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The Plot Thickens! Post All Plot Ideas In Here!

Farted by SnakeClock, October 01, 2008, 09:20:12 PM

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SnakeClock

In this thread, Clocks can share their plot concept for their forthcoming 30-day novel. You can be as detailed or as vague as you like; hell, you could even write your entire plot outline in here! You could also throw other ideas at other concepts to see what sticks with your fellow Clock novelists.

All plot concepts should be posted in here, to keep the main forum clean.

My novel, called Patchwork Hearts, is about a population of people that can pull their hearts out of their chest and stick various objects to them to alter their personality slightly. The hearts are usually made of very strange materials, like iron, wood, rubber or so forth, and they could have potentially anything stuck to them; a pocket watch, for an innate sense of punctuality, but also a kind of stiff, intolerant demeanour; a pack of playing cards, for a playful, clever nature, but also the habit of never knowing when to quit; flower petals, for sweetness and delicacy, but also fragility.

The book will most likely open with the protagonist applying an odd object to his heart. I'm not quite sure what, but I'm playing with the idea of having it have undesired effects for him, and the book is about his attempts to remove it (taking dingen off the heart is thought to be impossible or dangerous). I have a whole slew of ideas stemming from this one concept; elaborate boutiques of random dingen to put on your heart, black markets where shady characters deal in illegal trinkets to apply to their hearts, "heart gangs", where each member has one particular thing attached to their hearts for a kind of gang mentality, a much more bizarre meaning to "someone who wears their heart on their sleeve"...

The setting I picture is turn-of-the-century England, a time of elegance and opportunity, and a time with rich personality. I also have an idea for a subplot involving a sort of deity figure called "The Seamstress", who people believe creates their hearts, though I'm not sure what I might do with her.

Funnily enough, I initially got this idea while chatting with CheshireClock, when he told me I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I told him, since he has Goth sympathies, "Yeah, so do you, and it's made of black fabric and fishnet stockings."

What do you think? What are your ideas? Feel free to share!

HitchhikerClock

I have an idea
essentially, a guy (haven't thought about names yet) digs a hole in his lawn to find a tunnel leading to a planet with aliens that look like awkwardly proportioned human beings. Realizing that going back to earth would lead him into a nuthouse, he tries to cope and familiarize himself with the new planet.

It's a start :)
42
Quote from: Boston;1416736I JUST LOST IT NO ONE METIONS THE MAGIC FAGGIT AND I WILL CRUSH THAT GUY WHO STARTED IT ITO PASTE ON MY LUNCH!!!!! HE WILL GET HIS MUTTAH FUCKIN ASS WOOPED!!!!!!!!

SnakeClock

It's definitely a start! I like it, Hitch! NaNoWriMo is a sucker for outlandish ideas like that. ;)

Bigglesnoots

I'll write whatever comes to mind, since I'll have to do it like that anyway, just to get my wordcount up.
Quote from: Zombie Lincoln;1601675Waiting around to die is the most socially acceptable method of suicide, and it always works.

DiscoBallClock

#4
I'm thinking:
A famous star(music, movies, whatever)is at the top of his/her career. Then, something happens and he/she goes from riches to rags. What happens then? (Kinda vague, but it's not a definite idea.)

[FLASH=http://files.myfrogbag.com/kqk1bc/discosig.swf]http://width=300 height=200[/FLASH]

SnakeClock

Quote from: DiscoBallClock;1416631I'm thinking:
A famous star(music, movies, whatever)is at the top of his/her career. Then, something happens and he/she goes from rags to riches. What happens then? (Kinda vague, but it's not a definite idea.)

Shouldn't it be the other way around? :confused:

DiscoBallClock

Quote from: SnakeClock;1416634Shouldn't it be the other way around? :confused:

Edited, thanks.

[FLASH=http://files.myfrogbag.com/kqk1bc/discosig.swf]http://width=300 height=200[/FLASH]

Topcatyo

My novel is called Captain Shrapnel and Admiral Propellor Save The World

FLOUNDERMAN_CLOCK

I'm submitting moby dick with all the names spelled backwards.

SnakeClock

Quote from: FloundermanClock;1416836I'm submitting moby dick with all the names spelled backwards.

:sherlock: Sounds good.

Topcatyo


SnakeClock

Quote from: Bubbie;1416867I'm starting work tonight.

I trust you don't mean you're going to start writing. You're not allowed to write one word until November 1.

Topcatyo

Quote from: SnakeClock;1416870I trust you don't mean you're going to start writing. You're not allowed to write one word until November 1.
Oh, what, really?  Shit, I figured THIS was the month to begin.
S'what I get for not bothering to read shit.
Anyway, if that's the case, I won't start right away.
I am allowed to to a plot outline, right, or work on the cover art?

SnakeClock

Quote from: Bubbie;1416877Oh, what, really?  Shit, I figured THIS was the month to begin.
S'what I get for not bothering to read shit.
Anyway, if that's the case, I won't start right away.
I am allowed to to a plot outline, right, or work on the cover art?

Of course. You can do anything else you want with your book except physically write it. Plan to your heart's content.

But be sure not to overplan; that takes some of the fun out of it. ;)

Topcatyo

Quote from: SnakeClock;1416879Of course. You can do anything else you want with your book except physically write it. Plan to your heart's content.

But be sure not to overplan; that takes some of the fun out of it. ;)
No problem, I've already got everything planned but the stuff in-between the final fight and the beginning.  Writing that will be the fun part.

