I need a little inspiration.

Sithdarth · 06-09-2004, 12:17 AM

I'm working on this story, not actually at the writing phase yet, and I've already hit a block. Before I get into that I'll give you a little background. The story is about 4 heros that travel the country fighting evil and stuff. Now that my seem familar but trust me I'm taking this in a whole new direction. See these heros all have speacial powers but they all have some a quirk that negates that power. The party memebers are as follows:

1) Mathias Frye a half human half elf that can see into the future but he procrastinates until its to late to do anything.

2) Nathaniel Frye the aboves half brother and full human. He is a perfect fighter and can repilcate any fighting move after seeing it once. He can also fix anything after taking it apart. He is narcoleptic and tends to fall asleep at the worst possible times, he is non to bright either.

3) Ginnar Skirvir a dwarf that remembers everything that has ever happened to him. However, he cannot recall what ever he is trying too. For example, if you asked his name he could tell you anything else but that and if you asked him something else he could tell you his name in passing.

4) Finrod Lossehelin a high elf with the power of absolute reason. He can think his way out of any situation but he is extermely impulisve. He can rarely force him self to thnk before he acts and does something stupid. His logic can bend the rules of the universe but he has no ideal and hardly can ever concentrate that much except for the occasional accident for comedic effect.

Now this is all well and good but I'm kinda stuck on the main villain. I have no ideal what to do for a main villian. I was thinking of making him competent main character but somehow still lose to the heros. I don't know if the bad guy should be human or some sort evil being that was human but got transformed by evil magic. I just can't think of any comedic way to tie the two together. Perhasp on of you can inspire me in some small way.

Dante · 06-09-2004, 12:31 AM

Why not have the villain be the guy who has the "missing" components of their personalities? He's normal, but he succeeds through great effort, and his goal is to steal the powers of the heroes. In essence, he is decisive, doesn't need to sleep, has a perfect memory and is possessed of the intelligence of most supercomputers.

As for how he's linked to them... Maybe they were supposed to be a group of five, but the villain quit because they were, in his words "too damn useless".

Sithdarth · 06-09-2004, 12:58 AM

The wheels start to turn. However, more suggestions are always welcome. Perhasp further talk along these lines will provoke further thought.

Sidenote: Just a quick question what do you think of this story ideal so far? Its kind of incomplete as of now but I hope to get working on it. Oh and here is a little teaser, a scene I'm thinking of writing.

Our four heros are locked in this really horrible dungeon from which none of escaped. The situation looks grim and no one appears to have an ideal.

Sounding hopeful Mathias ask "So does anyone have any ideal at all on how we could get out of here?"

Nathaniel suddenly picks his head up and looks excitied. He starts to say, "I've got it. It was so simple why didn't we see it before. All we have to do is ..." Then the all too familar sound of snoring is heard.

"Damn it all to hell," shouts Finrod, "That damn brother of yours is so annoying. Hey I just had an ideal." With that he takes a lace out of his boot and ties a good sized rock to one end. He grabs the other end spinning it real fast and hits the same spot on the wall three times in quick succesion. A ripping sound fills the air and a blue vortex opens on the wall. The heros a little stunned get up and carry Nathaniel through the vortex. They find themselves outside in a field as the vortex closes behind them. Everyone looks at Finrod expecting an explaination.

"What," Finrod asks, "you guys have never heard of the superstring theory?"

Just then Nathaniel wakes up and says "So you see thats all there is to it." He realises there out side and states proudly, "See I told you that it was simple matter to get out of there."

cellar_door · 06-09-2004, 07:35 AM

how about a high elf, bitter because the father of frye took away the love of his life, killed fryes father and this is a vengence thing

comic angle could come from anywhere the steriotypical incompotant sidekick, the villan is scitophenic and one of his other personalities is a cross dresser, someone who believes they are the queen of england, ect you could have anything

the story sounds as if it has potential i'd be interested to see how it develops

Sithdarth · 06-09-2004, 09:49 AM

Ok I think I'm going to go in this direction with the villain:

He is an evil Wizard that wants to take over the world so he can rid it of cheese. He had a bad experience that he will not talk about that has caused him to fear and loath cheese. One day he stopped at the tavern owned by the Frye's parents. While sitting in the back he was served cheese by one of the two brothers. He flies into a rage and starts destroying things. Just then the high elf, that has been sent to track the wizard, grabs the one brother and runs out while the other one follows. Just before they get out of town they meet a dwarf that looks a little confused. They quickly tell him what is going on and all run away in the same direction. We find out later the dwarf lost all his stuff when he ran from the wizard. Totaly pissed he decides to join the other three in a fight against the wizard. No I just have to think of a name a race and a description.

