McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Cool Stuff - incorporate into your stories
Kristine:
I have been to so many author interviews where some person will ask "where do you get your ideas?" and the authors usual reply is "All around me; the news, discussions with other people..." I don't know how anyone could NOT have a story idea or two floating around in their head.
So I thought it would be good if you are having issues with a story and need a new plot development, want to practice with a story idea that is not your main one, or just saw something TRUE that you think would be a cool thing to put into a story - to have a thread dedicated to TRUE things that might be 'story worthy'. Things that could either inspire a story, add an extra true element, stuff that could be added to an RPG game, or just discussed with like minded curious people.
Remember that even if many people have the same inspiration - it's the execution that makes it interesting, so post the site you found the Factoid on and what you think it might be used for...or, if your in a mood, what logical explanation might un-mystic and explain it. I am reminded of the 'Sherlock Holmes' Quote that goes 'When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'
http://www.ancientx.com/nm/anmviewer.asp?a=75&z=1
I'd like someone somewhere sometime to explore the idea that humanity is in a constant cycle of spiritual, intellectual, and technological growth and destruction. That humanity might have existed thousands of years ago with technologies that we are only guessing at today and somehow we lost them through war or attrition or just plain stupidity
part of that link:
Out-of-Place Metal Objects
Humans were not even around 65 million years ago, never mind people who could work metal. So then how does science explain semi-ovoid metallic tubes dug out of 65-million-year-old Cretaceous chalk in France? In 1885, a block of coal was broken open to find a metal cube obviously worked by intelligent hands. In 1912, employees at an electric plant broke apart a large chunk of coal out of which fell an iron pot! A nail was found embedded in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic Era. And there are many, many more such anomalies.
What are we to make of these finds? There are several possibilities:
* Intelligent humans date back much, much further than we realize.
* Other intelligent beings and civilizations existed on earth far beyond our recorded history.
* Our dating methods are completely inaccurate, and that stone, coal and fossils form much more rapidly than we now estimate.
In any case, these examples - and there are many more - should prompt any curious and open-minded scientist to reexamine and rethink the true history of life on earth.
Cooper:
I was thinking the same way when incorporating ancient civilizations with my Terran idea at this post http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,6060.0.html. I can't spill any details about it. I'm still in the process of creating characters, which means none, and a somewhat "working" plot line. All I know is that in my story, the real disappearance of the ancient cultures are related to a war that inevitably "split" the world, leaving a world of no magic and a dark, sinister, and cruel purpose for humans.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Kristine on February 24, 2008, 06:39:20 PM ---So I thought it would be good if you are having issues with a story and need a new plot development, want to practice with a story idea that is not your main one, or just saw something TRUE that you think would be a cool thing to put into a story - to have a thread dedicated to TRUE things that might be 'story worthy'.
--- End quote ---
Um, if we are going to do that, I'd kind of like a slightly higher standard of TRUE than this sort of Forteana.
To my mind, if you need a really awe-inspiring true thing or three for your stories, the opening news and views bit of Nature every week suffices more often than not.
--- Quote ---I'd like someone somewhere sometime to explore the idea that humanity is in a constant cycle of spiritual, intellectual, and technological growth and destruction. That humanity might have existed thousands of years ago with technologies that we are only guessing at today and somehow we lost them through war or attrition or just plain stupidity
--- End quote ---
Mind you, I am temperamentally disinclined to this notion anyway, because it is depressing enough to strike me as an actively negative thing to promulgate; humanity can be, and deserves to be, better.
Kristine:
--- Quote from: neurovore on February 25, 2008, 09:14:17 PM ---Um, if we are going to do that, I'd kind of like a slightly higher standard of TRUE than this sort of Forteana.
To my mind, if you need a really awe-inspiring true thing or three for your stories, the opening news and views bit of Nature{/i] eveyr week suffices more often than not.
--- End quote ---
How about a web link?
--- Quote from: neurovore on February 25, 2008, 09:14:17 PM ---Mind you, I am temperamentally disinclined to this notion anyway, because it is depressing enough to strike me as an actively negative thing to promulgate; humanity can be, and deserves to be, better.
--- End quote ---
Not if you have your main hero break the cycle - find some kind of referrence to the ancient past that shows what happened and be able to reveal it to the world - It's only negative if you continue it - and of course there is always the oportunity that we will know better next time...
Kristine:
okay more cute then awesome but considering what the babys are and what the surogate parent is - hey whatever works - this has been explored in a lot of fiction with everything from "Cuckoo's Egg" by C. J. Cherryh (set in her Alliance-Union universe) to the comedy movie "Elf" or the comic book character 'Hellboy' - what is the influence of nature and nurture?
http://www.floristone.com/hippopotamus-tortoise.html
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/tigerpig.asp
This would could lead to a cautionary tale, uplifting story of understanding, a fish out of water story, ugly duckling...
On a darker note:
"If this bonding occurs to the the TV or monitor that so many parents use as a babysitter, then real human to human contact my not occur."
A version of this was explored in "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury from The Illustrated Man where children bond to a holographic entertainment room over their parents.
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