Slurpee

Okay. This will be a bit of a mouth full, but it won't really make sense unless I get it all out there.

A long time ago, there was a guy. A really rotten scoundrel of a guy, who wanted, truly, to end the world. This is not so common a trait as one might assume, as he was actually the only person in the history of mankind who ever truly felt it necessary. This was because he was completely insane. So determined was this crazy man to bring about the end of the world, that his motivation itself drew the attention of an ancient power that had set itself aside for just such a task, and the ancient power sort of metaphysically shkloomped onto him.

The man, newly equipped with the full augmentation of human abilities that the power brought to him, was ill-fit for the task. (He was, as I mentioned, crazy.) The best way to end the world, he reasoned, or, to be more accurate, completely failed to reason against, was to kick everybody's ass. Everybody's ass. Normally such an action would result in the deaths of perhaps a dozen people, and a news story of a tragic shooting, but, with his actions buffered by unearthly power, he did a hell of a job, managing to kill enough people to match a small war, before, in an act of panic, the city where he began his rampage was bombed, just to stop the motherfucker.


My story takes place in that city, now rebuilt, and chronicles how the power that was left in his body, long after his death, finally, eventually, succeeded in ending the world.
It will also be the story of a man working for a guild of black-market couriers, some young runaways, a corrupt businessman and his bankrupt rival, and a hitman/mother of two. Amongst others. Somebody will be named "Rudd," but I don't know who yet.

I don't know how everybody will figure into the plot just yet (they're just all bouncing around my head, and I like to be inclusive) but I do know about the man's corpse, and can tell you about that. This is the fun part.
His bones are all that's left, but they've some special properties- a bit like the Spear of Destiny, only without the religious association. The majority of the bones- the spine, the torso and pelvis, and anything smaller than an ulna, were destroyed, or lost, etc., mostly so I don't have to keep track of 206 various MacGuffins. The only surviving parts of his body are his major extremities, and his skull.
The magic part is that the bones augment things traditionally associated with whatever part of the body they are- with his fibula on your person, you run faster and jump higher. His humerus enhances your musculature, if you club somebody with his radius it'll be like they were hit by a sledgehammer, and, significantly, you gain the knowledge of whatever you strike with his skull.
The bones are evil, but not in the noticeable, conscious way of the One Ring. Through their use they bring about low-probability situations that are both bad and wouldn't have otherwise happened, and eventually bring about the end of the world.

It should be a good story. I want to make it character driven, which is a bit of a tall order with this plot, but I find most non-character driven stories are pretty stupid.
If nothing else, I'll at least have some fun telling it.

I'm thinking I'll call it Bones.

poopbutt

plain and simple the war diary of a squirrel warrior plain and simple.
Quote from: Sean Connery;1479838Horsemen, whore like your mother and semen

SnakeClock

Quote from: Boston;1417028plain and simple the war diary of a squirrel warrior plain and simple.

What kind of challenges does a squirrel warrior face? Conquering trees? Finding more acorns than the other squirrels? Flesh out this idea.

The Spoiler

So basically

There's a world where all of civilization is contained within one massive walled city, and there's noone alive who ever actually saw the outside of it. The main character is a materials engineer who designs body armor for the police, and he goes on a journey to find what lies beyond the city, after the mysterious death of a friend (the friend is a high-ranking police officer, who's assassinated by the governor's private militia because he knows to much. When the main character goes to the friend's house to console his widow, she hands him the man's journal, which is full of government secrets, including the existence of life beyond the city).

Early on in the book, the journey is pretty simple; he just travels in a relatively straight line trying to get near the edge of the city (and meets interesting characters, does things, etc.). In the chapters where he's reached the outer edge of the city, he tries to find out what the locals (keep in mind the city is larger than some countries) have heard about life ouside the city. Eventually, the police find out that he's trying to escape the city, and post a bounty on him. There's an epic confrontation between him and the bounty hunter that killed his best friend, then he assumes the bounty hunter's identity and pulls some sort of stunt involving stealing high-powered equipment from the government and blowing a huge chunk out of the wall.

After he escapes he evades the police, and finds shelter in the home of a hermit who escaped 50 years earlier. The man tells him that if he wants the police to leave him alone, he has to transform himself into a new person. He tells him of a lake that has magical properties, allowing anyone who drink the water to alter reality (to a degree).

When he arrives he drinks the water and modifies his appearance. Then he notices the fish in the lake and gets an idea. He gives himself gills and swims to the bottom. Inside the lake he finds a portal to one of infinitely many other universes. He enters and finds out he has supreme (god) powers over the new universe.

If it's not 50k words by then it'll go into the creation of the universe (and maybe even his own attempts to stop its residents from escaping to yet another universe)


That alone was 400 words, so 1600 words/day (approx. equal to 50k words / month) is starting to look possible.



EDIT: The squirrel warrior reminds me of Watership Down. Boston, you might want to read it for inspiration.

SnakeClock

Mechanus! You old son of a bitch! Good to see you!

Go sign up in the registration thread so I can keep tabs on you. Glad you stopped in.

Quote from: Mechanus;1417076EDIT: The squirrel warrior reminds me of Watership Down. Boston, you might want to read it for inspiration.

:sherlock: Interesting parallel. Boston's probably never heard of Watership Down, but he's been surprising me lately.