Martyr · 06-09-2004, 09:49 AM

It seems more like a DnD campaign than a story, bro.

But, to answer your question, this is what you do...

1. Start writing the story. You know your characters, so create them, and their world based on them, and the reason they're all together etc...

2. You'll realize that you have a world, so have your heroes traverse it. Make up characters for them to talk to and minor events and conflicts...

3. Before you know it, you'll have a bad guy and the catastrophe that they must face.

Basically, the key to my writing has always been to start writing and jump over the hurtles when I come to them. You can plan for a million years about your story, but it'll never come out as you plan, and, if it does, it'll seem so formulaic that you'll hate it. Not to mention, problems like "who the bad guy is" are never the hard ones to figure out once the story is going. Your problem is going to be figuring out how to describe the mossy, orange, cement wall in the middle of a swamp, and deciding how and where to insert background history on the thing, right in the middle of your story's chase scene.

So that's my best advice here.

I don't know if I'm too interested in the story, personally, but that's probably because I'm not much of a fantasy buff.
I do think that your characters have potential. Your teaser, however, is nothing but dialogue. You lack description and background, and I'm not getting any kind of feel for the story.

Sithdarth · 06-09-2004, 09:57 AM

Its nothing but dialogue because I havent exactly setteled on what to make the characters look like or what tech level to give the entire world. Plus I don't have unlimited room to go into description and sometimes I use a lot. This story his kind of a spoof of a book series I once read which was DnD like to begin with.

I think I'm going to go straight medieval with the tech level. The rest of the story after I get the villain nailed down will just kinda come out as I write. Nothing yet it set and I may have a few changes in mind already.

Edit: Oh and the teaser was just an example of how the groupe dynamic would work. It wasn't so much to reveal were the story was going because even I don't know that until I sit down to write it.

Martyr · 06-09-2004, 10:05 AM

Ah. Okay. That makes more sense.

But still, I wouldn't waste any more time planning stuff. I'd just start writing. Again, the actual writing process has always been the cure for block and the catalyst for progress in my work. Planning only muddles things up. Like an inexperiecced chess player trying to see 10 moves ahead.

Alex McCain · 06-09-2004, 01:03 PM

Perhaps the Wizard you mention only loses to your unlikely heroes when all four of them are together, and the Wizard comes up with a complex, mind-bendingly crazy plan to split them up; the only reason it doesn't work is that when the plan goes into action, the 'heroes' are so inept that they walk right through the traps like they aren't even there.

They solve these puzzles using each weakness to their advantage:

One is told a word to remeber as a trick, for a mind reader will know which one he's been assigned to kill because he will remember the word. Unfortunately, with a memory problem, the reader wouldn't know which is his target.

Another has to participate in a battle to the death, falls into deep sleep because of narcolepsy and is mistakenly declared dead; waking up just as the opponent is in celebration mode, he strikes.

Another assasain depends on the exact arrival of a certain member of the group, and due to his extreme lateness, the trap goes off before he arrives.

I'll let you come up with a fourth

Anyway, it sounds good to me.

Sithdarth · 06-09-2004, 01:39 PM

Possible fourth trap:

I complex puzzel that when solved springs a trap instead of opening the door. A wrong answer gives the impression that a trap will spring. The impulisve one thinks he has the answer, but of course he hasn't analyzed the entire problem. So he solves it wrong which deosn't spring the trap and they make it through.

I also had thaughts on some minor characters. Like twin brothers that hate each other and have been cursed. The curse makes it so that they can never touch each other. If they try the just pass through each other and if they try to use objects to hurt each other the objects just pass through them too. So they are left wanting to kill each other but unable to ever do so and they can never be more than six feet apart.

