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[Supermikhail]

By "outlining" I mean writing the plot for a story, the setting, characters and other things. I wanted to make a community novel thread at first, but then decided that it would be a bit of a stretch; for one because I'm even more clueless how to organize that. But I figured outlining would be manageable; everyone must be up for some outlining; people keep saying it's the easy part of writing.

So, to start things off, I'd like ideas for a premise. For example, and what I've thought about for a bit, a premise would be "what if aliens visited the Earth, but one man slept through it." (The implication here is that he must cope somehow with believing they were here despite having never seen them.) That's the kind of premise I'm talking about. Is there a 'what if'(s) that you'd like to turn into a story or just made up or heard of?

Premise suggestions:

• What if a space station was powered by magic
• Insert yours here
• ...

----

In other news, if it turns out awesome enough someone might pick it up as a writing project, or it might become a community writing thing, or even something more. At least that's my peachy vision of it. But for now I'd just like to have fun and throw ideas around.

[AlStar]

Random story ideas:

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=storygen

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The story is about a shaman, a beggar, and an infamous professor. It takes place in an underground city. Cross-species romance is a major element of the story.
The story is about an irrational princess and a gladiator. It takes place in a galaxy-spanning technocracy. The story ends with the discovery of a lost item. The religion of the world will turn out not to be what it seems.

The story is about a physicist, an attractive princess, a naive bard, and a disillusioned circuit priest who is mysteriously connected to a robot. It starts in a magical universe. The speed of technological changes plays a major part in this story.

This is a pure action story. The story is about an unconfident investor addicted to an otherworldly drug. It takes place in a port city in Europe. The story begins with an inheritance and ends with somebody breaking something important.

This is a fish-out-of-water story with an undercurrent about rebellion and the flaws of man. The story is about newscasters. It takes place in a storehouse in a metropolis. The story begins with research being done and ends with someone waking up up.

The story is about a cynical singer. It takes place on a space station established by magical means. The story begins with a spiritual experience. The differences between alien technologies is a major part of this story.

This is a tale about realism and the danger of traditional values. The story is about a cartographer haunted by dark memories. It takes place in a large nation on an arid planet. The crux of the story involves a holiday celebration. The need to kill someone to stop a prophecy from coming true is an important part of the story.

This is a road-trip story with an undercurrent about realism and the need for intelligent analysis. The story is about a corporate official. It takes place in a survivalist camp. The question of when a machine becomes human is a major part of the story.

The story is about an engineer who hates a persuasive coachman. It takes place in a prison. The story climaxes with a war.

The story is about a crippled weapons master who is in debt to an acrobatic fortune-teller. It starts on a rocky planet. Magic is fading in power, and that plays an important role in the story.

First result in Google... honestly, they're not bad.
Interesting, at any rate.

The last one about "a crippled weapons master who is in debt to an acrobatic fortune-teller" sounds promising.

I also like "It takes place on a space station established by magical means." A magic space station. That's actually pretty awesome.

[Yoink]

Some of those are seriously freaking hilarious. Let's combine them all!

...Slightly more on topic: The crippled weapons master has to make a dangerous journey to the magic space station, to retrieve the holy Sword of Newscasters and pawn it off to cover his debts.

[Supermikhail]

Ok, those aren't really 'what if's. Maybe I'm biased, but I don't see successful fiction starting off a plot generator*. In any case I don't think stories start with a plot, but a premise. If you could boil those down to a 'what if', I'd consider them. Unless the majority decides they are too awesome.

Maybe if we take a magic space station premise. I'll put it up under "What if a space station was powered by magic," if you don't mind. It could be fun.

...Aw, what the hell. I'll keep the 'crippled weapons master to the magic space station' angle in mind, in case public opinion swings that way.

*In the sense that successful fiction goes with the author(s) caring about it, and it's kind of hard when it's a random roll amidst a thousand.

[Fishbreath]

The sort of society that would build a magic space station seems like an interesting next place to go. Obviously, they're scientifically curious enough to determine enough about the world to come up with the concept of a space station, but for some reason haven't worked out rockets. Is magic just that easy?

[Willfor]

Noooooooooooooooo.

I was hoping to be the only person writing magic in space.

;___;

Edit: I thought it might be best to postface this with the fact that I'm mostly joking here. I am writing magic in space. It's rather uncanny for me to then read this here. I'm pretty sure our concepts are completely different though. Time will tell.

[Fishbreath]

I'm pretty sure it's one of the Laws of Writing that someone's had your idea before you.

[Supermikhail]

Is magic just that easy?

It helps that I'm reading Terry Pratchett right now.

No, magic is not easy. It requires blood, sweat and tears, just like any science. And some chicken sacrifice. Although it depends on what kind of magic we're talking about here. For example, we could be talking about the Dwarf Fortress kind of magic.

E:

Dwarf Fortress kind of magic.

It probably means that the space station is either a) powered by magma, b) a breed of a domesticated forgotten beast.

[Supermikhail]