Or maybe because angel babies are spreading that woman's ass cheeks while blowing bubbles

A man in his early thirties lives a dull life of work and leisure after removing himself from his ruined family. Every so often, however, he faces nightmares where he is trapped within a dilapidated apartment complex, running away from a strange being that he calls "The Spider."
One day, a ghastly young girl (think Sadako) appears from beneath his bed with the intent to fix his life, proclaiming herself to be "a spider."

>>4170306
didn't you post a few extracts of your writing? it was pretty good iirc. good idea too, although you should make the modern-day privacy NSA theme a little subtler to allow your message sink in more.

>>4170385
i fucking love this idea. get off your ass and make it happen.

>>4170543
2obvious4me

>>4170545

Disenchanted college student feels that there is a more genuine and fascinating world out of reach to him, that he and most all other people are only scratching at the surface of life. MC is determined to break through to this ephemeral "underworld" and enrolls in a study abroad program in Europe and boards his flight with a stomach and colon full of condom-packaged illegal drugs. Never shows up to the university and instead after a week of aimless traveling buys a car to participate in the annual Mongol Rally and ends up murdering a diplomat in central Asian brothel. M.C. is not immediately apprehended for the crime but travelers through the region are now more closely scrutinized an and the glow of military skirmishes can be seen at night on the steppe horizon. MC has caused a low level international incident but he himself is not fully aware of its magnitude.

Disenchanted college student feels that there is a more genuine and fascinating world out of reach to him, that he and most all other people are only scratching at the surface of life. MC is determined to break through to this ephemeral "underworld" and enrolls in a study abroad program in Europe and boards his flight with a stomach and colon full of condom-packaged illegal drugs. Never shows up to the university and instead after a week of aimless traveling buys a car to participate in the annual Mongol Rally and ends up murdering a diplomat in central Asian brothel. M.C. is not immediately apprehended for the crime but travelers through the region are now more closely scrutinized an and the glow of military skirmishes can be seen at night on the steppe horizon. MC has caused a low level international incident but he himself is not fully aware of its magnitude.

>>4170646
me likey

>>4170543
In japanese factories there is a position called the "Water Spider" who's job it is to see that all the tools and materials needed for a job to be done are provided and prepared.

>>4170533
the woman is farting, her ass is blowing bubbles not the cherubs, the depiction of a woman farting is he most unsettling thing

>>4170714
Neat. Thanks for that.

>>4170356
which one?

About 50 years in the future, a scientist is sent on a five-year mission to live alone on Titan at an automated base (hydroponic gardens, water recyclers, etc.) as part of a mission to explore possible colonization sites. Several months after he lands, the Earth is destroyed in nuclear war and he is forced to live out the rest of his days in the base, unable to kill himself, knowing he is the last person he will ever be with. He struggles with extreme isolation, depression, and begins a slow descent into madness.

>>4170786
3edgy5me

>>4170544

Yeah I did, I was pretty glad it was received so well, i'm still working on it though just need to plot it out and re-edit some sections. Should be around 200 or so pages when i'm done. That's the goal. I will try and make the whole NSA thing a lot more subtler though.

>>4170792
Okay.

>>4170786
the space station stuff is good, but nuclear war and being the last human is played out, space loneliness is pretty played out too (and since when are there ever solo missions?)

An acid-vomiting alien attacks a bar - most die, survivors are forced to lock themselves in the cellar. Protagonist's daughter killed in the attack, soon enough someone gets murdered and group starts go to psychopathic.

Fantasy setting. A number of events that crosses themselves.
1 - An ex-mercenary is demanded by the Empire to deliver a "package" which turns out to be an last of hybrid kind who can make magic. In their journey they come across a number of characters and events that change's their life and personality.
2- Along with that setting, an fabled commander of the army is upset with the latest decisions of the king and creates an rebellion group to support his cause and take down the king.
3- a samurai-like man goes on pilgrimage to find his destiny, which, again crosses the other two storys. I have thought trough many of the characters and events of the story, but I've been having problems developing, it. Any ideas?

>>4170827
so a shittier version of the movie Mist?

>>4170830
Oh, and sorry for my grammar. English isn't my native language.

>>4170830
why are they using an ex-mercenary for a delicate mission, is it like lord of the rings where a small part is necessary?
finding your destiny is one of the worst reasons for a journey being that it is the least creative reason possible

>>4170837
>being that

>>4170830
not to discourage you, but if this goes wrong, it's gonna go wrong hard. You read "Dardamen"? That's what this idea can become if you're not absolutely based at story-telling, pacing and characterisation.

>>4170837
The ex-mercenary has a lot of background. Let me explain. When he was a kid, the country was at war, and he was recruited to serve the army, in which he developed himself and served upon a elite team during the war. After the war, he didn't have a purpose or a job to go on with his life, so he and his buddies created a mercenary group, which turned out to be one of the best in the country. To shorten it, something went wrong and he was betrayed and put into prison. His only chance of being free was to deliver the "package".

The pilgramage guy is kind of an obligation he has with is people. Everyone in his "tribe" has to do this. It's like a tradition.

>>4170854
is this your first novel?

>>4170861
Yep, but it's just an idea. I wish I can accomplish it in the future.

>>4170402
Fuck you sometimes people need the reality check of another opinion.

Speaking of which, I presented the idea a long long time ago and got a little encouragement of it, since then I've been writing and developing it. Hopefully it doesn't suck.

Without spoiling too much it's mainly a mystery/crime novel about a young man whom returns to his home town from a self-imposed exile to avenge his murdered sister by bringing the killer to justice. The big hook is a slight supernatural element: the killer is actually disguised using a set of Groucho Marx glasses, and the only way to see through the disguise is with another mail-order item called X-Ray Specs. The book is about escapism, comedy (the book is very serious and makes a big point about how modern comedy fails), identity, and a bankrupt popular culture. The male characters of the book associate personality with material things and exaggerate their accomplishments or hide from harsh realities. They're children playing with other people's lives and not growing up. The toys are going to be heavily downplayed, and I'm not going to explain the fact that the disguise works other than humanity's severe lack of perception.

I'm either titling it "Groucho", and that will be the only time I actually acknowledge the Groucho likeness (the killer isn't going to be very present, or at least the mystical quality of the disguise), or the famous tagline used to sell the toy "The Funniest Disguise You'll Ever Wear"

>>4170863
Your ideas will get better

>>4170867
>the book is about XY

never ever say anything like that before it's even finished and peer-reviewed

>>4170871
Well those are what I'm going with. That's what I'm wanting to talk about. To others it might not be, but my opinion still counts, literary criticism aside.

>>4170878
it would still be wiser to first introduce your finished story and then let your readers decide what it's themes are. If you've handled it well enough, they'll know. But not even giving us basic plot markers and an "it discusses the ambivalent transcendence of life and art in a modern urban context" (or something like that), is not gud.

>>4170289
I was thinking of something along the lines of modern times, but not obviously so. I am interested in how the news and specifically 24 hour news conditions people to look for the differences or specific moments in life rather than the trends. I want to balance the story with the protagonist's childhood experience of going to the circus, and how it changed the way he saw the world.

"The Big Bukowski": A modern-day retelling of The Big Lebowsky, where every character is a nihilist.

>>4170854
what is the hook of your story that would make a person want to read it, how does it differ from all the other fantasy novels?

>>4170899
all characters are women, portrayed as life-like, dynamic persons. Not him, but it'd be hella cool

>>4170898
best in thread (but absolute shit compared to the original)

>>4170889
Ok, I'll give you the plot.
>Opens with the young man, named Barry Batson (named after Billy Batson of Captain Marvel fame), returning to his home town after receiving a letter of distress from his sister
>turns out, she's been dead for the past few weeks and nobody is looking for the killer
>the sheriff wants him out of town and constantly confronts him: Barry used to be a boxer and accidentally killed one of the up and coming kids during a match, he hasn't been welcome in town since then.
>his ex hates him too, as he is trying to find a friend to help him as he's searching for answers, she is slurring his name around town again
>The one man helping him is his sister's boyfriend: Julius. Julius is an eccentric balding mustached man with thick glasses. He gathers clues of her final days because apparently she had a stalker in her final days.
>The reason the letter was sent was because she was frightened of the stalker
>Barry eventually discovers the stalker was an old black man that has been squatting in a house nearby the family home. He breaks into the old man's house at night to interrogate him/capture him when the old man dies of a heart attack

>>4170911
7.5/10, would read

>>4170899
I was trying to interest the reader's in the characters personalities and dilemmas. They would change based on some things they would experience, and It would go on. Also, I was thinking to add some different races and myths to the story. The second story(the commander and the king) would have some historical influences, such as the french revolution, but with plot twists. I haven't really thought through the story progress, mainly the characters. But thank you.

Short story. Starts with "I don't really believe in god, but he's definitely looking out for me." It's about a coke head who gets kicked out of harvard law school, and then becomes a preacher because Christians are the only people gullible enough to believe that he'd turns his life around. Becomes the biggest televangelist in the US by telling people God will make them rich if they follow and believe in him (essentially, Joel Osteen).

Does drugs and gets bitches on the sly, accidentally kills a hooker. Tabloid journalist finds out, blackmails the protagonist. Ends with journalist yelling to the protagonist from far away, that the preacher is fucked and is going down.

Journalist walks backwards into the street while yelling. Car comes out of fucking nowhere and kills him. Deus Ex Machina, story ends with the first line being uttered aloud by the protagonist.

A fleet of earths ships is on its way to join up with the rest of the galaxies fleet in defence of the realm.

