The absolutely insane idea thread!

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Zoombie

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Sometimes I have strange ideas. Sometimes I act on said strange ideas, resulting in me hiding behind a pole and jumping out at a woman as she walks past, wearing an evil grin and saying, “GOOD EEEEEEVENING.” The result: One hysterically laughing woman.


So sometimes strange idea's work out. But this thread is not for those ideas. This thread is for story ideas so completely insane, no one would ever think of them. Let me list some I think of right now...




The Amazing Tale of the Visit to the Upside Down Continent: In 1916, the Amazing Upside Down Continent started to hover over the Pacific ocean. Soon a joint expedition was sent, flying the largest, most expensive dirigible in the world, to explore this strange upside down land. What amazing things will they meet? Giant Squirrels, or primeval poison gorillas? Who knows!


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Too much time on his hands and absolutely nothing to do: God is bored, sitting in Heaven. So he decides to start throwing dice and doing things based off what he rolls. That must explain why New York is suddenly teeming with the Undead, why most of Europe has started floating off the earth and why the main character's hair seems to be on eternally on fire. Then again, maybe not.


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Time Squad Vs The Eight Reich: It seems the Space-Nazi's are at their old tricks, going back in time to the Civil War to take America out of WWII way ahead of schedule. Quick, Time Squad, to the Time Copter!


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A Different Perspective: The main character thought it was going to be easy. His weapons, and the weapons of his fellow warriors, were massively powerful, far more than the pitiful cannons and muskets of the bipedal mammals they are conquering. That is, until his friends and fellow warriors start to die off, dying from a mysterious plague. It seems Britain has won this War of the Worlds




I actually have to say, not all these ideas are mine. My dad came up with the last one, saying “I always wanted to read a book from the Martians from 'War of the World' point of view.



Now think up some nutty ideas as well. I need to see some nutty ideas so I can stea- borrow them. Yes...borrow.
 

PeeDee

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The only thing which occured to me in this thread (apart from "dur?" and "urk") was that if I were visiting a floating upside-down continent, I wouldn't use a dirigible. I would use a hot air balloon, continue to fill it, and then just wait until I bump into the floating continent. Saves manuevering.

For the rest, I haven't the faintest idea.

Generally I don't remember looney story ideas I have. Either I use them, or I don't and they submerge back into my subconscious, where they'll probably resurface as part of something else.

The strangest thing I guess I'm doing right now is, in my bookstore with my iPod hooked up to speakers, if I see someone hanging out near the register, I'll watch them for a bit and then change what music I have playing based on what I think they'll listen to.

If they say something when they're checking out, such as "Oh! Disturbed! Great CD!" then I consider it a success.

Call it a passive character study.

That's as close as I've got. Sometimes, I say lunatic things to my wife, but that's part of the being married bit.

(Welcome to the forums, by the by.)
 

Zoombie

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But dirigibles are COOL! I'm working off video game science, where in: "If it looks cool, it WORKS!"

Remember that HORRIBLE Disney movie about Atlantis. There was only one good part. It was when you see the submarine and go 'wow thats a cool sub'. Then it blows up and everyone on it DIES. That was the best part of that movie, in pretty much any Disney movie. They don't have parts like that in Disney movies anymore. The part where everyone dies.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah. That sub. That sub looked really cool. It made NO sense whatsoever, but it was a really cool sub, so that made it okay. Now this dirigible would have to be the LARGEST dirigible ever. Maybe four balloons. It's be armed with machine guns, bi-planes for exploration, rifles and weapons for fighting off the deadly poison gorillas...
 

PeeDee

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(I am rapidly becoming utterly wet & a weed. I know it.)

But the problem is, video game science doesn't always work with novels. Actually, sometimes it's really ineffective, with novels or short stories.

I've seen many a project which will describe a fight scene in ten-page intricate detail, because the author has envisioned it like a movie or a video game so detailed, they could practically storyboard it. Instead, they do the next best thing and describe everysinglepanel they would have put into the storyboard. See what I mean?

Anyway, yes, derigibles are pretty cool. Steampunk would be lost without them. :)
 

Zoombie

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And where would we be with steampunk?

No where, thats where. Man the cannons, crank up the steam engines, full speed ahead!
 

PeeDee

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That reminds me. I have to put more coal into the back of this "computer" thing on my desk. I seem to be typing slowly, that must be why.

Off to finish the first short story I've written in five months that no one's waiting for. Good night, Zoombie. Do you know, if I had a robot, I would name it Zoombie? Now you know.
 

greatfish

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I usually don't like to base my stories off a plot because then I feel pressure to surprise the reader with something unpredictable, but I did always want someone to write a story based off this idea:

A boy is taken to an island when he's born and raised by scientists to be incredibly smart, but his whole life they tell him he's retarded. When he gets older they let him return to civilization, but they remind him that he's retarded and probably won't understand society. As he witnesses the idiotic behavior of the majority of people, he assumes they are just too intelligent for him to comprehend the reasoning behind their actions.
 

sunandshadow

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As a video game designer, I'd like to say that that stereotype of 'videogame science' is one of the things we are embarrassed by and would really like to get away from - videogames have the potential to be artistic and literary, just like any entertainment medium, and a few of them have been, there's just a lot of terrible ones published because programming and art are seen as a lot more difficult and important than stories.


