This is another of my older ideas that pops into my mind from time to time.  My biggest concern with it is that it plays into too many people's current conspiracy theories about the government when it was originally conceived as a futuristic dystopian story.

I came up with the idea when I was still under the idea that I was going to make movies on one of the five-acre wooded properties that my family owned.  I envisioned a semi-truck accident that threatens to expose a company who publicly works for the government, but secretly operates an underground railroad to get political dissidents out of the country.  Normally, they use a pipeline between the US and Canada, but a recent problem has forced them to use trucks instead.

I had several side plots running through this story (which has yet to be written).  In one, a young couple associated with the company but who don't know about the Underground hijack a truck to elope (or joyride, or something), not knowing that they are carrying human cargo ... which leads to a chase ... which leads to the accident ... which leads to the main conflict.  

A second one deals with the leader of one of the Underground's extraction teams.  Specifically ordered to retreat from a conflict, he disobeys orders in order to complete his original mission.  In doing so, he is forced to kill a government team that was sent to stop him only to discover that he had killed ... himself.  It turns out that he was part of a government project used to clone the best soldiers ... and he's one of the clones.

The final major plotline follows one of the Underground's leaders who is struggling with the fact that they are keeping their existence from the general public.  Even when open conflicts erupt in the country, they are covered-up by false news stories about religious fanatics and public shooting sprees (this idea developed after Waco, but before Columbine.  I'm now a little concerned about people taking it as truth).  This particular character ends up having to sacrifice himself to somehow save one (or both) of the above plotlines.

I think that this is a story that could sell, especially in our current political climate, but I am a little concerned about the message that it would be sending.  I am also a little concerned about the amount of research that this kind of story would need (as I am for any story set in the real world as opposed to a world that I create).  Still, I like some of the plotlines and would like to see how they develop.

Years ago I made a small picture of a futuristic underwater city.  It was comprised of several large domes with main supports leading down into the ocean floor.  Tube connected the bases of these domes and tiny submarine "cars" were floating to and from the city.  I put in some fish to make it clear that it wasn't a space colony.

This picture, doodled when I was taking notes, became the basis of a story idea.  To me, it looked like the perfect place to get away from everything and everyone.  Thus, my protagonist, Jaymen, was a recluse writer, hiding from the world after the death of his fiancee.  He lives in his own unconnected, underwater futuristic mansion, going to the city only from time to time for necessities and meeting with the few friends he has made.

One of my favorite elements of his house is a diving pool (I really don't have a concept for how deep this place is) -- a open-air pool that gives him direct access to the ocean.  I don't know if it's actually possible, but I saw one in the movie The Abyss ... so it must be true, right?  It's that pool where Jaymen first meets his mermaid, and falls in love at first sight.

She explains that she is from an ancient and much more developed race of humanity who believes that the rest of humanity might finally be ready to meet them.  Her people have developed the ability to change forms (like the movie Splash) from fully human, to half fish.  Jaymen is going to be the test subject to see if humanity is ready.  Later she will explain that she didn't really have permission to speak with him, but that his works (the mer-people have been monitoring us) spoke to her and that she watched him often once he moved into the ocean.


I haven't decided if she's real or a hallucination brought on by his grief an isolation.  I had an end line prepared when a friend asks him a question about that very idea.  Jaymen's response: "Real or not, I love her.  Does it really matter if she's an illusion?" 

I know that both video games, movies, and comics have all dealt with the superhero (or supervillain) who gains the ability to conduct electricity.  Many have also dealt with people who have recently discovered their superpowers and are having to learn how their new ability affects every aspect of their lives.  While it might be a bit derivative, I would like to write a story with these two ideas combined.

My superhero finds himself shocking things around him more and more, unknowingly building a charge within himself.  He is becoming a conduit for the Earth's electromagnetic field.  He doesn't draw energy from devices that create electricity, but he interrupts their operation.  When he learns how to control his power, he can serve as a power source.  In the beginning, however, he keeps pulling in energy until he overloads and causes a massive disruption around him.

