/lit/ - Literature

>>4475329
>be in Central African Republic
>vote in election
>guy goes back on everything he said
>guy who voted feels cheated
>he assassinates the elected
>then he kills the rest of his cabinet
>become dictator after forming terrorist cell
>rename group Al-Quada
>does all that crazy islamic shit
>gets killed by democratic reactionary

a 21st century remake of the odyssey based on the tragic epic of name, a 30 or so man who used to be happy.

A gay trans boy becomes princess

In the future, you can communicate with NPCs via microphone in video games. My story is about a NEET who falls in love with one of them. In these games, NPCs are capable of learning and they remember everything the player says to them. At some point, for one reason or another, our protagonist's game breaks or its memory is lost, causing him to re-evaluate the nature of relationships, especially between humans and A.I.

>>4475370
Someone watched Her.

>>4475375
Just watched it last night, actually. Good call.

I just realised my plot idea is so convoluted, that I can't even greentext it properly.

>>4475385
not rly a good call when you just ripped off the entire plot

>sword and sorcery fantasy society in the throws of their industrial revolution
>magic has become nearly irrelevant, highly regulated by the current government
>set in what is known as the twin capitals, two enormous trading ports on either side of a 30 mile wide river that makes the boarder between two countries
>follows two individuals as they navigate court politics
>their titles are The King's Thunder and The King's Lightning, otherwise known as He Who Wins The King's Wars and He Who Strikes Down The King's Enemies
>in more practical terms they are the two commanders entrusted with the first true artillery and long bore rifle squads respectively
>the two of them in the beginning of the book return home after the end of a twenty year war
>which mainly consisted of crushing another nation who was still valuing magic over technology
>their home city is now mostly ghettos, full of refugees and devastated by a prolonged siege
>the nobility is paranoid and scared of an uprising
>then the royal family, while out in the city, has their guard overpowered by a mob and are all killed
>the two have to hold the city together and keep the nobility in line

>>4475389
Yeah. Good call.

>guy grew up with homeschooling but also in an ultra-clean space
>he is super afraid of dust and dirt
>in his twenties he finally leaves his house a couple of times per month but it's only for meetings of a group that discusses "hidden knowlegde" and conspiracies
>he then has to travel with a girl from said group around the globe to find the final clue to prove to the world that ancient aliens are real
>he has to deal with his fright of dirt and is about to find out how unhygienic love can be

It's a bit like Fight Club but with more potential aliens.

>>4475390
Is two cities, or one city straddling two continents a common trope?
Because my story also has a city on two continents. I for no describe it as a mix of Jerusalem, Rome and Constantinople.

>>4475396
It is a trope, the most famous being Discworld's Ankh-Morpork.

>>4475395
Oh, and also they travel into the Inner Earth and meet with various civilizations living there.

Damn, that actually sounds like it'd be fun to write.

>>4475384
isn't that a good sign?

Young NEET gets into breaking into houses and robbing convienent stores for a living.

Tfw I'll never write it

>>4475406
I think it could go either way.
It's mostly about how I wish to tell the story.
It can either be wow pretty amazing way you did that, or lol so edgy po-mo.
Basically I want to frame the story in this way:
Editor has to make sense of lectures done by a now already deceased professor on how the society they're living in got to the place it is. The story would then jump between the various historical records of great kings and heroes and people living under them to the commentary of both the editor and the professor.

Basically turning POV to intertextuallity.

>>4475412
That could either turn out very good, or really shitty.

>set on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides
>a young boy is the son of an abusive, possessive, alcoholic lighthouse keeper
>boy spends most of his time reading, fishing and watching the sea
>every night, boy watches a huge number of bats streak across the sky from out of a nearby cave and momentarily block out the sun
>one day is out fishing in a small rowing boat when he misplaces a foot, slips off and nearly drowns
>is hauled to shore by local fishermen
>boy angrily blames the boat for his near-death experience, starts violently kicking the side and screaming
>during the night, an enormous storm rages, one which crashes the previously moored boat into a huge jagged rock and shatters it
>boy begins to see the sea as a protective father figure
>decides to put his theory to the test
>during the night, a wild storm builds, even bigger than the first, and the boy blocks out the light of the lighthouse (not entirely sure how yet, ideas would be lovely)
>hears a foghorn off in the dark
>the next day, the boy walks down to the jagged rock once the tide has gone out and sees the fishermen's boat crashed into the huge jagged rock, with the crew members swollen and purple and covered in blood and gore

Not entirely too sure how to end it yet, most likely the father is arrested for the deaths of the fishermen and the boy is left even more alone than he was at the start.