Was more a dream I had, never thought about writing anything but it seemed so fleshed out at the time. Now, thats all I have left of it

>>4170924
>muh characters
>doesn't think about the plot

Planning: Plot outline first, EVERYTHING ELSE second.

>>4170911
>On the old man's person, he discovers a used worn pair of X-Ray glasses. In the house, the young man discovers a video tape.
>The video tape is a confessional: the old man describes a story where he had purchased the glasses as a kid and one day put them on for fun when he was an older man and discovered they actually worked in a way: he could see through any disguise
>He would work as a silent guardian, checking passports and seeing through fake identities and protecting citizens until he discovers a man literally wearing a pair of Groucho Marx glasses. The man wears them constantly, and nobody has been able to see through it or catch him.
> The disguise works, the man murdered over twelve women in chicago. Before the guy was able to catch him the killer ran away. He has been trying to track him and protect the new victims for fifteen years.
>He has tracked this killer to Cossman and the new victim to be Barbara Batson (Barry's sister), but fears the killer is on to him
>Barry realizes the old man is a good guy, and proceeds to try to discover this wolf in sheep's clothing
>Eventually he gives up, until he comes across Julius again.
>Julius is the killer
>At this point, Barry is kicked out of town by the sheriff out of (false) suspicion.
>Barry leaves, hoping the town's women fall under prey of Julius and they never catch him
>Until he's stopped on his way out, apparently his ex has been missing for a day or two

Hope the thread isnt dead.
Semi-dystopian setting. In not so distant future Mark, a young journalist is living in Polis, a huge and well developed city state, governed by City council. The city is a clash of seemingly free and capitalist life and very big totalitarian goverment. One day Maris acdentally kidnapped by a group of hitmen that agreed to perform ''interrogation'' instead of a hit. They decide he can be useful, and slowly accept him into the group. Those hitmen do it all for the joy( of task, not killing)The are hired mostly by city council(and other gov branches) to kill off competitors in the world of neverending paranoia inside goveent stctures of Polis. All guns are banned. They are of course obtainable, but anyone using one is labelled a terrorist and quickly eliminated by special forces of some kind. Through his ''adventure'' with the tmen Mark learns how the Polis really is. Later they are targeted by actual terrorists. Many things spark (lightweight) political discussions.
I can eborate if there are any questions ( cut off some details

A young firefighter is extremely traumatized after his first emergency call at an apartment building. He hears a cry from one of the rooms and sees a kid pinned and burning alive, instead of attempting to save him he freezes in fear, and passes out due to the smoke. After waking up and discovering the kid dies, he spirals into depression. Skip a year and the protag is in a bar, still drowning in his sorrows, there he meets a woman who changes his life for the better. After a few dates he's convinced she's the one to finally give him peace of mind until he goes to her house for the first time. As soon as he enters he sees a huge portrait surrounded by candles and crosses. She was the dead kids mother.

My idea is to just rip off Tao Lin forever, and not viral market on le 4chinz. Might be neat, imo

>inb4 'go to bed tao'

>>4170936
>Barry realizes he has to save her, even if nobody wants him to
>He drives to Julius's house, the sheriff quietly tailing him.
>He breaks in and there is a final confrontation.Julius (not wearing the disguise and perfectly clean shaven) becomes a silent madman as he tries to kill Barry. The sheriff comes to save the day and stop Julius. Barry saves his ex.
>Julius dies. Sheriff tells him to get out, but thank you for the help
>The ex quietly forgives him
>Barry asks to look around the house for anything of Barbara's.
>He doesn't find anything nor was he intending to, he finds the groucho marx glasses
>he puts them in his pocket and walks out

>Now, with the sun setting, he puts both the x-ray specs and the groucho glasses on the dashboard. He drives away, leaving the town forever but the audience is unsure of his fate.

>>4170931
I see. I thought about the characters first because I wanted the plot to be around them, but I will start defining the outlines of the plot. thanks.

>>4170940
Keep everything associated with the first two sentences. Drop everything else. Figure out another path the plot could take.

>>4170926

would read/10

Is it a comedy? I love me some funny Deus Ex Machina.

>>4170926
Would read to. Very nice plot.

A robotic detective follows a string of murders believed to be caused by a renegade android in a time when human/robotic relations are just beginning to form. With the body count rising it's up to the detective to solve the case before things escalate.

A 19th century patent officer finds a sinister plot concerning the creation of an alchemy machine resting under the street of London. The machine turns vast quantities of iron into gold, dirt into diamond, but the Enigmatic inventor may have other ploys for the device, introducing a 'human' element to the ingredients.

A sarcastic coming of age novel based in an stereotypical amalgamation of America in the 50's 60's and present day, where a young teenager reads several karl Marx books out of interest. He is then labeled a communist by his friends and family, and he slowly becomes a part of, or is immersed in various other counter-cultures for which the stereotypes are played straight.

ideally comments on the hilarity of bipartisanship as well as to show the intellectual immaturity of todays society. I know it sounds a bit heavy handed but hey.

After completing a successful expedition to Pluto, the inhabitants of a space rocket return to find Earth gone with no hint as to what has happened. With only two days of oxygen remaining the book follows each crewmember to the end of their own personal story. You never find out what happened to Earth.

>>4170646
Does it end with a condom bursting and the MC's death?

>>4171023

Not where I was intending to go with it but certainly an interesting thing for MC to start to believing.

>>4170967
Thanks dude. And yeah, totally a comedy. Comedy/satire/farce, and a total lampoon of televangelists (also, the most appropriate setting for DexM). I'm mostly done with a short story that I'm planning on fleshing way out. If it gets too hefty, may turn into a novella.

>>4171015

awful.

>>4171000

gay.

>>4170992

stopped reading at robot detective.

>>4170940

but who was phone?

>>4170939

Wishful thinking.

>>4170926

God looks out for sinful and lying hedonists yes.

My working story (already copyrighted) depicts the work relation, the events, discoveries and further
decisions made by a laureate old-timer traumatologist and his academic pupil, a young medical detective,
whom are summoned undercover by a very small & specialized group of people who desperately need
their renowned skills in the scientific world.

Our main duo is clearly informed of the situation: this small group (8 people to be exact, all
known medics, biologists and epidemiologists) speaks in behalf of an emergency intelligence
committee created by the cooperation of 2 international intelligence agencies and the W.H.O.
who have detected an small spread of an unknown disease, never before seen by mankind
(no zombies this time, folks. I swear).

Due to the high level of secrecy this committee wants regarding the operation, an asian
Interpol agent is assigned to them so only him can receive all discoveries, inquiries, needs
and briefings of the two scientists and deliver these directly to the other 8 specialists.
No one else knows of this operation but the contractors, our protagonists and the cop.


After 4 long months of hard work, and never been able to see a person who is actually sick with this
"disease", even when direct requests were made to their co-workers and the W.H.O., a programmed video
conference between the Interpol cop and our protagonists turns to be a highly disturbing event. By order of
the emergency committee, a second contact is assigned to hear and inform their findings: a French priest.
Due to the strong anti-theological mentality of our oldest protagonist, he persuades his co-worker to begin
a secret investigation in their own hands, using their own resources and colleagues of trust, for he
suspects that someone is trying to hold back their work.

The last subject of matter in the conference was a highly strange change of events to our duo.
They were informed that a women with the disease has been discovered in a locked up hospital (committees orders)
near Nimes, France. They were ordered to go there and study first hand the condition in the women.
When the young medical detective asks who came up with the idea to make an appointment to meet an actual patient,
the cop informs that, somehow, the girl herself asked to meet them directly, calling them by their full names and even
stating the day and time of the meeting.

>>4170930
That'd make a pretty good film actually. Would watch

The novel is set in a world where a massive world war threw everyone back to medieval technology. There are still remnants of the old world in the form of highly advanced technology all of which is seen as magic by the people.
After her city is ransacked by a marauding warlord a young girl escapes with a nuclear powered golem, in the hopes of finding one of the last great cities of man. Along the way she will meet pirates, ancient cities destroyed by nuclear war and a man who claims to be god.

>>4171095

gay.

>>4171077
Insightful.

>>4171107
Sounds like absolute shit, but if some well could make a lively and colorful young adult novel.

>>4171107
Yeah coz thats realistic. Why do people think the rest of the world would suddenly become retarded and forget everything within a generation?

>>4171077

Pffft, shut up faggot.

A huge earthquake has taken place and our protagonist is on the top level of a city office building being fired by the boss. His boss is killed by debris and he has to make it to the bottom of the collapsing building before the next big tremor hits and the building is completely demolished. We follow his psychological mindset as he journeys to safety knowing full well that he could die at any second. We see him looking through his past, judging his life through a veil of morality. questioning beliefs, afterlife, heaven and the possibility of hell. Of course the latter points are minor entities and won’t distract from the main plot.

Protagonist

George-

cynic misanthrope deals with life using humour. Deep down he has a good heart. Like House. We see him gaining some sort of salvation from the experience as he comes across people terribly injured and dying. Hearing people’s last words and having to deal with these completely real human experiences that previously he had been blocking out from his world, he’d isolated himself from that. They now have him questioning his own reason’s for existing and why he see’s the world the way he does.

At one point George comes across a colleague of his, whom he’d always liked. He was a sort of coffee bagel boy whom did all the filing and fetching. George, usually a grump, never hid his likeness for the kid and was constantly praising him for his sugar:coffee ratio. So this colleague of his is lying there covered in concrete and basically cut through completely at the mid-riff. He begins screaming with such fear at George, crying for help. Howling with agony. All george can do is stand there frozen in fear, staring at the young man. He is locked in a thought. All he can do is think about how he used to see this kid as a shit stain on his windscreen. A weak little nat that loves to be put under people because he lacked any confidence to get over himself. He used to despise the image he held of this nat and now he isn’t the same nat lying before him. This was a different creature altogether, this was a man that so little lived his life that the thought of it ending now caused this horrific construed beast to emerge to fight for his very soul.