Government agencies are going to take an interest in him, but his larger problem is just dealing with everyday interactions with the people who know and care for him.  When he overloads, he can be quite dangerous.  He's not facing any sort of supervillains, so part of his problem is also figuring out what to do with this gift that has been given to him.  A main theme of this story is understanding what we should do with the talents given to us, especially when those talents are way above the norm.

This is not a pressing story idea, but one that came to me in a dream (probably after playing inFamous, whose main character has a similar power).  Like I said, it's derivative, but something about it still makes me think that it would be worth writing.

I occasionally reference the idea of a multiverse.  The belief is that a separate universe exists for every possibility of every moment of creation.  With that many existences, anything is possible.  If you take that concept and meld it with idea that perception is the basis of our existence (I think, therefore I am), then the world that you are experiencing now is the one where you live forever.  As I gave the concept thought, I realized that a "normal" life probably had the best chance of living the longest.

I don't know how much I buy into this concept, but I find it interesting.  Having recently watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which was similar to another story idea of mine, I found myself remembering the idea of a story where a man goes through his rather ordinary life, but the audience sees the various amazing and terrifying possibilities that his life could have taken.  In some he gains fame, in others he gains power, but it becomes clear as the story goes on that the only reason he is still alive is due to the rather mediocre, yet pleasant, life that he is living.

I am a little concerned about people "moralizing" this kind of story.  I do not want to create propaganda for being boring.  Still, I like the concept and would like to see how a filmmaker could achieve this visually.

First, I know that the title isn't the most inspiring or original, but this is a concept that I had in mind after playing the original Zelda back when I was in high school.  I drew up a few maps and slowly added gameplay changes over the years.  It wouldn't be until my sophomore year in college, after playing Betrayal at Krondor, that this game idea fully cemented in my mind.  Sadly, it hasn't moved much from that point. 

Second, this is more of a video game idea than a story idea, but the story part of the of game is where I got stuck.  This concept is one of those where I might have over-thought myself.  Basically, I wanted to create a game that encouraged multiple (I mean sixteen) plays, each with a different view of the game and the story.

The gameplay is like Zelda, a top-down exploration/adventure fantasy game.  The player starts with a standard main character.  Originally, I was in high school when I designed this, all of the characters were male.  Were I to start work on the game today, the first character would be a female knight looking to prove herself and save the world.  As I was stuck on the stereotype, her village is destroyed and her secret heritage is given to her.  She is told to seek out other heroes to help her save the world.

The Knight goes through her section of the world, following whichever storyline the player chooses.  She has basic sword-wielding attacks, her sword takes on different powers, and she can deflect with a shield.  Depending on which direction the Knight goes, a second character is met.  The three other characters are a Wizard who is trying to recapture a demon he accidentally loosed on the world, a Ninja (it was the early nineties) who is trying to restore his (her) clan's honor, and a Jester (who is my personal favorite) who wants to find a story worthy enough to bring him back into the good graces of his liege.  Each has unique special abilities, attacks, and stories.  The Wizard can hit things at long range, has fireball and lightning attacks (I was playing D&D based games on my computer), and can teleport short distances.  The Ninja has fast, close attacks, can climb, and can turn himself (herself?) invisible.  The Jester somersaults everywhere, throws his juggling balls as weapons (that bounce off enemies and walls to appear back in his hands), and can send everyone (friend and foe alike) into paralyzing laughing fits.

The player can only play one character at a time.  This makes it so each character opens up new means of exploration and new ways of dealing with encounters.  The lame story explanation is that their essences are all held in a crystal which only allows out one at a time.  Yet, somehow, in story sequences, they would all be there.  I still haven't worked a better way out of it.  

The player completes each of the four main areas, bringing the each character's story to a completion, before arriving in a final end area where evil is defeated.  Pretty standard.

