A lot of people worldbuild when they daydream and have the bones of a story kicking around in their brain, but have to pay the bills and raise the kids etc so they never flesh it out and write it down. What’s your story’s premise? Fantasy, sci-fi, alternate history, mystery, western, whatever genre.
I will not tell lol I am working on it and really excited about it
A doppelganger of sorts replaces a character, but it’s entirely for the better. Despite being an unearthly monstrosity, it’s well meaning, good intentioned and has everyone’s best in mind. Unfortunately this isn’t seen as a good thing by the crowd the original ran with, and those who find out are at a crux between liking the person and fearing the monster.
There’s a similar episode in the twilight zone that could be interpreted as this too, but I’d like to play with it a bit. As an otherworldly entity it doesn’t play by human rules, imagine a gang thinking their just bumping off some cleaned up junky that’s gone straight and all of a sudden they’re being stalked through a mirror realm by a nightmare abomination who periodically dips out to take it’s estranged kids to therapy and volunteer at the community garden.
Rough outline, a woman loses her husband to violence and takes their young son to a more rural community to get away from the urban environment which has too many ghosts and memories.
Partial inspiration:
She settles into the small town, in an old house that needs work, but she needs the work to put her mind on other things. Lots of quirky locals offer advice, want all up in her business, and she’s polite but shuts them down.
Working on the house, a large, ropy, brown tail dangles from a tree branch outside the window and she’s startled to see a full grown-ass cougar just hanging out. Apparently it liked the place when it was abandoned and sees no need to move on.
She doesn’t know what to do, and throws a home made cheese ball at it, a welcome gift from one of the quirky locals. She didn’t really want the thing, or know what to do with it. The cat bats it out of the air and carries it off.
So now, she didn’t really want to talk to the locals, but has to. She wants to build a fence to keep the cat out.
She has part of it in place, and the cat leaps over it without any trouble at all. The fence wasn’t complete, it could have gone around the fence, it jumped it because it could.
Then, the town erupts. A big cat has been killing livestock at nearby farms, everyone is up in arms and they blame her for moving into the old abandoned house and “stirring up trouble.”
Locals go on a literal torch weilding mob rampage to kill the cat causing all the damage, and they kill one, so everyone thinks the problem is resolved.
But the color on this one isn’t quite… right, is it? And it’s bigger, a male, she’s certain the one by her house was female.
She gets home, pretty much revolted by the mob action, and finds an impossibly small cougar cub, asleep on her porch.
That’s an incredible outline! Got a working title? Maybe “Out of the Bag” or something?
I like the idea that you start with “quirky” locals who are presumably likeable and the main character is probably a bit off putting at first but then later the mob mentality comes out and your sympathies are reversed.
Reminds me of this haunting/terrifying song: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OELFgreDw5M&pp=ygUgUGluZSBoaWxsIGhhaW50cyBvbGQgd2hpdGUgdGhhbmc%3D
Sci fi set in contemporary times on Earth. A spaceship from another dimension accidentally enters a freak wormhole and gets dumped off in our universe. Only a single human survived on the ship, augmented by some super fancy AI (that actually works reliably unlike what we have access to nowadays). Captain isn’t able to maintain orbit but is able to land out in the middle of the south Pacific. Captain & AI have no way to return to their home universe or even send a message.
Ship contains a lot of advanced technology. Captain knows the theory of it all but doesn’t know the details. Ship’s AI has schematics for everything on board but not for everything in the civilization they left - only the most commonly used parts.
Ship contains a perfectly efficient recycler and replicator, but it’s limited by speed and by internal volume of the replicator.
Ship has a medbay capable of treating any known disease or injury, but there are only four pods (normal crew size only needs four), and treating something severe like a heart attack or cancer requires a full week non-stop.
Ship isn’t designed for combat or passenger service, but is instead a giant mining ship equipped with tractor beams to facilitate harvesting ore in space. It’s about the size of a giant ore carrier from Earth, and does have some rudimentary point defense weapons to defend against space pirates.
Ship has some problems that make it temporarily not-spaceworthy, and may or may not be able to find all the raw materials it needs to repair itself for more spaceflight. It is however perfectly capable of atmospheric flight operations.
How does the captain interact with us? Is the ship able to find enough stuff to repair itself? Does the captain decide to trade favors for supplies that can’t be synthesized? Or does the captain spiral into a pit of despair at being irrevocably separated from their home?
In case you’re wondering, yes I do as a matter of fact enjoy tech uplift stories.
Does the captain decide to trade favors for supplies that can’t be synthesized?
…how sexy is this captain?
A sci-fi drama about a guy who develops a brain tumor. The tumor becomes sentient and can communicate with the man through their shared thoughts. Over time, they develop a kind of friendship. At the end, the man must undergo brain surgery to remove the tumor. Despite being able to prevent the surgery somehow (haven’t worked this part out yet), the tumor allows it to happen anyway, knowing that it must die in order for the man to live.
I think I would write this as a short story, but I’ve never written any fiction before and don’t even know how to start.
I’ve read a lot of books and articles about how to write, and honestly it just seems like different authors all have different routines. Some are very rigid with their schedules and some write when inspiration takes them.
Everyone needs to know fundamentals of plot, character, and dialogue though. There are college classes on it n
