Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Can anyone out there come up with a plot for me for one of these?

This is topic Can anyone out there come up with a plot for me for one of these? in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by FROGGERBOB000 (Member # 2637) on :

Here are my character ideas:

The crippled, rude artificial life form.
The unjust, corrupt botanist with a dark past.
The young, altruistic, boastful starship pilot.
The comic from an infamous race.
The aged, dissatisfied, hypocritical fighter pilot from an unusual family line.

And here is my general idea (I need more expansion here):

Two people, Kar and Lukus, are fighting for their lives because of two fission-fusion bombs (similar to OSC's Dr. Device) that have destroyed almost all life on Azoson VII (almost like earth). On the way to the refugee ship, they are attacked by a band of mutants deformed by the radiation.

Now that I think about it, the crippled, rude artificial life form could be a mutant; the young, altruistic, boastful starship pilot could be either Kar or Lukus; and the aged, dissatisfied, hypocritical fighter pilot from an unusual family line could be the other one. As for the other two characters, they could be already onboard the Starship Traveler Zone, possibly as villains or as the other passengers onboard the ship.

[This message has been edited by FROGGERBOB000 (edited June 07, 2005).]

Posted by FROGGERBOB000 (Member # 2637) on :

I thought up names for the botanist: Treecharm The Manipulator

and the comic alien:
Machartha, commonly known as Mac

and the mutant:
Krushfeint the Improbable

[This message has been edited by FROGGERBOB000 (edited June 07, 2005).]

Posted by FROGGERBOB000 (Member # 2637) on :

Kar is the young, altruistic starship pilot; while Lukus is the aged starship fighter pilot.

Posted by FROGGERBOB000 (Member # 2637) on :

The setting for the story is as follows:

Government: Liberated Principality of Spheres

City of Azoson: This ruthless galaxy-spanning technocacy was noted for its advanced medicine and business skills. It was destroyed by class warfare, leaving behind only tombs and terraforming devices.

Kar: Confident and pessimistic.

Lukus: Withdrawn, but many mistake it for being enthusiastic, namely Kar.

Era: The Corrupt Epoch of the Weapon

Currency: Imperial Crown

Bomb Name: Organic Fission Virus

Posted by FROGGERBOB000 (Member # 2637) on :

Here is what I have so far on my story:

Possible Chapter 2:
BREATH OF DESTRUCTION

As Kar and Lukus ran from the disease, their minds raced. Where could they go? What could they do? What would happen to Earth? Was anyplace safe? They considered the mutants they had seen among the wreckage, horribly scarred by the bomb. Kar wondered if she and Lukus were the only ones left.

"How much farther will we be able to go?" pondered Lukus.

"Three, four hundred miles."

"Oh? Did I say that aloud?"

"Yes."

"Well, I didn't mean to."

They soon came upon what looked like an abandoned city. It was not destroyed by the bomb, but rather abandoned years before the bomb hit. On the outer wall, there was a sign, "Visitors unwelcome. We are currently redisgning our workshops. DO NOT ENTER."

Lukus stared, "Do you think it would be alright if we entered? The city has been abandoned for years. There shouldn't be any harm in just checking the place out, maybe searching for a sun well while we're at it."

****** Note from the administrator:

Please keep excerpts from your stories to 13 lines, and we prefer that those 13 lines be the first 13 lines of the story.

[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited June 07, 2005).]

Posted by dpatridge (Member # 2208) on :

uhh... erm... what the diddly scootums is this?

* looks around in puzzlement about where this stuff came from.

Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :

Frogger, you may want to look around a bit and see how the site works. You seem to not understand what Hatrack is about.

Posted by Meenie (Member # 2633) on :

Frogger,
Do you talk to yourself often?
I hear there is medication for that

Meenie

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

Frogger, while hatrackers have been known to float ideas by one another, we do not typically ask others to generate ideas for us. The line is perhaps subtle, but important. This is not a site for writing collaborative works and honestly, any raw ideas you put on this board are free game for anyone to grab.

More importantly, this is an important part of the writing process that you have to learn to do yourself. I think we would be remiss in our responsibilities to help one another if we simply gave you plot ideas. It's like when a mother does her daughter's math homework for her....how will the daughter ever learn?

Now, if you'd like some general advice about how to generate plots from characters, we would love to tell you everything we know (and pretend to know things) or you could try Card's books on how to write, which you seem to have perused already.

Basically, you're not done asking questions. How would that work? What would happen next? What kind of person would do this? What would this kind of person do? What kind of problem is likely to arise from that? What could go wrong?

These are the questions that will help you arrive at a plot for your ideas. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.

Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :

Recommended reading: OSC's book Characters & Viewpoint. It has a part on how to generate plots. It works!

Anyway, sounds like to me you're doin' fine already. Welcome.

[This message has been edited by wbriggs (edited June 07, 2005).]

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Also, you're supposed to come up with new characters based on what that "character generator" page suggests, not try and fit your existing characters into the scheme (unless you already were thinking of both Kar and Lukus as "the young, boastful starship pilot", but if you were thinking of both of them that way than they're probably redundant).

Posted by mythopoetic (Member # 2624) on :

Umm... I was just wondering, how long ago was it that this planet or whatever got attacked and all this radiation got spewed everywhere? From the way you make it sound, it was pretty recent or else why would your two characters be trying to get to that ship so fast. However, if that was the case, then you wouldn't be looking at mutants attacking these guys because you wouldn't have what would really be considered "mutants" per se. They'd be more like people turning into radiation ridden corpses very quickly. That or people consumed with cancer everywhere. Usually it takes more time for interesting mutations to show up that don't automatically kill the organism that has been affected. You'll need to address that. Were these individuals somehow shielded from the majority of the radiation? Do they have a unique biology that lets them repair dna very quickly (to an extent of course)? How does this work?

Posted by FROGGERBOB000 (Member # 2637) on :

It was a biobomb that genetically alters any form of life it comes into contact with. Think Descolada, but man-made.

Posted by mythopoetic (Member # 2624) on :

ok, but then how does it nearly destroy all life on the planet? Even the descolada didn't do that, and it wasn't meant as a weapon but as a terraforming tool I though.

Posted by dpatridge (Member # 2208) on :

you are correct mytho, the descolada was a terraforming agent, not a weapon, although part of it's design in the terraforming had the effect of being a weapon.

descolada would have EVENTUALLY caused the extinction of the life forms effected, but it would have taken and was taking far too long...

it would not be feasible to make a bio-weapon, i don't think, that could work so quickly on such a destructive course.

it would have to take at least months to spread through an area as large as Texas, i would think... although i'd be willing to suspend disbelief if it took 1 year for it to spread globally if you had had it have multiple drop points...

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

It doesn't matter if you use a bio-bomb or a rad-bomb. Random mutation of a complex organism is random mutation of a complex organism.

I can see creating a retro-virus designed to mutate a particular species in a particular way, but if your talking about a "unzip all your genes" type of weapon it just doesn't make any difference.