The twist is that once the game ends (or maybe because of how the story ends), the player gets to start the game again as any one of the four characters.  If the player chooses the Knight again, the first part stays the same, but the story changes depending on which character the player goes for next.  For example, let's say that Knight first teamed up with the Ninja and then the Wizard, but on the next play-through went for the Wizard first and then the Ninja.  The Ninja's story would be at a different place because he (she?) had to face his (her?) Act 2 choices without the help of the Knight.  Meanwhile, the Wizard's situation would not have been as dire.

But the player doesn't have to start as the Knight.  Depending on the character chosen to start with, the game takes a different tone.  Whichever one chosen first is the "hero" of the story.  In fact, after playing The Bard's Tale, Bastion, and The Stanley Parable, I thought that having a narrator (in this case a different narrator for each character) might be a nice addition.  This makes the Ninja's tale more mysterious, the Wizard's tale more magical, and Jester's tale much more comical.  However, whichever character is added last has the most tragic story.

I even thought of adding a fifth character (a dark archer searching for redemption) while still keeping the game to only four acts and a finale.  This way, one character is forever lost, but the added level of complexity, not to mention macabre, might be a bit too much.  As is, the game basically needs sixteen different plot lines depending on who is the "hero" and the order that the characters are chosen.  I would not want any of the endings to be the "correct" ending; players should feel both satisfied with any ending they get as well as curious about how everything might change were things slightly different.

And that's where I got stuck.  I haven't really plotted anything out as the concept would take a great deal of time to etch out and I don't have the programming know-how to make the game a reality.  Still, I like the concept; although, I would like a better title.

During the seventh grade, I wrote a script for a science fiction movie that I wanted my friends and I to act out on piece of property that my parents owned on Henry road.  My plan was to convince parents to build a fort on one part of the property and a small town on another piece.  Boy's Life had advertisements for plans that showed how to make a hovercraft using light wooden frame and a vacuum cleaner.  It was said to hold up to 200 pounds.  By my middle school reasoning, I could make a much larger, ship-like hovercraft with ten vacuum cleaners (as long as the ship itself weighed less than a ton).  With these working props, I would be able to convince the kids at my school to join me in making a fantastic movie.  Thus I wrote a story which had characters that I hoped my fellow students would want to play.  Even the "bad guy" parts were written for people I knew who wanted (some even agreed to) playing the roles of the villains.

As I wrote my script, I came to realize that the props and sets I had planned would not work.  For example, the fort I wanted to build would need multiple floors and corridors that would take up a much larger area than what the clearing I had planned to put it in would allow.  Still, I finished the story anyway, and showed it to the other students at lunch as well as my English teacher.  I was quite a hit.  Even my friends liked it.  Granted, I gave them all heroic roles and, in the end, they all had super powers.  My teacher was also impressed and spoke with my mother about my potential.

I don't know what happened to that script.  However, elements of the story have still rattled around in my thoughts and day dreams.  When I read portions of the Iliad in the tenth grade, I was struck by some of the similarities between my hero (which was my role, of course) and Achilles's situation.  Both were reluctant to fight because of a girl until a friend (who attempts to take the hero's place) is killed in battle.  I must have heard some part of the story before the seventh grade.  Rather than be depressed that I had created something unoriginal, I embraced the idea of writing a futuristic retelling of an ancient story.  I then started several aborted attempts to write that story, but it kept coming up false.

There were several elements that I wanted to keep.  In my script, the heroes had super powers because they were aliens who looked like humans (or the children of aliens).  I have an opening scene of a group of rebels running away from a group of soldiers with explosions behind them.  I developed an idea that the hero had been away from the planet (which I decided was a post-apocalyptic Earth) fighting a war, and that due to relativistic speeds was returning to a world where everyone he had know was dead.  I also created a concept where the love of his life, required her daughters and then granddaughters to swear that one of them would be there for him on his return, an idea he doesn't know about.  By the time he arrives, it's her great-great-granddaughter who wants nothing to do with the idea, but is convinced by the rebel leader to use this connection to get the war hero on their side.