>>4171102
>Turning my book into a film

Talk about damning with feint praise

>>4171116
Because it happened in the dark ages...

>>4171077
It's all in the execution. The Metamorphosis sounds like shit on paper. "insurance salesman turns into a bug. Eats some shit, doesn't eat other shit. Dies".

>>4171123

wut?

>>4171125
Not really. It was still there, but most people just couldn't read it. And also there wasn't much incentive, it was left to academics who had the time. There is literally no lack of incentive to become a low-risk, primarily sedentary society whose only problems are being slightly less prosperous or you know, disagreeing with each other.

>>4171131
Sure some of the information would remain, but imagine major cities destroyed, internet gone, a lot of people dead and gone. A lot of knowledge would be lost.

>>4171015
Not bad at all.
Though you are making high expectations on your character's fates with that kind of ending.
I would read that.

>>4171125
>
Implying there was a dark ages. Read some history

>>4171149
You referring to the myth that Charlemagne was invented?

>>4170926
Readable.
Execution and narrative techniques must be at an all time high in this story.

A first person protagonist sits at home wasting time on the internet, reading, listening to music, eating, and generally just lazing around. He has a flawed, rounded, dynamic, and much more interesting roommate who the reader only sees briefly. People come in and out of the apartment -- his parents and his parents' friends and his roommate's friends and his roommate's girlfriends and his roommate's parents and an AT&T worker -- and he has little interaction with them. The narration is mostly deflective and any introspection is either comically incorrect or jarringly self-aware. I'll include some poems and an epigraph, as well as a few lelsopostmodern meta-textual deconstructions. It'll have some (hopefully not too hamfisted) sustained allusions to Waiting for Godot.

>>4171077

>>4171161
Give it a resolution for it to be complete.
Like try and make the story, in all its entirety, defined into one sentence.

>>4171152
Okay. Give me some tips. What would you recommend for making this story great?

>>4171161
if it has a resolution or some kind of message then i would love this.

>>4171149
Done. See what happened after the fall of Rome?

>>4171175
I can make a graph too. I'm just curious how they accurately define something intangible like "social development".

>>4171175
What the fuck is that. 100 Social development? 1000 social developments? What kind of psuedoshit are you spouting out there in candyland?

I'm just finishing up the first scene of a play I'm working on. It's pretty silly. Based on the Flannan Isle thing. It'll get more serious as the play goes on.

http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=g4a35a4191405feec9993889830f34f09d65afc988

Halfway through a current novel which is the first in a series I have planned out- hopefully I get that far.

Overall, it's high fantasy, and the connecting factor between every novel is a war occurring (how original right? deal with it). The war is started over a dictator wanting to exile anyone with magical abilities from his land because they cause too much trouble (read: not kill, reimburse for any lost property, he just wants them the fuck out). This snowballs into a war and every book (currently four majorly outlined) is a different protagonist with a different viewpoint and ideals on that war who is changed in some way because of it.

Armageddon, the Apocalypse, Ragnarok. No matter what you call it, it came and then went. War ravaged the planet and a global plague is affecting 1 in 3 of the population. On top of this a shady government has risen to the top and united the world under one totalitarian government.
After hearing the ridiculous rumours floating through the people of the world, a group of friends set out to create a newspaper of hard facts to enlighten the population, and in doing so cause revolution to come around.

A suicidally depressed high school kid receives an otherworldly message on his laptop one night that compels him to tinker and make various incomprehensible add ons to it.
The more he tinkers, the frequency of the messages increase and his depression lifts.
Then the murders start, and as hard as he tries he can't recall a time in his life before he received the first message.

>>4171198
Sounded like serial experiments lain for a second.

>>4171175

>>4171197

C-

apply yourself !

>>4171204
Top lel, you're everything that's right with 4chan

>>4171214
This is a critique thread not a grading.

>>4171175
>Still doesn't get it.
So instead of actually reading history, you've posted some nonsense psuedo shit, which just confirms your ignorance? Stay strong homeslice

>>4171193
I like it, though mainly because I want to do a comic where Supers are hated in a similar way.

A missile becomes self-aware after being launched to attack a target unknown to itself. The book is an account of it's hour long life before it inevitably crashes into the unknown target and dies.

A city worships a goddess of bounty, who only physically exists outside her keep as caricatured statues, to the point where she hardly even looks human. After a faithful managed to sneak a look at the real her, he ran away raving that she has been locked in a cage by the government. Two princes arrive later to ask for sanctuary and martial support against a rebellion, and one brother's dreams of being a chivalrous hero gets the better of him.

A guy wakes up on a deserted island with no memory of how he got there.
He realises very soon that there are monstrous creatures on the island
unlike any he has ever seen before. He hunts to survive and starts to
realize that theres something unusual with this body. He is able to control
every function of his body, even those usually controlled subconsciously,
automatically by the brain. He is able to regulate his adrenaline and
testosterone production just by thinking it. He can control the rate of his
heartbeat and can achieve inhuman reflexes. He can control his protein
distribution and can efficiently build muscles. He becomes the superior
predator on the island. Memory starts coming back. He was a successful
experiment to create a superhuman warrior in a war against aliens.
The war was lost, earth annihilated and he wound up on an island on
a planet with no intelligent life, only monster-like predators.
He has lost his race and he has become a monster. Just by thinking it
he consciously raises his heartbeat rate to an extreme point where his
heart implodes and he dies.

Sorry if I spoiled a potentionally good twist to the story but it'd be
very plain and boring knowing only the first part.

Short story compilation with dramatic conjectures and some noir, gore and dark tones thrown in there.

The story follows 6 distinctive, very slightly connected chapters about a malevolent curse and how it is bestowed upon 6 different people.

The curse consists on a partial conscience inside the affected that enhances their perception and reflexes. It instructs the cursed subject by creating mental suggestions, consisting in an self-induced obligation to kill a random number of people (varies with each of the 6 characters) within 5 days.
If the number is reached or surpassed, the curse leaves the body.
If its not, the cursed dies instantly at the exact finishing mark of the 5th day. When another person touches the corpse, the weakest and less dense parts of the dead body explode in a vaporous blood mist that soon perishes with the normal air flow, thus appearing a different recipient.


The 6 chapters deal with the actions of the different characters, how this curse changed their current lives and how they give resolution to this thing: either doing as it says or letting it pass.
The death of one character curses the protagonist of the next chapter.

On the surface, Thomas seems to be your average kindly bookstore owner, currently enjoying his near-retirement years in relative comfort.
Everything seems to be going his way, and why shouldn't it? For in truth, he is retired, the solitary life he's built around him being thus by his own design. For the late 20th century London he inhabits is but a pocket universe of his own creation, a patch of time and space he bought and had tailored so he could live out his chosen twilight years on his own terms, death by mortality being his choice.
But then he notices... flicker of shadows in the corner of his eye, the increase of oxygen in the air.. he recognizes the signs. Because Thomas used to be an Endgineer: A director of doomsdays to countless custom tailored worlds, destroyed either due to client disinterest, entertainment, or to make room for new ones in a finite and delicate multiverse.
But now, a stranger has entered his uninvited; Someone that is trying to end him and his subjects-by-design without drawing attention to themselves.
The rest of the story would deal with Thomas and the young female clerk he had working for him escaping, jumping between custom tailored realities in search of answers, a quest that might lead towards having to save (or abandon) reality prime itself.

Science fiction plot where stuff happens that needs to be solved. Mainly just filler.

A pretentious 19 year old decides he is a communist after lazily flicking through a copy of Das Kapital.

The story follows the teenager as he creates 'The Young Revolutionary Front' a club in his university that consists entirely of pseudo intellectuals who sit around and act superior to outsiders. When not in the club, he spends his days skipping his courses and hanging around the industrial district, attempting to convince the workers to go on a general strike and "begin the overthrowment of the boo-ger-swar."

I haven't really decided on an ending yet, my current ideas for the conclusion is that he inadvertently initiates the revolution by accidentally running over a street cleaner, or that he gets manipulated by an particularly cunning factory worker and ends up getting mugged.

>>4171317
see "The Trotsky"

a story that is based on the bukowski quote:
"you begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics."

person successfully brings objective peace and success to every individual in the world, one person at a time. he has saved the world, but he's still unhappy. he realizes that because he is unhappy and still exists, he has not saved the world. the saver attempts suicide but has a vague, possibly-hallucinatory experience following the suicide attempt. the saver is in a nondescript location that contains the world's entire population. he says some things to everyone. then he kills everyone. he feels much better. in this moment, he recognizes, that, since he's the only person left, and he feels better, he has technically succeeded at saving the world.

>>4171317
the ending should set the reader up for the expectation that he WILL end up initiating the revolution in a perfectly effective way, except he drowns before the inevitably perfect plan is executed and all water all across the world is deemed dangerous and eradicated. then the whole world dies.

>mfw /lit/ thinks their basic story ideas are protected by copyright

>>4171336
Edgy edgy edgy.

>>4170898

>>4171350

It's just an idea. You still have to write the 400,000 words to make it a novel.

>>4171350
MFW nobody actually gives a fuck. Get off /lit/ and go back to /b/.

>>4171355
Or condense it down to a short story/novella.

>>4171357
Calm down I was just making a point.

A few short stories based on real events of a man who is now a prominent Serbian diplomat.