>>4475813
shit, the bats block out the moon, not the sun. apologies

>>4475813
Would read.

>>4475813
>(not entirely sure how yet, ideas would be lovely)

Blacks out the windows in the lighthouse with tar or some sort of paint.
You best be writing this in dialect anon!

>>4475813
I like it but I don't see how you could write this without a fucking shitload of boring filler.

>>4475329
That could be a good YA novel

>>4475813

>an abusive, possessive, alcoholic lighthouse keeper

aye jis cannae heelp meself frae larfing

>>4475847
>Blacks out the windows in the lighthouse with tar or some sort of paint.
Not a bad idea actually, although I was hoping for something much more dramatic than merely painting over the glass. I had a rather ridiculous idea of him covering the lighthouse with birdfeeder, so the birds would swarm around the light and block out the sun. Very dramatic, but not plausible in the slightest.
>You best be writing this in dialect anon!
Haha yeah, I'm quite adjusted to Scottish colloquialism as I've been there countless times since I was young, so it shouldn't prove too difficult

>>4475813
I was expecting Batman

>>4475893
Ye hink thes is funay, ye wee jobby? I'll slap 'at chubby grin aff yer grottie coopon ye mongrel

>>4475897
Where you from?

>>4475886
It's just an idea at the moment. I'll probably end up writing it as a novella, it seems better suited to a shorter format

for a half-satirical adventure story
>Loser NEET becomes a Somalian pirate

>>4475920
I'm from London
Back when I was living with my family we'd go up to this scottish isle every summer holiday as it was one of the best places in the UK for surfing/windsurfing, but we had friends who lived in Edinburgh and we'd stay with them for a while as well.

>neckbeard living in mom's basement
>mother is the only one he has
>mother dies
>he inherets all her stuff including the house and the basement
>he hacks webcams in his basement with software he found on the internet
>the book is a story of the neckbeard told in first person
>he tells about a number of webcams and the people he saw, describing their lives etc.

>>4475938
avant-garde potential here

>>4475938
nice. it should end with him selecting a random webcam and it turns out to be his own, and he sees himself in all of his squalid glory

>orphan kid is having a birthday
>owner of the orphanage sends them out to pick up some good food because birthday
>he gets it but some faggot private school kids kick the shit out of him and he doesn't make it back to the orphanage in time
>only gruel for little orphan kid

>>4475938
This could be quite interesting
Just out of curiosity, has anyone actually written anything about the corruptive power of the internet and the weirdos who inhabit it? I feel like it's unexplored territory.

>>4475407
>>4475813
>>4475929
>>4475938

Would write/read. These all sound like fun.

>>4475976
neet detected

>>4475948
>>4475956
yea i came up with it today because the Dutch public prosecution warned people for webcam hackers and urged people to put a sticker on it. I imagined some lonely neckbeard following people's lives because he longs connection or something

>>4475813
>>boy begins to see the sea as a protective father figure
I was expecting him to stupidly go out to sea at night in a little boat or something, abandoning his father. Not sure how you'd end that either.

>>4475977
how strikingly original

>>4475929
wasn't this a south park episode?

>>4475989
uh, i hope not? which episode are you thinking of

>>4475990
yea i know and Das Leben der Anderen is also something like that

>plot

>>4475980
Just interested in the lifestyle. Student with job prospects. I think being my main reason for coming onto 4chan is because NEETs are so strange. Also explains my affinity for Notes from the Underground and Confederacy of Dunces

>>4476005
the NEETs are a small minority though, except on /r9k/

>>4475989
>>4475994

There is one, but it's not NEETs, it's children... but I guess children are pretty similar to NEETs

>>4475938
This could be really interesting. Characters living vicariously through others by watching through their windows from their own home is a well established trope (see: Rear Window, Lady of Letters from Talking Heads), but using webcams instead of windows is a really nice 21st century spin on it.

>>4475999
trips confirm folly of plotfags

>>4475390
>>set in what is known as the twin capitals, two enormous trading ports on either side of a 30 mile wide river that makes the boarder between two countries
This is a really interesting idea. Make it a page long short story in the vein of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities and it would be great. The fantasy stuff doesn't interest me at all tho.

