Hatrack River Writers Workshop: A change to Ender's Game and a Story idea

This is topic A change to Ender's Game and a Story idea in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Evil Star (Member # 632) on :

Hi all me again

I wanted to talk about 2 things. First off you know how in Ender's Game how Dragon was the army that ended up being great after it was once so bad that it was dissolved years before Ender got there. Well before Ender went to Dragon, he was in an army called Phoenix Army. Now a Pheonix is a legendary bird that once it dies it rises from its death in a flash of fire or whatever better than ever.

Do did it ever occur to anyone that perhaps OSC should have just switched those army names? Because it would have been more fitting to have Pheonix Army Rise Again From The Ashes!

Oh well just what I thought of the first time I read Ender's Game

Oh and your right, the other day I had one of those profound moments and a story idea popped into my head!

Im going to share =)

Ok I was on some airline website and I was checking prices. and it had a scroll down box where you pick the day you want to leave
and then one below it to pick the day you want to come back. Well by accident the date I picked happened to come before the date I picked to leave! So the server rejected the dates and I checked and saw my error

Wham then it hit me!

I could do a story about someone who made that same mistake while buying airline tickets on the internet. Only the server did not reject the dates. And when the main character steps off the plane it is actually one week before he left!

And the main story of course would be about the man using this strange phenomenon to undo something that went horribly wrong that week. maybe a couple of things. I was thinking of a Death/Murder AND his relationship at the same time

Well please let me know what you all think! =)

Oh if I write this im going to call it

"Destiny Airlines"

Thanks

Posted by jackonus (Member # 132) on :

Whaddya mean IF you write it. Just write it. I read a story once where the main character used time travel to edit all the minor mistakes in his life. He'd say the wrong thing on a date, and he'd go back in time to fix it, so that he'd score with the woman. Then he ran into someone who was editing his own life by editing interactions with this guy. It was all very interesting.

I like the idea of Destiny Airlines. Go for it.

Posted by JK (Member # 654) on :

I think that the army names aren't really important to the story, although I would point out that a dragon is a mythical, majestic and powerful creature. Ender's army had an ability to win that belonged in mythology, and it was powerful too, so I think it's deserved.
The idea's a good one, although I'm not sure how the plane would land in last week. Go ahead and write it, though, by all means, it sounds interesting.
JK

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

No, I've got it!

Have him make that kind of mistake while purchasing over the internet, and having something impossible happen as a result, and all, but then explore why something like that could happen...what is the nature of reality if it can be altered so radically by a simple typo in an electronic form?

Or better yet, have him come up against some kind of regulatory authority that knows about this and is using it for their own purposes...or combine the two somehow, like the reality that we percive is being controlled by people that don't want us to find out the way things really work...okay, that kinda smacks of The Matrix.

Have him discover this, and then find out other things that tie in with it, like Jack's idea of meeting someone else that's doing the same thing to him, that's a good one.

Posted by Teresa Howard (Member # 658) on :

Interesting idea aboout the names of the armies. They could be switched without really altering the storyline at all.

Your story idea sounds great. Start working on it now. There are several stories that use the "Second Chance" or backstep idea. Three tv shows list season delt with that theme. Guy who gets yesterdays paper, Show about governments project that takes guy back in time 7 days, and twice in a lifetime etc. Give yours a distinctive twist or two and see where it lands. Could be a nice short story that gets published, or a novel that makes you some real money.

Posted by Editor Girl (Member # 509) on :

Maybe he causes the deaths and Murders to happen when he goes back in time, and then when he realizes what he did he tries to change it be stopping the version of him that went back in time but instead goes forward in time! Time gets confusing...