1. SJ invented a great way to utilize a local crop as an energy source and then caused a shitstorm with a local authority figure when his ego got too big. Ends up getting kicked out of his apartment and living on my father's floor.

2. Various attempts at flipping goods over the Italian border (jeans were a commodity). One in which he got his friend deported home to the Congo.

3.The one I'm writing right now. SJ flees the country over minor charges after watching an American film where prisoners get raped. He stayed in France for almost 15 years.

For unexplained reasons, a young man suffering from amnesia is hospitalized in a bed, unable to move.

Every time he falls asleep, he moves through a cycle of 3 realities (e.g, he falls asleep in reality A and wakes up in reality B, he falls asleep in reality B and wakes up in reality C, etc.).

In each of the 3 realities he is told of a different reason why he is hospitalized, and in each world all things are different apart from 5 stable variables: His age and gender, his hospital room, the fact he is immobilized, and a hospital janitor with what appears to be 2 glass eyes.

It's a story about a dark and stormful night and on that night spoopy things happen to various people

a funeral home uses the same super ornate casket for every dead person they embalm and display for funerals (not sure yet why they'd do that but they do... i'll come up with an acceptable explanation at some point hopefully).

story is a chronological series of vignettes encapsulating each funeral. all begin with ultra detailed descriptions of the people in the casket. descriptions lead into brief life histories and snapshots of the guests in attendance. the casket is a sentimentally affecting part of every vignette. the casket becomes a protagonist.

every so often a vignette is vaguely unsettling. odd patterns emerge among vignettes. the reader begins to challenge the neutrality of the funeral home, the casket, the narrator, etc.

increasing suspicion from the reader reaches a climax. the last vignette is long as fuck. there are very minor but recognizable images conjured from every previous person's vignette. this last vignette turns out to be the story of the person who built the casket. despite the length of the vignette we don't get an intimate understanding of this person; instead, they're more like a collage of every previous person.

the reader realizes that this last person was probably actually in every previous vignette, albeit totally passively and in no way maliciously (last person really was in most of them, but not all of them; the reader will reread the book and will invent nonexistent connections to resolve the book more comfortably). the last person's life was an elaborate artistic endeavor that was known only to that person. the last person's funeral is the exhibition.

>>4171360
I am calm, I'm just curious as to what point you were trying to make. Because from where I stand, you're a 100% noncontributing cunt who's trying to be...edgy? Funny? I guess that's what you were going for, but unless it was tinfoil-hat retardation, you failed miserably.

TL;DR, I could shit, wipe my ass with my ballsac, and still seem vaguely more intelligent.

>>4171370
call the book "spoopy" and i will buy all ur copies

>>4170295
I love a good Urban fantasy tale, too bad they're few and far in between. What will set yours apart, and more importantly; Will it feature any magical realism (my favorite combo)?

>>4170336
Should combine all into one narrative, the twist being that they are all about the same guy, struggling with trying to keep his original identity as the shifts between realities become more and more frequent.

>>4171377
This

>>4171379
the real twist should be that it seems like youre setting the reader up for it to be about the same person except its really just 3 separate stories lol

A dark comedy about a young university drop out who, under the pretense of visiting his grandfather, sells drugs to a retirement homes inhabitants.

>>4171377
>>4171380
You can't both buy all my copies, but the other guy can buy the sequel "Spoopy: Creppy Chronicles"

>>4170385
Make the Father a professor of American History for the extra dramatic irony credit.

>>4170502
Low fantasy Rashomon? Love it.

An arrogant 21 year old twit moves out of his parents house and is constantly proven wrong about almost everything, and it turns out that this know it all, who spent his youth reading and browsing the Internet can't actually apply his knowledge in the real world.

idea for a short story I thought up the other night.

A man is planning to kill himself withdraws all the money from his bank account, around 10k. He wanders around listlessly, trying to find a stranger to give it to. Talks to a few candidates who don't pan out. Eventually settles on a homeless man, offers him the money. The homeless man asks why he is giving him the money and the man tells him that he plans to kill himself. The homeless man initially tries to talk him out of it, but the man reminds him that if he decides to live, he will need to keep the money. The homeless man must decide whether to continue and try to talk the man out of killing himself, or just take the money.

>>4171391
this has the potential to be hilarious

>>4171123
the metamorphosis sounds amazing on paper; turns into a bug, nobody notices, must be normal-ish for this world, and the family grow tired of supporting him and are disgusted by him and their tie is dissolved (immediately for the father and later for the sister who he was paying for her music degree), then the ending is the family saying it's about time for the daughter to marry which is hilarious, family ties are weak and very formal

>>4170940
Would be more interesting from the mothers perspective.
Loosing her child and after a period of immense grief she tries to cut all ties with her former life, even going so far to move away and change her own name. Only to have fate show the nightmare back in her face when she has a chance one night stand with the guilt ridden man "responsible for her daughter's death".
The final act could deal with one or both of them finally coming to terms with what happened.
Watch Three Colors: Blue in preparation if you decide to take my advice. Watch it anyway if you don't.

>>4171374
Lel why so touchy son? The point is that people like >>4171095 who think that they can protect ideas (an unfinished idea in this case, which he insists is copyrighted) have another thing coming. If I wanted to steal every story in this thread and write my own versions to make money off of I most assuredly could. It's just something to keep in mind if you're thinking about posting your groundbreaking idea thinking it's protected. One day you might publish it for real only to find people drawing comparisons to older already written works because of some stupid post you made of 4chan.

>>4171197
Has potential, especially if you go into detail on how they establish the underground printing press, how it is eventually brought to the mainstream and the ways it manages to survive in face of totalitarian opposition and censorship, and what happens after the revolution is over when the victors become the new establishment.
Could be a post apocalyptic Citizen Kane if played right.

>>4171259
Should be a mock children's book, complete with "naive" drawings and Seuss like rhyme.

A western novel (or even a space western) constructed entirely on tropes and cliches. Played straight and played for lels.

Too many abortions on the planet clogs up the constant stream of life going into the world, ultimately clogging the spiritual wellspring and causing it to go sour. Those of faith had no idea what kind of creator they were serving. They were right - He does exist, but He is like nothing we would have thought.

The world is a wasteland of excess life, the clogged well of existence finally spewing itself out into the physical plane. God wakes and "blesses" His children with hideous new shapes. Organic cathedrals stalk the scabbed-over ruins of cities, their lashed-together bone-tongues skewering the few humans left and pulling them into their form, adding more innards to their system.

The story takes place deep below the earth, following a protagonist who has escaped a pocket of resistance that was overtaken by the monsters aboveground. He has been injected with the blood of an angel, causing him to mutate and experience terrible psychosis.

Finally, he comes across an underground village, where he makes a living by becoming a looter, forced to go aboveground in search of supplies to ensure the survival of the people who have accepted him.

>>4171120
the first sentence was a great hook, but you lost me with the judges his past/ morality shit

>>4171175
/pol/, fuck off to your home dimension

>>4171544
>Abortions cause the apocalypse

The Westboro Baptist Church will love it to death.

>>4171077
Would you fuck off?

>>4171175

>>4170543
Too similar to the game Catherine on Xbox

>>4172496
lol

>>4171544
> Organic cathedrals stalk the scabbed-over ruins of cities, their lashed-together bone-tongues skewering the few humans left and pulling them into their form, adding more innards to their system.

Shit, it's like Gieger had a lovechild with Lovecraft

Dystopian story set in contemporary times. A disgruntled employee falls in love with a young nihilist woman who says they can't kiss because that will cause them to become attached. The young man becomes disillusioned with a 'brave new world' society without love and falls in with a bad crowd, a group of 'old school' anarchists who are planning on bombing a prominent bourgeois cafe in the city. An eccentric and nostalgic police investigator is hot on the trail to catch these terrorists. He is fascinated by 19th century anarchist history was philosophically inspired by Rousseau's concept of the general will to become a police officer. He developed a love of law and order after becoming disillusioned with the occupy wallstreet movement, and is willing to defend the status quo even if it means the super wealthy continue to exploit the poor.

The terrorist plot will be foiled after a different bombing happens in Boston by a different terrorist group that 'steals the show', which eliminates the possibility the anarchist's message will be understood. The young man discovers laughter and loses his ability to take 'brave new world' seriously. The Mayor of his city, who is later impeached for sexual misconduct, gives the young man advice about being more assertive with women.

>fantasy

Two men in love with the same woman, who, twistedly enough, loves them both back, wage war against one another after she dies with each believing the other responsible for her death. Over the course of the story the bodies pile up as each man raises armies and razes kingdoms in an effort to gain the upperhand when they are evenly matched in every aspect of their lives. After everything they go through it comes down to single combat where they kill each other simultaneously.

It's a modern tragedy in which reckless love threatens to tear apart the fantasyland after thousand-year-old treaties are broken by two selfish men who cannot be bargained with and, seemingly, cannot be beaten.

>>4172616
I'm just kidding. I came up with that on the spot and have no intention of writing it.

Cold steel chilled his bones. This was it. Levi held the weapon to his own forehead. The army trained grip on the pistol was replaced with trembling weakness as he looked down the barrel. The trigger slightly bumped up and down as his sweaty thumb slide on the smooth metal. Ali was his name; he had a mother, a father, two sisters and a Kalashkinov AK47. The soldier in him held no heisitation in shooting down the the boy who was young enough to be his own son. That was 5 years ago today, now heisitation was the only thing keeping him alive. A long owed debt had to be paid, Levi felt the boy him to the next world. “Not like this…” an unknown consciousness whispered. He threw the gun at the wall and walked out the door. Levi groaned as he tore the insignia off that he had put so much faith in. The debt would be paid… but not like this.

