My random story ideas

[Specter Von Baren]

Something I've done all my life is come up with concept for stories. Even if I'm never going to make them a reality because of laziness, ability, or that I'm not and never will be in a position where that would be something I could make, I like doing it. So I wanted to make this thread where I can put down my ideas and what I would want from them. Feel free to join in if ya want.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

So one idea I recently remembered is the idea for an anime romcom that specifically tries to subvert something and do things a bit differently. Specifically my idea was to make it seem like it's a typical story of that type with two obvious potential heroines competing for the affection of a guy but I wanted for that to be resolved somewhat early and have a "winner" decided but... then it doesn't work out. The two find things that don't work well together and so they break up. However, the thing I would want to do after that is that the side character that usually isn't in the running but may have a strong, if small, group supporting them as the potential lead heroine, actually becomes the lead heroine.

It's the kind of story I'd want to make to appeal to the younger me that first started reading manga with Love Hina. I dislike obvious "main girl"s that are bland and too obviously the "winner" of whatever relationship chart the series has. The fluffy thought I had when I first thought of this concept was just, "what if a support character in a love story became one of the two main characters in that story?" But this kind of idea would be difficult to do, both to not piss people off and to write it well enough that the central premise is genuine in that the support character is conceptualized as if they were indeed a support character until the moment they suddenly aren't. I guess it would be the Madoka Magica of romcoms in that way.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Another one I came up with in college. A story about a genetically engineered human and a barely put together robot traveling around in a post apocalyptic world. So often I see stories about a robot and a human where the robot is a protector for a weak human, but I had the thought, "what if it was the other way around?"

So my idea was to have a human genetically engineered to be tougher and hardier than normal humans to try and make a new generation of people that could better survive the new world, traveling with a robot that is just a torso, head, and one arm. The robot is also more "human" than the human, while the human is emotionally stunted and not good at communicating. Flipping things around, that's what I like to do.

 

[Thaluikhain]

So one idea I recently remembered is the idea for an anime romcom that specifically tries to subvert something and do things a bit differently. Specifically my idea was to make it seem like it's a typical story of that type with two obvious potential heroines competing for the affection of a guy but I wanted for that to be resolved somewhat early and have a "winner" decided but... then it doesn't work out. The two find things that don't work well together and so they break up. However, the thing I would want to do after that is that the side character that usually isn't in the running but may have a strong, if small, group supporting them as the potential lead heroine, actually becomes the lead heroine.

It's the kind of story I'd want to make to appeal to the younger me that first started reading manga with Love Hina. I dislike obvious "main girl"s that are bland and too obviously the "winner" of whatever relationship chart the series has. The fluffy thought I had when I first thought of this concept was just, "what if a support character in a love story became one of the two main characters in that story?" But this kind of idea would be difficult to do, both to not piss people off and to write it well enough that the central premise is genuine in that the support character is conceptualized as if they were indeed a support character until the moment they suddenly aren't. I guess it would be the Madoka Magica of romcoms in that way.

Had a similar idea, what if the two realise he's not worth it and become friends and the show is about them from then on?

Though, in my idea, it would be the dorky-but-cute normal girl who is supposed to win, but doesn't because the generic-hot-girl turns out to be a superheroine.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Had a similar idea, what if the two realise he's not worth it and become friends and the show is about them from then on?

Though, in my idea, it would be the dorky-but-cute normal girl who is supposed to win, but doesn't because the generic-hot-girl turns out to be a superheroine.

Wasn't that Legend of Korra?

Edit: Although I guess the show was always about Korra.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Wasn't that Legend of Korra?

Not familiar with that, but I bet quite a few people had that idea before me.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Wasn't that Legend of Korra?

Edit: Although I guess the show was always about Korra.

Wasn't that also half-assed? I thought even fans of the pairing weren't satisfied with how little build up there was to it, even if it is what they wanted.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Wasn't that also half-assed? I thought even fans of the pairing weren't satisfied with how little build up there was to it, even if it is what they wanted.

Wasn't all the writing in Korra?

 

[Asita]

Wasn't that also half-assed? I thought even fans of the pairing weren't satisfied with how little build up there was to it, even if it is what they wanted.

Eh...I mean by the middle of season 3, I was half-joking that Korra and Asami had the best romantic buildup in the show, and started seriously speculating that they were actually going to go that route by the second episode of season 4. It certainly didn't come out of nowhere.

To my memory, the main bone of contention was between people who understood romantic blocking and stock-poses saying that yes the finale did in fact canonize the romantic relationship they'd been speculating the show would go with, and other people (who generally weren't as familiar with the nuances of such blocking) arguing that the finale either didn't have romantic overtones or was trying to retcon the relationship into having already existed rather than having the characters' "final bow" be the start of their romantic relationship.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Cross posting from another thread. Had the idea for a dark romcom story about a yandere falling in love with a yandere and finally figured out how to make the idea work.

"Ok, I got the concept down I think. I shall label the two MCs under the names Sun for the guy and Moon for the girl.