As for insane ideas, do dreams count? If you turned some of my dreams into stories they would be fairly crazy. Like:

Special people can fly (normal people can't). Flying it's like swimming, it takes a good bit of work to go up and is slow unless you are jumping from the ground or a tree branch or a roof. So you get slow motion chase scenes with people trying to grab you by the ankle or almost grabbing you from behind until you can push off or grab something to give yourself a new burst of speed. At one point you have to go over a really tall building or wall. The plot is that you are one of these special flying people and must act as the messenger/go between for two gang leaders who are like Romeo and Juliet, trying to get into a romance despite the fact that their followers would all have a heart-attack at the idea. You as go-between will be attacked by the regular members of both gangs since you don't belong to either. You can walk and pretend to be normal, or you can fly in an emergency, but if anyone catches you flying they will put you in the zoo, naked. The only way to get out of the zoo is to convince someone to buy you as a pet. But by the time you do, the two gangs will be nearing a big fight and romeo and juliet will be worried because you have perforce left your message undelivered. What are you going to do when your new owner is politically opposed to both gangs and wants to keep you caged in suite in the castle? Will you be able to tolerate lying on a pillow like a housecat while your owner and other normals attend banquets, political negotiations, and other court functions? What will become of poor Romeo and Juliet?
 

Zoombie

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To those who think Vidio games are unable to carry a good plot really need to play Dreamfall, the Longest Journy, Planescape: Torment, Baulders Gate, Fallout, Neverwinter Nighs...a lot more I'm too tired to remember.

I always wanted to fly, by the way...
 

PeeDee

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Not to mention the whole entire Final Fantasy series. Currently, Final Fantasy XII has a marvelous story.

Although on the flipside, currently the Superman Returns video game is not all that I hoped it would be, although they've made Superman immensely fun to play.
 

jsh

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James D. Macdonald said:
# Watt-Evans' Law of Literary Creation: There is no idea so stupid or hackneyed that a sufficiently-talented writer can't get a good story out of it.
Attack of the Mountain Bike Zombies!

Watt-Evans' Second Law: People are never wholly good or wholly evil, and therefore characters should never be wholly good or wholly evil.

Machiavelli's Corollary to the Second Law: Failure to be wholly good or wholly evil causes one's downfall.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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Zoombie said:
Sometimes I have strange ideas. Sometimes I act on said strange ideas, resulting in me hiding behind a pole and jumping out at a woman as she walks past, wearing an evil grin and saying, “GOOD EEEEEEVENING.” The result: One hysterically laughing woman.

I think if you tried that around here you'd just get the hysterical woman and then get maced in the process.
 

JimmyB27

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Shadow_Ferret said:
I think if you tried that around here you'd just get the hysterical woman and then get maced in the process.

And if you're in the historical fiction board, or th FSF board when you do it, it won't be the sort of mace you spray from a can, either.
 

maddythemad

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I think some of us have had too much champagne.
 

CaroGirl

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The underground snake people of Tanzania have been stealing the country's zebras through holes they make in the hard ground. They make the holes using an industrial auger they stole from a local mining company. The operations at the auger-less White Ghost mines have been on hold for six months, and Tony Ghost is on the warpath. He'll get the auger back if he has to kill every one of the snake people to do it. And safari manager Penelope Shane is equally determined to get her zebras back, and stop the snake people from stealing more. When Penelope and Tony team up, romance, hilarity and mass murder ensue.
 

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I love the idea of "Too much time on his hands." Rather like Mark Twain's "4 the Mysterious Stranger" in which the universe and everything in it is merely God dreaming. Perhaps when I'm released from the evil clutches of my current work....
 

preyer

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feels like nashville
half re-animated corpse, half cyborg, all vampire, baby. need i say more? sci-fi channel, here i am. call me.

'the unabashed adventures of salmon rushdie.' 'nuff said there. i hope.

elvis and the holy grail vs. hitler. actually, more of a script. by the end, you'd be saying, 'i laughed, i cried, i kissed ten bucks goodbye.'

a story where britney spears becomes president. i can just see air force one coming in for a smooth landing.

'the bathroom chronicles.' things people need to know, eh?

alien vs. predator vs. freddy vs. rambo (if you don't pick up on the irony, inquire within). as an aside, what does freddy dream about? oops, i guess that's another sequel right there. damnit.

consider yourself lucky those are the PG ideas.
 

jsh

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preyer said:
'the bathroom chronicles.' things people need to know, eh?
"The Toilet Bowl Monologues"
 

victoria.goddard

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How about medieval Dominican monks that became some sort of western kung fu masters due to strange developments in metaphysical philosophy?

That was a dream a friend of mine had.
 

Akuma

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A complete 800 page novel with merely these words repeated on every surface:

Buy my book.
 

Rabe

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Zoombie said:
This thread is for story ideas so completely insane, no one would ever think of them.

Paradoxically, wouldn't this thread be one of them?

I mean, by the very definition, this thread really shouldn't exist beyond the first post. Story ideas so strange no one would think of them? Yet, by posting, they are therefore thought of in the first place which means they do not fit the subject of the thread.

So, by actually posting the strange ideas - and thinking of them - they are, by their very nature, disqualified for this thread.

Yet...

Somehow...

this thread is active?

So, is Schroeder's cat in the box all the time or just when we observe it in the box? Do these story ideas actually exist or were they never thought of and thereby qualify for the subject of the thread?

So, a story idea about things that are non-existant because they are never thought of until they are discussed which makes them thought of and they no longer qualify for that experiment, which then causes them to cease to exist.

Rabe...
...a little too little tea and a whole lot too much philosophy...
 

Vincent

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I once had an idea involving zombies in Antarctica. Somehow the Chinese army was involved, too, I can't really remember.
 
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