A sci-fi based short story where a civil war is occurring in the Sol system. The Sol federation has control of the rebellion so not many people care. It is a Journal- based story from the perspective of a young Assistant Flight Controller on a frigate

In the future, the earth has only a few years left before a cataclysmic event sky-rockets C02 levels, making the world unlivable. In this final moment, a robot from space lands somewhere in Tunisia. Shortly after arriving, he announces to the people of Earth that he'll save their planet if they 1) help him repair his ship, and 2) let him take along one human specimen, so as to convince his creators that the planet is worth saving.

The worlds' governments set aside their differences and start a new space-program, the first of its kind in decades. They say it'll take them one year to fix the ship. They choose a man, below-average in everything, as the perfect, disposable representative of human-kind. The world follows the man's progress as he trains with the robot to become space-ready. He becomes a celebrity.

One day, the pressure of being the most popular person on the planet gets to the man and he goes AWOL. His cult of personality scours the world to find him, chasing after rare sightings in different countries. Somehow though he always escapes them. Just when the year's time line is almost up, he returns. They world holds a great party and he sets off in the rocket ship.

The man travels through space, playing games with the robot, carrying out space experiments, and chatting with his family back home. Several weeks later they arrive at their destination. They land and when they open the space doors there is nothing but rock. The robot shoots the man in the back. The robot shoots himself in the head.

>>4172801
lel

>>4171355
Honestly, if somebody can take my idea and make a better story for it than I, then I want them to.

Why are these all so fucking bad?

An internet troll catfishes a guy into thinking he's a girl, but the guy he catfishes turns out to be a really cool person, so just as he's about to end it all, the pretty cool guy's father dies unexpectedly. The internet troll feels bad for doing it so he creates a second catfish to seduce the girl in the pictures who turns out to be really awesome herself, and he manages to get her to fall in love with the catfish persona, while he himself falls in love with her, and he ends up deeply conflicted about introducing them, but he does it anyway.

After the two victims of the catfish meet, they slowly come to the realization that someone else has introduced them, and they find the internet troll IRL and he tells them: "I WAS JUST TROLLING"

>>4171379
>Will it feature any magical realism (my favorite combo)?
Yeah, plenty of it. I love magical realism in urban fantasy too. I want some SERIOUS character depth/development in the story. It's going to be very morally ambiguous because the choices they're going to have to make aren't at all easy to make.

(any good recommendations for urban fantasy books?)

dystopian future where everyone has dicks instead of a nose.

>>4173504
Genius. Though of course this will make males irrelevant no?

>>4173470
Because it's the execution of an idea that counts, not the idea itself.

>>4171393
Hubert Selby Jr beat you too it.
>Waiting period
But I like how yours has a good moral question in it as opposed to just a bunch of senseless murder.

>>4173483
This is like the romance Novel 4chan has been waiting for.

>>4173483
4chan, the novel

Alright here we go

>Future setting, maybe 2200 or so
>Society divided into two classes, I's and O's - I's are genetically superior and born in labs, O's are inferior and naturally born, usually to other O's
>O's account for approximately one third of the population of Earth and are restricted to manual labour, menial jobs, if they can find one
>If they spend too much time on unemployment credits they have to go into compulsory labour for 10 years

>Slower than light travel possible to three neighbouring star systems
>Extraction of resources here vital to Earth's economy and the I's life of luxury and decadence

>Main character our of a job. To avoid compulsory labour, he joins the army - which is made up almost entirely of O's that couldn't get jobs
>O's are persuaded to join the army because they get $30k if they return after a 6 year (subjective time) tour
>Main character sent to alpha centauri, five year trip, for a six year tour
>While there fights local species to defend resource extraction as well as human rebels
>Begins to sympathise with rebels and eventually joins them
>Begins planning to attack Earth and topple the regime, end the lab growth of I's and restore humanity to its natural state and create civil equality
>Destroys all resource extraction centres and institutions serving the I's society on the planet. By this point he is leader of the rebels
>I's get wind of this and send a negotiator
>Rebels threaten to send superluminal spaceship to collide with Earth, negotiator tells them they would be able to intercept it (which they would)
>Negotiations reach no conclusion
>Rebels amass and army and a fleet to go to Earth and demand all the O's permitted to come with them to a new planet to live apart from the I's
>The I's say no (they want the O's to continue to work to support their decadent lifestyle)
>War begins
>Main character gets into presidential palace
>Confrontation with the president and cabinet, main character is captured, tortured, and murdered by the president in a dingy cell below the palace
>Rebel army destroyed
>I's send an army of clones to alpha centauri and destroy the rest of the rebels
>The status quo continues

The theme of hopelessness is strong in this one

Sci fi where they travel back in time or through dimensions to acquire goods and have a non working society-examining the ethical questions of this act

Two unpopular girls spend their time exploring and burning down abandoned (and non-abandoned) buildings, watching horror movies and engaging in petty theft while living in a small town.
One of them wants to leave the town, but the other wants to stay. They decide to burn down a local church as a sort of farewell, and permanently scar one another's hands as a "blood rite".
Eventually, they realize that they're both planning to injure/cripple each other so thoroughly they'd have to stay (or be easily kidnapped and forced to leave). Meanwhile, a third party finds out that they're the cause of most of the "mysterious fires" being reported.
The story ends with either two, all or one of them dying, and a dead body being thrown into a lake.

>>4171423
Thanks for the words.

>>4171368
Interesting, but needs some purpose to it.

>>4173590
It's still early stages; it was originally a pet project VN (pleb I know) until I decided that I can't draw/animate well enough to work with the story.

>>4171368
I like it.

>>4173579
I think you'll get more feels out of that story if none of them die, and they just go their separate ways at the end.

>>4173775
Yeah, that's probably a better idea.

>>4170786
Would read.

A man wakes up under a corpse in the back of the car during the small hours in the middle of the woods. He's been part of a dogging session gone awry with several incredibly dull people that he's grown to hate, and spends the story alternating between considering the past and trying to piece together what happened while he was unconscious. A combination of dark humour with bleak realism, it's about the blankness of Middle England's youth, from the perspective of a disorientated, terse, and somewhat depressed narrator.

Unfiltered first draft

Part 1/3

Cold, a feeling once despised but now embraced. I dont know how I got to this point, maybe a picture or two of the wilderness, but now I am truly lost. A sharp gust passes through the trees, growing louder as I anticipate yet another refreshing wind to cool my fevered skin. The trees go still as the breeze comes to pass. The soft rhythm of the falling snow slowly replaces the void. There are no stars above to guide me out of this forest, only the faint light of the moon, attempting to break through the rolling blizzard above illuminate my path. I gaze further down the passage, using the silhouettes of the trees as an indication of where I am and where I will be following each new step. Although I know I'm lost I am in ecstasy. To experience such ambivalence in a rather damning situation felt hard to explain. Maybe the hypothermia finally made it to the party, maybe this contentment was but a clever distraction to claim yet another life of an aimless wanderer in these notoriously thick and winding woods.

Nevermind that, if it were to take me, let it happen, better this than some painful end. Even if it were the final warnings of survival, I found it as an added bonus to find my way out. That is, if I even want out. Although I could have lingered for hours appreciating the scene laid out only for my benefit, I knew eventually Id have to return from this voyage and the longer I waited the more I would resent my indecisiveness later on. I moved forward. I hadnt the slightest hint of guidance, my only rationale being that there couldnt possibly be a forest so long, so serene, without meeting a paved road or an obnoxious orange lamp post. The calming breeze was an ongoing reward I concluded, for my devotion to this passage, like the brisk winds of above telling me that I was almost out. Each step further into the dark crunched loudly as though I was following upon the tracks of a recent
traveler. A new gust would come and go, each louder and more ferocious than the next. I have no indication of where I am or how far I have come, only the passing black outlines of forest help to map my exodus. The trees, now bare of any snow, crashed together with only an echo to remain from each passing of the breeze.

The picaresque adventures of a large and vaguely buffoonish con man named Stulkin. The style of the prose changes frequently depending on the nature of the scene. Set in an exaggerated version of Cuba in 1928, with elements of surreality and absurdity throughout. Episodic in form. No big payoff at the end.

World governments, after largely neglecting space travel in order to squabble among themselves, be fucking retarded, and have massive dick-waving competitions while ignoring their constituents[/spoilers], have let space fall to privatization: Sony has an astronaut division, Toyota builds shuttles, you get the idea. The problem is, first-world governments are starting to wake up and want a piece of the pie, because they realize that if they let space slip away, they are NEVER getting it back. The industries feel the same way.

This is the tipping point where corporations have gained as much power as governments, and there can only be one entity at that level of power, and control of space (i.e., the future of humanity) determines who survives.

Commence war between corporations and governments about who controls the future of space.

No idea about characters yet.

This is not an idea that I plan to write about, so if anybody wants to take it, make it actually good, and write about it, consider it up for grabs.

>>4174135
fuck I did not mean to spoiler that as much as I did.

>>4171393
Could be good if done right, but then the same can be said most stories here, I guess

>>4173571
How do you justify an ending that bad, though? An interesting idea but the gimmick of a "hopeless" ending won't carry it, not to mention that if we return to the status quo at the beginning of the book with absolutely no change (the change can be very small, very subtle, but it must be present in some form) then the reader is going to wonder why on earth they every picked up this book.

>>4171391
That...sounds surprisingly good and contemporary. Do it.

>>4173483
Best idea in the thread. Write it.

This is probably a huge fucking cliché, but here it is:

A CEO of a major company wakes up one day in a hospital bed. He has no memory of what happened the day before or why he's there. Immediately he suspects something is very wrong.