Sun is a more upfront type. The idea is to give the idea of a handsome serial killer like character that is capable of interacting with people but hides their darker side very well. Moon is the more obvious but shy type. She creeps people out a little but just how extreme she can be is hidden by her shyness.

The biggest block I had with developing this was coming up with a way to put obstacles in the plot and where it should be leading to, but I think I figured out how to do it thanks to @wings012 and and listening to the song Mira, on repeat for half an hour (This is now the official theme song for this story). Have one of the characters, Sun, be focussed on someone else initially. Setting and age could be either high school or workplace, either works but Moon would be a new addition to the setting, either just transferring or just being hired at the start, for the sake of time, let's just assume this is set in a highschool.

Sun is currently obsessed with someone else but he's a leader of sorts to his classmates thanks to his charisma and takes it upon himself to get Moon settled in. Why would a yandere do this, take time away from the object of their affection? This ties into characterization. The source of Sun's obsessive personality is due to being from an affluent and controlling family. His whole life has been about doing as he's told and giving up on things he likes or wants for the sake of his parents wishes. So his obsessiveness is born out of him going all in on anything he can choose to pursue outside of the control of his family. But he has still been brought up to be proper and a leader and so he does things like this.

On the other side we have Moon, the source of her obsessiveness is born out of a desire to be loved. Her father died early in her life and her mother hates her, seeing her as something that robbed her of her youth and time and that just adds more burdens upon her, she's verbally abusive to Moon. Because of this, Moon lives alone, this is why she's moved to a new school, and is stunted emotionally, shy, has a hard time communicating, and many find her off putting and creepy but she desperately wants someone to love her.

These character backgrounds of Sun and Moon wouldn't be known upfront, they would be revealed in the later half of this story.

So getting back to the setup, that single day of Sun getting Moon comfortable with her new school is enough to set her on becoming obsessed with him. This is when shenanigans can start whether comedic or creepy as we see one yandere go head to head with another as Sun tries to do things to get closer to his current object of affection, let's keep the theme going and call them Star, while Moon tries to disrupt that. This continues for a while until eventually Moon comes to the conclusion that she's no match for Sun and that she's never going to get his affection and so she decides if she can't have that then... She will be happy to at least be his lackey, this is her first sign of character growth, with the lead up initially making you think she's going to kill Sun and/or herself. So she proposes to Sun to be his accomplice in whatever he decides to do and help him with Star, to which he agrees.

More shenanigans, what happens when the full force of two yandere are directed towards one person for the same goal? However, eventually through their plots and schemes, Sun starts to grow fond of Moon, and eventually his affection shifts to her. What is it that leads to this specifically? Moon wanting to be someone in his life despite knowing what the real him is like and also being willing to sacrifice her own wants for him, unlike how his relationship with his parents is where he is the one having to make sacrifices.

So the dynamic shifts again, now we have two yandere that are in love with each other, what hijinks could that cause? Ah, but now we have the genre shift, no longer is this a dark romcom, now this is a romance story tackling emotional problems and unhealthy relationships. One would think that this would be a perfect situation for both of them but now their actual personalities and differences come into play and this is when their backstories would be revealed. Moon is the shy type that doesn't like being the center of attention, suddenly having all of Sun's energy directed at her is overwhelming, the life he lives of being social and seen by others is completely at odds with what she's comfortable with. Further, she's seen the real him and understands his personality better and doubts if this is the actual kind of affection she truly wants or if she's just another obsession for him born from his desire to do what he wants rather than actual love. Sun on the other hand, becomes aware that he's actually causing an amount of pain for Moon and tries to change how he does things and acts to make her more comfortable with him but it lands him into trouble with his parents who don't like these "changes" (Rather, him being more true to himself) nor that he's pursuing someone romantically that isn't carefully selected by them. On the other side of the equation, Moon's mother also becomes aware of this new relationship but unlike Sun's parents, she wants Moon to actively pursue it, demands it even, because Sun is from a wealthy family and Moon getting hitched with him would also give Moon's mom access to that money as "payment" for all the "trouble" she's been. Moon is now even more conflicted over her feelings for Sun since she doesn't want to aid someone that's been so cruel to her but her mother also has a power over her to get Moon to do what she wants

Now we come to the part I'm unsure of, how to conclude this story. I prefer happy endings where things work out but maybe a darker ended mg would be better for this subject matter? I would like a story where Sun and Moon find themselves growing and changing as people thanks to their relationship and finding a way to be happy together. But... We could also go the dark route where, despite their feelings for each other and attempts to be together, the world is hell bent on it not happening and in the end they decide to leave that world by jumping off a bridge together, hand in hand.

There we go, the idea has now taken a full shape."

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I've had this tiny idea flitting into my thoughts every few months now. A story of the end of the world told through conversations between people on a message board. You'd get all sort of different perspectives and relationships but it's hard to think of how to make such a thing work. Need the internet to still be usable and for posting on the board to either be easy enough that these different people would do it or have the people lacking in any other meaningful relationships that they'd want to spend their time talking on a forum. Troublesome.