I also have the idea of writing about the hero's experiences before he joins the rebels and wins independence for Earth.  But then a friend of mine gave me a book that basically tells the story I wanted to write: of the people of Earth being the outcasts of a larger inter-species galactic war, but whose abilities start to set them apart.

These are ideas that I keep coming back to when I think about writing more fiction.  Without the original script, I really don't know how much the story has evolved.  However, I don't think I'll use the superpowers idea.

I decided that, starting today, I want to dedicate my Saturday blog entries to share ideas for stories, poems, movie scripts, etc.  This will be a place where I can show some of the crazy writing ideas that have popped into my head from time to time.  Let me know which of these you would like to hear more about.

Today's is a story idea that I had largely forgotten about, but was reminded of as I was reading one of my history textbooks (Yankees in Paradise) from college.  Note that I didn't say "rereading."  Now, I did skim the book way back when, and a particular historical situation caught my attention: the Nootka Sound Crisis.  I know that I read the section before, but I also know that we discussed it quite a bit one class session and I think most of what I know about it comes from the discussion.

1789 was a pretty big year.  Our Constitution, created two years earlier, went into effect in March.  The Bill of Rights was narrowed down from a list of twelve to ten Amendments (Don't worry about the other two; one became our 27th Amendment and the other one would have made the House of Representative either about twice or eleven and a half times as big as it is now).  The crew of the Bounty mutinied.  The French stormed the Bastille.  And a small sound on the Northwest Coast of America saw a confrontation that very nearly started the first ever world war.

I won't go into details, but it brought the declining Spanish Empire toe-to-toe with the growing British Empire.  The first American ships in the Pacific were there.  There were spies, ships flying under false flags, daring raids, suicides, and murders.  All of which came to pass due to the worldwide demand for the pelts of sea otters.

That isn't the story that I want to write (although it could be cool).  While listening to the story in class, and doodling on my notes (as I often do), I wondered what this story would look like in a sci-fi setting.  Great space empires in competition for a small world.  My original day-dreamings saw that the conflict would be over that world's native population of creatures whose fur could reflect and refract light in such a way as to make them either radiant or invisible.  I have since thought that it could be a world where organisms that regenerate are found.  Once removed from the world (neither species can be transplanted), their miraculous healing properties only last for a short time.  Unfortunately, the world is in a distant part of the galaxy, a place largely uncharted.

In this story, humans would play the part of the Americans.  They would be new to hyper-light speed travel and are more exploring their options.  The empires would be played out by other alien powers who have seen great conflicts before (and will in the future), but who are trying to gain or hold power through more diplomatic moves.  The planet itself also has an indigenous, sentient species, but as they are not space-faring, they are largely ignored except as help in collecting the healing (or invsi-fur) creatures.

The project is a bit ambitious, which is probably why I lost track of it while I was in college, but the story is one that still has a hold of my imagination.  Like most sci-fi and fantasy, I don't doubt that similar ideas have been written about (parts of it do sound like that Avatar movie), but I think that enough of it has unique elements.

I think I might have taught you some history today.

I have personally experienced two distinct feelings during a couple of my near-death experiences.  I have heard other people describe similar sensations: time seems to slow down and your life flashes before your eyes.

I can't help but wonder if these experiences are a natural defense mechanism.  When confronted with a sudden danger, our brain fires up to maximum capacity, quickly searching all of our memories for a way out of the problem (making our lives flash before our eyes) while simultaneously thinking so fast that time seems to stretch out in comparison.  

We only seem to be able to access these abilities in times of great stress.  Still, it's interesting to think about what our minds are capable of doing.  What if we could access our brains this way at will?

I think that this could make for a decent story idea.  I know that movies have at least represented the idea of time slowing down or standing still, but this more realistic type of superhero story might be an interesting take on the genre.