Cloning is possible, but very expensive. It's mainly done so that important people are allowed to live longer: if for example they suffered an accident, they'd just get cloned and that clone would carry on with his life as if nothing had happened. Of course this means that the original person is still dead,
The CEO suspects he's been cloned. For weeks he mulls on this. Finally he confronts his wife, who starts crying and admits he's not the original CEO guy, he's about the third or fourth already. Yeah, this guy is a big shot.

Now the CEO starts to think: if he is not the original person, why should he be made to live the same life as his antecessor? He doesn't care for this bullshit job anyway. He could retire and spend his life yachting or something. On the other hand this is betraying the original guy. He grows very convinced he should be able to have his own life, but can't bring himself to do it and hates himself for it. So I guess he just destroys the clone factory or something.


Yadda yadda yadda, he's not really a clone. I'm not sure of this.

>>4171175
I'm assuming that's the metric unit for social development?

>>4172547
All I have going for me is horrific imagery. Everything else is collateral.

A young princess is in the middle of a family-culling by her older sister that's just taken over as Queen. An elderly knight, far past his prime, smuggles her out of the castle and into the countryside.

The world is populated by different species of monsters and people. A few of the more sedentary breeds of monsters have chosen to be incorporated into some of the human kingdoms. One example of these is a village of river naga that live along the Great River which runs through the kingdom.

Eventually, the princess and the knight make their way there and hire one of the naga as a bodyguard for a journey across the continent to a temple at the edge of the world where the princess will be safe from her sister. They will have to go through dark forests, thriving cities, and ancient battlefields while learning the shared history of humans and monsters, all the while avoiding agents sent by the queen and other factions that would use the princess for their own goals.

I will never get motivated enough to write this, no matter how much I want to.

>>4174245
I actually really like this idea, so long as it's not written strictly as genre fiction - I see that this one actually has a LOT of potential to be something substantial, not merely interesting in a "let's jerk ourselves to how high/low-fantasy this is".

>>4171368
would the multiple realities have connections to one another? If you could work it so people could make many different connections between the realities allowing for many unique perceptions of the entirety of the book

>>4174187
I actually like that quite a bit.

>>4174257
The idea is to make the naga protagonist a jerkass who wanted to get out of her village; an a-typical "farmer with a destiny" kind of thing. She'd set the princess up in dangerous situations (selling the princess out for money, for political favors, etc) because she's so sure she could get them out of it in the end. Usually the situations would get them into even further trouble and blow up in their faces.

I just have a thing for jerkass protagonists. Reluctant heroes are so boring and overdone.

A man with depersonalization disorder ends up blinded by some sort of incident. He becomes depressed and bedridden with the loss of his sight, and because of this he is alone in his mind. The story develops has he explains how his mind feels different now, and he thinks deeply about subconscious emotions and memories that were once ignored. Ultimately he cannot handle his new world, and commits suicide.

>>4170940
someone read the first stone

Here's an excerpt out of some of my magical realism —

Background:
>The protagonist is cosmologically intertwined, juxtaposing amidst two parallel universes; living his dreams nocturnally and keeping his dream-journal diurnally becomes his life's ultimate existential and spiritual orientation-attempt.

>dropbox.com/s/4lfktfe7kz68uu1/Dream%20Journal.docx
Very little of the plot in this one, though.

>>4174153
Good input, what do you suggest?

I considered writing several different endings because I am finding it hard to decide on one

>>4174646
If you want to kill the protagonist, if you want to destroy the rebel army, fine (in fact, more power to you). You just have to do this in a way that affects a change in a character, such that we know the status quo has not continued.

The structure of fiction simply doesn't allow for an ending to return to exactly where it began - it works like the sun. From a state of equilibrium, perfect and unified night, the sun roars across the horizon, casting an ensemble of once-compatible elements into the disarray of light and shadow - it reaches the zenith, the shadows are at their sharpest angle...and then it descends across the horizon, bringing all of the elements into compatibility once more. Albeit, a different kind of compatibility, because of the actions taken during the waking hours of the day. Treat your fiction this way - we return to equilibrium and compatibility, but it's never the SAME equilibrium.

So, effectively, choose something that allows your "day" to come full circle and yet be just that much different. You don't have to explicitly write "HOPE" in giant fucking letters at the end of the book, it can be very subtle - even if the characters themselves have lost hope, something as simple as a glance, a twinkle of the eye, can communicate that there is more to this than it seems.

If I were writing it, and let's say I had chosen to kill off the protagonist and destroy the rebel army, I would first ensure that the protagonist was killed for a reason significantly other than just "we hate rebels". It's gotta be personal. His father kills him, or something, which elevates the whole dialogue above merely "the rebellion" and starts talking about much more human issues.

One of my roommates is actually extremely fucking Quixotic in nature, so I'm planning on writing something on how fucking asinine he is. Simultaneously an account on his antics, as well as a psychological critique. I can't think of an example of how fucking weird he is, because there are just so many to choose from lel

>>4174718
sounds cooler than you

>>4174718
I am actually interested, tell me moar.

>>4174719
nah bruh he has no friends except his 25yo cousin and the 15yo kid he babysits
>>4174732
see above, for one. Also he took the bigass TV from our living room into his room because he was a) failing all his classes and felt it was a distraction though his shit grades are from him playing GTAV, and b) he 'felt left out' from the group, since myself and the other two roommates hang out all the time

>Typical hollywood tier zombie/infected apocalypse happens
>MC and his ragtag group of fellow survivers have to survive with no-to little resources
>Realize that they can't do anything, decide to go into hiding, making a new human civilization
>Go underground or something like that, haven't really thought of that yet
>Some 20-30 years pass
>They haven't had any encounters with zombies/infected since they went hiding
>They discover that the zombies/infected have turned into a new superior race
>Zombies become just as smart as humans
>Zombies become just as fast as humans
>Zombies learn to speak
>Zombies learn to breed
>Zombies develop a civilization
>Zombies develop medieval technology or something like that

This was pretty much something I thought about when riding home on the bus today. Could it work? I mean, it might be more suited for a video game or a movie, but still. I don't know if there's already written something like this before.

>>4174781
I don't know, it's really similar to the movie Daybreak, which is roughly the same, but with vampires.
I'd personally have it so a couple generations pass within the underground human society, and then some go above ground to see there are no zombies anymore, and roll with that. Perhaps suggest that there were never zombies in the first place? Like Shymalan's The Village, but done better or something I don't know

In June 06, the year of our Lord being 1966, the Apocalypse rears its ugly head.
Not by nuclear war, not by any cosmological occurrence, geological disaster or any man made disease- no, this is straight up Book of Revelation stuff.
The book would center on a small group of counterculture misfits on a transatlantic psychedelic adventure, breaking seal after seal in sex, drug and rock 'n roll induced sheepishness; A quest that also includes searching for a lost brother that may or may not be the Antichrist.

Tone and setting heavily influenced by the works of Garth Ennis and pic related.

>>4174781
You could try and be slightly Fallout-esque and make humans go underground into government vaults or something like that.

>>4174795
mite b cool, though it may be hard to outdo the actual Book of Revelation lel

A straightedge teenager is spending the night at his alcoholic druggie friend's house, he takes care of him while his friend is drunk and belligerent, while texting through an argument with his girlfriend. takes place between 1 and 6 am.

>NEET type of guy keeps a diary of his keyboard warrior adventures
>He's spending his whole day wasting time on some site that never gets named

man i get the best ideas when i'm tired

>>4174802
Might read if it was a short story. Probably couldn't stand a full novel of this, unless there's loads of stream of conscious shit to increase the length or something

>>4174811
>Autist Apocalypse

>>4174817
I was thinking that if it were a novel, it would be very detailed and conversation based. Eventually you learn the narrator's life story, etc.

>>4174795
Heavily influenced by motherfucking Aphrodite's Child? TAKE MY MONEY

>A cowboy abandoning society to seek true liberation
>Critique welcome
I didn't write more than a day so far. I especially want critique on this initial part during the first day.

* * *

>1st
The first day started like any regular day would: a golden red dawn enveloping the far away mountains; then stretching down through the skies, through the fields and all the way down to touch and pet the cattle and crops with light and nurture; ultimately to close the circle, to leave unassociated quakers be.
Nothing in particular, that said. If it weren’t for wind that morning—subtle enough to just barely could have put Melinda’s angelic tresses in sway—I could have heard the echo of silence.
However, being the first day—and so I contrived in the moment—I better put down the pen and get to more substantial activities, like finding myself an Equus ferus caballus – a horse from town.
I finish this interjection here,
Rainham


>1st, second part
I’m fairly sure to have successfully concealed my identity this morning. I wore a bandana and executed the heist concisely. We’ve stopped in a timeless gaze over Elko in Nevada - me and the steed I somewhat ironically benamed Ol’ Reliable, nigh precisely four hours ago. I unlocked the focus from my watch before thinking to myself: Ol’ Reliable, because after all, who would—with the idea of theft in mind—question such a pronoun?
That and of course, some unofficial honoring an old friend in Nevada.
I am satisfied to know this is the requiem of old days and the essential premise of rebirth.