 

[Dalisclock]

I've had this tiny idea flitting into my thoughts every few months now. A story of the end of the world told through conversations between people on a message board. You'd get all sort of different perspectives and relationships but it's hard to think of how to make such a thing work. Need the internet to still be usable and for posting on the board to either be easy enough that these different people would do it or have the people lacking in any other meaningful relationships that they'd want to spend their time talking on a forum. Troublesome.

If you're interested, there's a sci-fi book with fantasy and horror elements called "A Fire Upon the Deep" and there's a running theme that every so often you'll have characters talking on a USENET type forum responding to the situation as it develops. Basically a group of space explorers are messing around with some ancient ruins they discovered and....well, they released something terrifying that starts overrunning everything(Starting by corrupting and hijacking the civilization that unleashed it).

The forum posts add a particularly interesting commentary on the whole thing, but also add to the horror as things get worse. Notably, since humans released this massive threat and a certain civilization of humans are now it's unwilling/mind controlled vessels, some of the alien races decide that humans must be exterminated. ALL HUMANS. There are very obvious allusions to the Nazis in the way some of them talk, notably the phrase "Death to Vermin"

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I've had this tiny idea flitting into my thoughts every few months now. A story of the end of the world told through conversations between people on a message board.

A bit like Doctorow's When SysAdmins Ruled the Earth, then?

 

[Specter Von Baren]

If you're interested, there's a sci-fi book with fantasy and horror elements called "A Fire Upon the Deep" and there's a running theme that every so often you'll have characters talking on a USENET type forum responding to the situation as it develops. Basically a group of space explorers are messing around with some ancient ruins they discovered and....well, they released something terrifying that starts overrunning everything(Starting by corrupting and hijacking the civilization that unleashed it).

The forum posts add a particularly interesting commentary on the whole thing, but also add to the horror as things get worse. Notably, since humans released this massive threat and a certain civilization of humans are now it's unwilling/mind controlled vessels, some of the alien races decide that humans must be exterminated. ALL HUMANS. There are very obvious allusions to the Nazis in the way some of them talk, notably the phrase "Death to Vermin"

I'll give that a look then. Thanks.

A bit like Doctorow's When SysAdmins Ruled the Earth, then?

Dunno bout any of that. It just has a similar feel to soldiers on a battlefield in a situation where they're all going to die. A bunch of people that otherwise have no connection to each other except this one thing (In this case, a message board) talking and getting things off their chest with a bunch of other people.

 

[Breakdown]

If you're interested, there's a sci-fi book with fantasy and horror elements called "A Fire Upon the Deep" and there's a running theme that every so often you'll have characters talking on a USENET type forum responding to the situation as it develops. Basically a group of space explorers are messing around with some ancient ruins they discovered and....well, they released something terrifying that starts overrunning everything(Starting by corrupting and hijacking the civilization that unleashed it).

The forum posts add a particularly interesting commentary on the whole thing, but also add to the horror as things get worse. Notably, since humans released this massive threat and a certain civilization of humans are now it's unwilling/mind controlled vessels, some of the alien races decide that humans must be exterminated. ALL HUMANS. There are very obvious allusions to the Nazis in the way some of them talk, notably the phrase "Death to Vermin"

I just read A Fire Upon the Deep a couple of weeks ago, it's great.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Ah, here's one I forgot I had. So many giant Mecha anime plots are about kids and teens piloting giant war machines, what if we had a story where a giant robot was piloting a human instead? I had a plot laid out for this idea but I need to remember more about what it was about since I didn't write it down anywhere.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Eh, I've had plenty of ideas, most of which were from my days as a still-wet-behind-the-ears little squit, so I'd like to think they have somewhat matured over the years.

The last one I was motivated to do anything with was inspired by Svetlana Alexievich's War Does Not Have a Woman's Face aka The Unwomanly Face of War aka I Have Seen the Face of War, and It Is Not a Woman's. Set in the steampunk world I've slowly developed, just elsewhere in the timeline, it's basically the story of how five girls go to war together, after which one comes back. Parallel narrative with each chapter split into two: the war years (dealing with sexism, few facilities for women in a war-camp, enemy reactions, horrors of war etc.); and the post-war years (dealing with loss, PTSD, injuries, difficulties of holding a job etc.). There's a happy ending, but it certainly drags the central cast through the ringer to get there (not to mention killing most of them off).

 

[Gordon_4]

Well I’ve read through this, and well, not a single one of my ideas is gonna stack up here. Happy brainstorming all you creatives.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Well I’ve read through this, and well, not a single one of my ideas is gonna stack up here. Happy brainstorming all you creatives.

Nay, I say. I'd love to hear your ideas. I actually used to do a bit of beta reading when I was younger and really enjoyed helping people improve their works and getting them to realize the potential of them.

 

[ko11b]

Use whatever your brain comes to mind I wrote a couple of short stories they do have isbns if you'd like to read them as for your stories just let your mind flow and your brain flow