>>4476017
it could be interesting if it was written in a manner where you'd forget it was a neet who was spying on them. so the first and last chapters are the neet talking about his situation and everything in between is about the people he spied on, without alluding to his own situation because his situation is terrible and he doesn't want to talk about it

>>4476012
Being NEET is like being an idiot manchild. Children have to go to school. NEETs don't have to do anything except get mad Mom brought home the wrong flavor doritos.

>>4476074
NEETs are so afraid of life, they don't even try.

>>4476084
go to hell. "afraid of life"? the fuck does that mean? they're living, aren't they? or does it not count as "living" unless it follows some bullshit media-forced definition like traveling the world and having "adventures"?

neets may live in a constrained environment but you've no right to say they aren't living because you find their lifestyle abhorrent.

>>4475329

I feel like if /lit/ put half as much effort into writing good works as it did into intentional shit writing, at least one person here would have been a successful author by now

>>4476031
Yeah. If it was too obviously self pitying it would be shit ("and then they kissed - i never have never kissed a girl my life is shit!") but if he was just implicitly saying things about himself thru the prose (e.g. pervily describing every detail of the kiss, or alternatively maybe subtly implying that the woman is a slut, because he's jealous) it could be interesting. You'd have to do it so that the narrative of whoever he's spying on is compelling enough to carry the story by itself and just use the guy spying as a framing device and to add a bit of flavour to the narration.

>>4475329
Never bothered to check out /lit/ before, but it seems cool
...Had this story just sitting in my head for a while now, not actually sure if shit or not so feedback would be swell.
note that i would probably never write it regardless.

>set in some sort of nearish future, perhaps even alternate earth
>massive Asian superpower smacking other countries about
>dictator is a bit crazy and mad with power, as his fat government shits convince him that he is doing great in the war
So like north Korea i guess
>in reality he is doing terribly, soldiers are running off and his people are horribly oppressed and poverty stricken
>eventually finds out and so gets his right hand men to brainstorm for him
>chemists or whatever come to him with a highly addictive drug with few consequences other than nasty withdrawal effects
>starts mixing it in with military rations and lowers age of which civilians must sign up, as suggested by his men
>perfect, those that escape come running back and power is growing
>story actually starts here:
>police/soldiers break into protagonist's home and takes him away to training camp along with his whole street, it would've happened sooner or later
>does whole training thing, takes in drug through food unknowingly, etc.
>sent off to some place west to fight
>through some currently undecided way he learns about this drug thing
>tries to explain to others but is ignored
>draws up plans to escape
>steals enough rations and raw drug to help him make it through withdrawal
>whilst the dictator goes mental due to the disappearance of drugs and soldier when everything was going so well again, the book focuses more on the goings on of inside this mans head as he experiences the bad side of this drug, and his struggle with withdrawal and running from the military
maybe first person, gloomy tone. what do you think?

>>4476155
>implying you can't go on /lit/, intentionally write shit, and still be a successful author

A chronicle of the last day of Bizantium before sultan Mehmed stormed the gates. Told from yhe perspective of a venetian condottieri with a personality based on Suvorov. The main themes are death and cultural change.

A bunch of edgy high school kids hang out at an abandoned house, site of an infamous mass murder. They hang out listen to metal, drink beer, smoke weed. They occasionally scare away kids from the college or out of towners. Most of them grow out of it, move on with their lives move away. A trio of exceptionally edgy kids never really grow out of it and in fact get into darker and darker pursuits (animal sacrifice and eventually murder)

>>4475813
maybe end w/ the kid being detained somewhere while the authorities decide what to do with him, and at night he can't sleep because of his guilt as well as another far off storm approaching the island, so he sneaks out and and heads toward the storm in the tiny boat, and the final sentence describes something about the light of the lighthouse shining once again (since the authorities removed the tar or whatever it was during the day)

Yeah, I have no idea. that stinks. I really want to read your story anon, please post it when you succeed

>some dude hangs out with a bunch of other people in the woods
>they die one by one
>the dude finds them atrociously murdered
>little by little he finds out that he was the one doing it all along because of an alien presence in his head
>he realizes the presence in his head is the reader's mind pushing him to do atrocities so their lust for blood and action can be satisfied

>>4475329
Is this thread for ideas in general or just for the terrible ones?