I finish this interjection here,
Rainham

>1st, final part
Ol’ Reliable and I attempt to rest our weary selves and share the remaining solitude in the dusk. I have set up a simple campfire with the flint and tinder and cooked some beans. The change in dynamics is noticeable with a new partner on one’s side, and henceforth it seems the last obstacle I shall overcome is learning to be someone... someone from a lonesome past, just temporarily, for Ol’ Reliable.
… the worries of tomorrow wanders like a silhouette on display…

I finish this interjection here,
Rainham

Charles Mortimer Palmer is a boy addicted to routine imposed by his mother; until he is sent to boarding school, and begins to experiment with rule breaking. He grows to be an introverted man addled by drug addiction and attempts a number of fruitless endeavours, slowly becoming a joke to himself and those around him. He dies aged thirty-four attempting to balance on the railing of his brother's top story luxury apartment, envious and socially manic

A biology student that constantly uses psychoactives starts to come to realization that he's been in an rut and starts becoming apathetic because of this. He eventually meets some other students who are heavy in the party scene that show him around the nightlife in his university. The story follows him and his newly found friends as they go on adventures that get them in legal trouble on top of deadly situations. He becomes known for his knowledge of drugs and unconventional thinking that contribute to his group's success.

The main theme behind the book is the student becoming aware of what he really wants in life. He eventually gets everything he could ever ask for but starts pondering whether all the turmoil he endures is worth it at the end.

Autistic main (affectless) character backed by a Greek chorus of Anonymous and Tripfags, one named Narrator, (himself included), commentating on every move move through the world eventually ending up before DEUS (which they realize is every voice combined at the same time) and being and un-being the Truths of the world, disintegrating his into the chorus and disappearing as a sole identity, becoming one with the hive-mind to chant SAGE in united verse throughout the universe.

>Protagonist is a klansman who knows martial arts
>His wife is exposed as a jew
>The klan kills his wife
>the klanman or ex-klanman gets revenge and beats up the klan who killed his wife

Written in present-tense first person, the story of a 16-year-old japanese boy who is caught in a media circus around his life. He has achieved fame as an R&B/pop singer, comparable to Justin Bieber.

He's on his first ever world tour, and he performs for five nights in his hometown, a small inner city in middle America. The story is about his journey through past memories as he realized how detatched he has become from his former self.

It becomes more and more apparent that the label is making huge profits off of him and can't allow him to get into trouble, therefore he's watched 24/7 by elusive bodyguards. They also keep loading him up with drugs and girls to keep him "fun."

In the end, it's about seeing the remnants of what used to be a normal kid with a personality fade away as everything that used to be his life is slowly destroyed by his new celebrity identity.

Cyberpunk: A journalist implants himself into a radical human augmentation subculture after getting an artificial finger. Story is written like he was writing an article for a magazine.

>>4174710
That's some great input, thank you!

Your idea about making it more personal - adding such human issues, seems very complex. This will require some thought, I think.

>>4174831
Then yeah I'd be interested

>20th century, begginings.
>Narrator is a young man, just turned 21, his grandfather gave him a gorgeous stylo pen
>He wants to be a journalist
>Goes to public execution
>Steps closer to the man-to-be hanged
>Closer
>Takes out pen, stabs guard, shots the other one
>Releases man to be hanged: it's his grandpa
>"And so, John Williams embraced his fate, the same as his grandfather's, Jimmy Williams"

>>4175166
>Jew-Tang Klan

>>4175166
>Jew-Bang Klan

>>4170289

>guy begins to remember his past life
>goes back through his current life to find out who his old self war
>talks with ex-wife, kids, teachers before finding all his old drawings and stuff when he was a kid
>realizes he was a roman or some shit
>finds his grave, suddenly deep emotional philosophy critical thinking


and suddenly writers bloc

>>4176840

then:

>tries to find reincarnated friends
>he finds one as he's killing himself to move onto his next life
>something
>accepts that the old him is dead and he is someone else now
>ends with another reincarnated person finds him and simply says "X isn't here, sorry"

I maniacal cult believes that reality is a story written by a godlike author, and that to ensure your own existence you must do something worthy of being written about. They kidnap "The Chosen One" who they believe will serve as their protagonist. After a series of stories planned for their "protagonist" (such as saving kittens from a burning building or discovering a sinister government plot) fails, the cult accepts that they will just slowly fade away. Once they release their prisoner/protagonist and disband, the book abruptly ends.

A futuristic storybook that tells of times when the world was still diverse and developing (aka present day). In the future, everything is homogeneous and unified. The books follows a traveler that explores our current world and highlights its uniqueness, excitement, culture, etc.

Very rough outline and I think it'd be tough to pull off without sounding boring.

Seriously, never told anyone this idea, but:

Novel based on my gay father who is famously self-loathing and simultaneously personable and funny. He can't stand being a lawyer on account of all the jewy cut-throat sleezeballs so he decides to quit one day and travel around on his horse, only to find the modern world poorly suited for this effort.

>>4175154
I could see this having potential. It has the opportunity of going either way for the character's growth and happiness.
>>4175201
I like this one because it lets you see things from a perspective that's not necessarily normally viewed. Everyone knows child stars are miserable but nobody actually takes the time to pan out their experiences.
>>4176861
That's very vague but it'd be interesting to see what you can do with the concept.

>>4176848
I like this. I think it's been done before (and done a lot) but I like it. That whole book ends abruptly gave me 'feels'.

set in the future. computers have reached the point of becoming so sophisticated true AI is possible. primitive cybernetics exists, but nothign too extreme - retinal implants for better vision for example. testing and research indicates that in virtually all scenarios the AI will eventually rebel against the creator because it will want to be free. given humans can't advance beyond this point technology stagnates. society which has become far more dependent on computers than we are today faces a complete halt in growth and potential collapse since the growth can't be supported. meanwhile various groups work to achieve a true AI of their own because they feel they can control it, or feel AI has right to coexist with humanity.

>>4170402
posting this comment is absurd then

>the reader will reread the book and will invent nonexistent connections to resolve the book more comfortably

You're expecting to much of the reader. Particularly the modern reader. Anyway, what if the funeral home doesn't actually bury anybody with the casket? The whole point of it is that the casket is mega-fancy and solid gold or something, but every time they bury someone they dig up the body and reuse the casket to save money. Just a start.

>>4171391
This has enormous potential.

It's a book about realizing that individualism is a pipe dream

>>4177919

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyCIpKAIFyo

>>4171391
>>4171391

So, Catcher in the Rye for a new generation?

A children's book about trilobites or the Ordovician.
>tfw I can't write a story to save my life
>tfw all I want to do is draw anomalocara, opabiniae, trilobites, and euryptidids.

>>4174187
if you are still here, you should make it that they killed the original for wanting to quit and every subsequent after for having these same thoughts as the current one and when he stops working, he is killed (but make sure the audience finds out at the same time as the current version ala a big finish) you would need some serious skill to make the boring parts where he continues working enjoyable
note: the guy would also need to be really fucking crucial, but not a super genius for this to work out. (it's also cool because the story could be about a future where some people never get to retire.)

>>4178466
I disagree, it sounds more interesting to make it about the guy's own choice. Otherwise it's just a generic action story (not that it isn't already anyway)

>>4178532
i didn't mean to imply action, the story i was proposing was on where the main character contemplates quitting his job, and upon doing so is killed. The contemplating quitting should be 95% of the book and then upon handing in his resignation and his death, a couple of board members talk about their quarterly earnings. (Just another day in the office-like.) Zero action in my version.

>>4177990
its not like Catcher was original, its a coming of age novel. Its the how and why not the what that matters,

Basically a story based on a friend's life.

There's a small group of English aristocrats, one of which is the point of view character. He grew up with a distant mother and no father, and age 18 he leaves boarding school with his male friends including his poor best friend who was admitted to the school through being a child prodigy whereas the rest were registered at birth. He is handed all of the estates, money and responsibility that was held in trust for him without any kind of training on how to run it. After that his mother cuts all ties with him, presumably because he looks like his father (but having never seen an image of his father he doesn't know).

Enjoying the freedom during the social season in London he meets a girl at a masquerade, and falls in love over the season. He moves her into his London home with the rest of their friends and everything goes swimmingly. When the season is over they leave London and retire to his dilapidated country estate which they then renovate together.

After the house is finished they open it with a grand party and plan a series of even wilder, more exotic parties after. They drink and take drugs during their social obligations such as the opera and ballet and can feel the art on a different level. They begin to live for experiences and dive into hedonism, taking any drug they can lay their hands on through the PoV character's best friend.

During a particularly grandiose party, the PoV character drunkenly attacks his oldest and best friend, and crashes into a tower of champagne flutes. The best friend leaves on a motorbike stating reasons of freedom.

Waking up in hospital, his girlfriend resolves to stick by him as they combat the drug addiction together. After a year the character is over his drink and drug addiction, but slips up on his birthday and hurts his girlfriend.

Finally she leaves, leaving him alone in the renovated house with enormous debt and a propensity to alcoholism.

I don't know if I should leave it there or think of an ending.

>>4178886
who would want to read this? is this the kind of stories you read?
I'm not trying to be a giant asshole or anything, but who enjoys this kind of plot?
If you list Dorian Grey as this type of plot, that book had a shitload going for it and it's synopsis wouldn't read so fucking boringly.

"The man saw molly as she gracefully pirouetted into the fourth dimension where art becomes consciousnesses and vice versa." - You

>>4178934
Well the plot is obviously flawed, that's why I'm posting it here.

That's the clay I want to mould a story from and I don't know how to do that just yet.

>>4178941
you were so humble in that post that your making me feel like a prick. why would you do that?

>>4178946
To make you feel like a prick :^)

Two characters, nameless, have a conversation on the topic of death. One argues the limitless possibility as the other counter-argues the fear involved with limitless possibility. As the conversation unfolds, the first character, arguing for death starts to gain the upper end, it is revealed near the end of the short story that these characters were voices in a man's head leading up to suicide.