>>4476583
i hope that was supposed to be bad

>sewage maintenance worker doing his job
>come up, he was working late into the night and it's a full moon
>as he is leaving work to go to his shitty apartment the moon's light suddenly disappears
>assumes it is because of a cloud
>next morning
>no light
>no electricity
>the sun ceased producing visible spectrum light, instead produces more high energy radiation
>can't stay outside too long because it'll kill you
>man fears for his life
>the apartment complex dissolves into martial law as the owner takes control with the only gun on the premise
>man forced to go outside to get food from the corner shop wearing improvised rad suit
>holding an flashlight, as it still produces light
>people dead everywhere, horrible burns
>when he returns the land lord ended up killing a guy who tried to get the gun away from him
>the sewer worker and a few others plan on running, he using his knowledge of the passages to get them closer to the edge of the city

This is just the beginning. They'd make it to a college there to find the dorm had turned cannibalistic, found burnt out police station, eventually the city would catch on five. Then finally three weeks later the sun goes back to normal.

Called "Three Weeks Till Down"

> There's a new drug
> some kind of dissociative or something
> If you take too much you black out
> When you come to your are in a slightly different alternate reality
> Or you are inhabiting a different body and life

Not really a plot, just a concept

>An unsuspecting white man coming home from work is kidnapped by Mexicans
>Mexicans put him on semi-truck with other white people
>In route they try to revolt be some are shot and killed
>Arrive in Mexico
>Get sold into slavery
>Works as a slave for awhile (Philosphical conversations ensue)
>Begins to worship Mexican culture and begins to hate himself
>Other slaves stage another revolt and he tells his master
>The slaves are killed and he is rewarded with a data-entry job/ keeping the other slaves in check
>Slaves are granted freedom but america has now been conquered by the mexicans
>Loves Mexico so much he stays and works the fields
>Asks his slave master what a whiteman can do in a mexican world?
>The master tells him to pick cotton and never put his hands on a brown woman
>The whites begin to sell drugs and glorify stupidity
>Africans come over to mexico and become the wealthiest people in the country
>Africans ask why the whiteman is so stupid and stagnate in his progress
>White man realizes he can't ever be Mexican and kills himself due to hate for his own image
>Mexicans kill all whites and erase all history of them on the planet.

>>4476583
This has already been done. Pic related.

>>4477020
>(Philosphical conversations ensue)

>a man discovers a door in his basement is a gateway to the far future
>the gateway leads into an abandoned building
>decides to to explore the place
>makes his way through the abandoned building
>the sky is bright red
>sees the remains of a city around him
>weird plants growing around the debris
>makes his way through a strange forest
>finds his way to the coast while encountering many strange creatures
>finds the coast line
>on the beach there a group of beings looking through the water for food
>they see him

And I'm too lazy to type more but it would mostly be about him exploring this post apocalyptic world.

>>4476563
Thank you, although I'm a bit of a perfectionist so it will be fucking forever before it's finished.
Suicide doesn't really fit right I don't think, he's a young boy and his actions are done out of ignorance and youthful curiosity over anything else. I wanted to explore how crippling isolation can have an adverse effect on your judgement and morality, and it would have a much greater impact (in my opinion) if the character who suffered alone was young and innocent in their ignorance.

>>4476299
Holy shit, this could be really good imo. If you did it like The Body/Stand By Me but one which descends into ritual sacrifice

>Russia taken over by Soviet revolutionaries
>China and Best Korea join the SUPERCOMMIENATION (thought about throwing Iran in there too)
>Red invade US, start on west coast
>make it all the way to DC
>band of kids with no training whatsoever fight in the city
>kill Ivan for the glory of 'Murica
>muh call to arms
>muh victimizing
>implying Russia wants our shit to begin with
>implying those kids wouldn't have shattered their skulls on a 7.62 seconds into stepping outside

> guy inherits a house near a lake
> meets old lady neighbor
> old lady neighbor brings a pie one day
> she seems to just disappear
> pie gone too
> goes to library
> LADY DED WHOLE TIME

Sorority chick actually wrote this in a Fiction class I took. Class tore it a new one.

>>4475329
Basically, Less Than Zero, with poor people.
It's going to be a social commentary on how rich white kids can get away with murder, but a poor kid from bakersfield is considered scum.

It will change the American novel forever.

Franzen will become my bitch.

First bump

>>4478040
>Basically Less Than Zero
You're not changing anything...

>>4477526
This sounds way too similar to Red Dawn.