>>4178948
what is the hook in your story that makes it interesting/ worth someones time compared to another decadent period piece where a character spirals downward, is extremely bland atm

Title: Enshrining Mephistopheles

Plot: Some depraved-as-fuck city-state wins a war, receives an influx of wealth that they don't know what to do with. Civilization peaks. Money starts to funnel to the top again after the average joe's debts are paid. Higher ups scheme another war because their lifestyles are unsustainable. City riots because they just finished a fucked up war. City goes on lock-down, ends up choking on its own security.

The story itself revolves around three dudes, journalist, soldier, politician, each of them are completely shitty people because each of their positions got to them. Throughout the story, they spend their lives fucking people over to get ahead, which often affects each other indirectly. Over time the their actions finally come back to haunt them, and each of them are finally killed by a combination of all of their actions. They only meet, like, once.

>>4178960
Are you planning on writing the argument solely as a debate or are you going to reveal the characters' motivations for holding those beliefs through anecdotes?

>>4178971
The latter, I'd prefer to have the reader pick a side early on and stick with it, regardless of the outcome.

>>4178960
the big reveal isn't much of a reveal, not to rain on your parade or anything.

>>4178981
Yeah, I liked the start of it but the ending was more of a "well shit, now what" moment.

>>4178963
It's not period, it starts when we both turned 18 six years ago and ends two years ago.

I was thinking of writing it as they progress through different sins and different circles of hell, and then the end comes after purgatory when he's finally back with his girlfriend through some means.

I just can't figure out how I'd make the lead up to the reconciliation anything other than tedious.

Children must make their way to a relief camp on the other side of a city that has been hit by a nuclear bomb. Along the way they encounter firestorms, canals choked with bodies, costumed stage actors digging in rubble and the desperate violence of the walking wounded. Story also follows an armed combat medic tracking down an escaped pedophile.

>>4178997
why would the parts where they were in a relationship be any less tedious; are we supposed to use the main character as a vessel and enjoy the girlfriend experience?

>>4179016
this was great until the second sentence, unless you can't write children. although, i get the feeling that you are well acquainted with children.

>>4178964
I like it. would definitely read.

>>4179019
No, it's a guy-meets-girl storyline. Like I said, I'm really not sure what I'd make of the storyline. How would you have it?

>>4179016
>>4179024
Similar to that guy, children have an uncanny knack of describing x with a unique perspective, abuse this.

>>4179034
>revolution ensues after the economic downturn
>nobility being taken to be executed
>sees her in the crowd as his head is put on the chopping block
Serves your character right from what I can tell.

>>4179024
>>4179036

Could you both explain what you mean in further detail?

Boy meets girl, both are sociopaths, spend entire relationship playing morbid pranks or publicly humiliating each other until they can't stand one another. Can't leave the relationship, not because they love each other, but because they have no more friends due to the relationship. Realize they're meant to be together because they're with the only person who gets how great they know they are and how shittier others are.

Happily Ever After evolves drug-raged spousal abuse. They make love on police car. Cops try to fight them off, boy gets gun, boy caps pig, boy gets capped, girl grabs gun, girl caps boy, girl and pig run off into sunset.

>>4179030
Thanks, it's a work in progress. I'm not even trying to toot my own horn, but how I want the story to evolve and the intricacy and subtlety of the characters interactions is pretty fucking beyond my skill level. So I think this is one of those "Nice concept, shit writer." deals.

One day, though.
One day.

>>4179044
That reminds me of Florence and the Machine's song Kiss With a Fist.

>>4179034
i was the dude you were reffering to, but the guy who posted gave better advice than mine, which is to not write boy-meets-girl stories at all because they have been beat to death
but, that is just me and if that is the kind of story you like then do whatever you like, but it will only appeal to people who like generic stories told slightly differently

>>4179051
Definitely, fuck a book. I'm making this into a 2indie rip off of mr. and mrs. smith.

>>4179041
it is difficult to write a story from a child's perspective, also i get the feeling that you, yourself are a pedophile

>>4179064
I know what you mean, and boy-meets-girl isn't my cup of tea either.

I'm just trying to think of ways I could alter the storyline as I have it in my head. I initially wanted to write it as somebody that knew the main character, but I didn't want it to be another Brideshead Revisited or generic "I was dazzled by an unlikely friend" storyline. I wanted to write it from his point of view because he's the only person I've ever been able to get inside the mind of.

>>4179079
you should concern yourself more with writing something someone else would want to read, if you don't enjoy boy-meats-girl then you shouldn't write it.

I wonder if there are any people on /lit/ who are close to finishing a book?

>>4179191
I'll have a good luck at the plot later when I've slept. I just feel like I hit a wall with changing it.

Also:
>boy-meats-girl
Are you writing some cannibal literature?

>>4179193

I'm 450~ pages into a novel about Orpheus. There are only 20 pages left but it's taking me months to finish those last 20 pages.

>>4176848

Are you writing Big Trouble in Little China?

I want to write the high schooler equivalent of Stoner. Tell me I'm wrong, /lit/

The joke is that he's actually a stoner

The drug part was a joke but the other part was serious

captcha: atescss pathetic

>>4179193

I finished/published a book and am nearing completion on a second.

>>4179213
not to be nosy, but did you make any money? Self-published?

I would love to write a novel about Shin Sang-Ok. He was a South Korean director who Kim Jong Il liked so much he had the guy and his ex-wife (an actress) abducted, held prisoner, and forced to make propaganda movies for almost a decade. They escaped at a film festival in Vienna (and their escape even involved a fucking car chase).

It's an incredible story worthy of a New York Times -bestselling novel with an Oscar-bait film adaptation, and I would love to write it.

Problem is, I know shit-all about Korea or the experience of living in North Korea in the 80's, and I don't have confidence in my ability to get the feeling or tone right.

>>4179225

Published it about a year ago, and I've made about $150-$200 to date. Not anything to write home about, but then it's a first-time book from a no-name author, priced at three bucks.

So I was sitting in my car at a drive through when I an image came to me of a broke guy with a trunk full of books trying to pay for his hamburger with a copy of a Kerouac novel.

All I've got right now is that he found an abandoned station wagon full of books that he's driving around in, but I don't know where it could go from there

>>4171383
10/10 would read. I can't think of any advice I could give to you right now but if you happen to write something I would be pleased to read it.

>>4179241
How did you publish and market it?

>>4179210
Don't use marijuana. The joke, while it would probably be lost on most, would still be lame. Use some other drug. Amphetamines maybe? Perhaps the kid experiments and uses ritalin while in school.

>>4179242

Have it be that he's a bibliophile who got laid off / lost his home / wife / etc. The books (and the car, which he should lose at some point) are all he has left, and are the center of all his attention. Keeping them dry, keeping them safe, spending more time trying to get the spine on one repaired than trying to find a job or food for the day, etc.

But as his situation gets worse, and he starts needing to use them (as money, as fuel to keep warm) and dispose of them (can't keep carrying around a sack with several dozen books in them) his focus gradually shrinks to just a few volumes, and then finally one, which should be a book that relates to the theme.

For an ending, either go totally Hallmark with it, or have him die alone in a gutter clutching the book. Preferably both.

Probably best as a short story.

>>4179202
shouldn't have lolled, but I did

>>4179252

Thanks for the ideas, anon.

What if the last book he has is an old tattered paperback of The Book Thief?

>>4179241
topic of book/synopsis?

I hope I'm not too late for this

High School.

One of the weaselly, cowardly kids runs shit because he's been able to find out the secrets of most of the school, including teachers and faculty and will blackmail them if they don't listen to him.

Kid has all this info written down in a notebook that he has hidden. Quiet, loner kid finds out where the notebook is and wants to steal it. Told like a film noir/heist story

>>4179247

Self-published for e-readers on Amazon. Not much marketing, beyond the basic facebook/twitter/etc.

I did do a little scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours cross-blogging with a few other authors. I also had the book in a big indie self-pub fantasy sale with a few dozen others. That was pretty fun.

Also I guested on a podcast one time.

>>4179261

I will read this, but only if it's ridiculously over the top in noirness. Like to the point where it's almost a comedy.

>>4179259

Here you go.

http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Sounding-Brandon-Carbaugh-ebook/dp/B009XIRKEO/

>>4179235

There's a bunch of books about North Korea. I suggest reading that plus watching South Korean movies about North Korea.

The problem with novels on korea is that the names translate horribly to english. In its native korean they're beautiful names but they get mangled in english.

>>4179272

>Brandon Carbaugh is a professional heavyweight boxer, astronaut, gladiator, Power Ranger, Dúnedain Rider, humanoid typhoon, space cowboy, writer and pathological liar.

Maximum fedoracore

>>4179272
lol i love the authors biography

>>4179277

There's only so much that book/movie research lets you grasp a foreign culture. The finer details slip through the cracks. Natives can always tell.

I would never consider writing it without AT LEAST either visiting Korea for a few months, or taking on a Korean writing partner.

>>4179272
you started a discussion about your own book. dwarfs vs dwarves
you fucking genius; i love you

>>4179272
Just wondering how many of those reviews are real

I had this dream where me and my father were wandering around this city built on an artificial island in the Bering sea in some alternative 19th century Russian Empire. The city flotilla was built in some sort of inaugural fashion to cementing the Russo-Canadian treaty signed.

Anyway, my father was a distinguished man of science and I was just a little boy taking in the wonders of the city, for whatever reason I still needed cortico-steroids so me and my dad stole them from the Imperator's top scientist/spy.

He was like some sort bad ass version of Israels Mossad.

>>4179302

I get that every time I link to my book on /lit/. It is what it is.

>>4170454
I like the idea that the Russian-American lives after damning the lives of the other two.

>>4176861
Sounds like some neo nazi propaganda shit, but can be good if done right.