06-09-2004, 12:17 AM	#1
Sithdarth Friendly Neighborhood Quantum Hobo Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Outside the M-brane look'n in Posts: 5,403	I need a little inspiration. I'm working on this story, not actually at the writing phase yet, and I've already hit a block. Before I get into that I'll give you a little background. The story is about 4 heros that travel the country fighting evil and stuff. Now that my seem familar but trust me I'm taking this in a whole new direction. See these heros all have speacial powers but they all have some a quirk that negates that power. The party memebers are as follows: 1) Mathias Frye a half human half elf that can see into the future but he procrastinates until its to late to do anything. 2) Nathaniel Frye the aboves half brother and full human. He is a perfect fighter and can repilcate any fighting move after seeing it once. He can also fix anything after taking it apart. He is narcoleptic and tends to fall asleep at the worst possible times, he is non to bright either. 3) Ginnar Skirvir a dwarf that remembers everything that has ever happened to him. However, he cannot recall what ever he is trying too. For example, if you asked his name he could tell you anything else but that and if you asked him something else he could tell you his name in passing. 4) Finrod Lossehelin a high elf with the power of absolute reason. He can think his way out of any situation but he is extermely impulisve. He can rarely force him self to thnk before he acts and does something stupid. His logic can bend the rules of the universe but he has no ideal and hardly can ever concentrate that much except for the occasional accident for comedic effect. Now this is all well and good but I'm kinda stuck on the main villain. I have no ideal what to do for a main villian. I was thinking of making him competent main character but somehow still lose to the heros. I don't know if the bad guy should be human or some sort evil being that was human but got transformed by evil magic. I just can't think of any comedic way to tie the two together. Perhasp on of you can inspire me in some small way.

06-09-2004, 07:35 AM	#4
cellar_door wishes he was bob dylan Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: scotland Posts: 85	how about a high elf, bitter because the father of frye took away the love of his life, killed fryes father and this is a vengence thing comic angle could come from anywhere the steriotypical incompotant sidekick, the villan is scitophenic and one of his other personalities is a cross dresser, someone who believes they are the queen of england, ect you could have anything the story sounds as if it has potential i'd be interested to see how it develops __________________ theres beauty in everything its up to you to look hard enough cellar door

06-09-2004, 09:49 AM	#6
Martyr Whatever Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Around. Here, there... Posts: 838	It seems more like a DnD campaign than a story, bro. But, to answer your question, this is what you do... 1. Start writing the story. You know your characters, so create them, and their world based on them, and the reason they're all together etc... 2. You'll realize that you have a world, so have your heroes traverse it. Make up characters for them to talk to and minor events and conflicts... 3. Before you know it, you'll have a bad guy and the catastrophe that they must face. Basically, the key to my writing has always been to start writing and jump over the hurtles when I come to them. You can plan for a million years about your story, but it'll never come out as you plan, and, if it does, it'll seem so formulaic that you'll hate it. Not to mention, problems like "who the bad guy is" are never the hard ones to figure out once the story is going. Your problem is going to be figuring out how to describe the mossy, orange, cement wall in the middle of a swamp, and deciding how and where to insert background history on the thing, right in the middle of your story's chase scene. So that's my best advice here. I don't know if I'm too interested in the story, personally, but that's probably because I'm not much of a fantasy buff. I do think that your characters have potential. Your teaser, however, is nothing but dialogue. You lack description and background, and I'm not getting any kind of feel for the story. __________________ Behold the Nightmare Last edited by Martyr; 06-09-2004 at 09:53 AM.

06-09-2004, 09:57 AM	#7
Sithdarth Friendly Neighborhood Quantum Hobo Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Outside the M-brane look'n in Posts: 5,403	Its nothing but dialogue because I havent exactly setteled on what to make the characters look like or what tech level to give the entire world. Plus I don't have unlimited room to go into description and sometimes I use a lot. This story his kind of a spoof of a book series I once read which was DnD like to begin with. I think I'm going to go straight medieval with the tech level. The rest of the story after I get the villain nailed down will just kinda come out as I write. Nothing yet it set and I may have a few changes in mind already. Edit: Oh and the teaser was just an example of how the groupe dynamic would work. It wasn't so much to reveal were the story was going because even I don't know that until I sit down to write it. Last edited by Sithdarth; 06-09-2004 at 10:00 AM.

06-09-2004, 10:05 AM	#8
Martyr Whatever Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Around. Here, there... Posts: 838	Ah. Okay. That makes more sense. But still, I wouldn't waste any more time planning stuff. I'd just start writing. Again, the actual writing process has always been the cure for block and the catalyst for progress in my work. Planning only muddles things up. Like an inexperiecced chess player trying to see 10 moves ahead. __________________ Behold the Nightmare

06-09-2004, 12:31 AM	#2
Dante Sent to the cornfield Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Crushing the weak beneath the iron jackboots of tyranny Posts: 7,703	Why not have the villain be the guy who has the "missing" components of their personalities? He's normal, but he succeeds through great effort, and his goal is to steal the powers of the heroes. In essence, he is decisive, doesn't need to sleep, has a perfect memory and is possessed of the intelligence of most supercomputers. As for how he's linked to them... Maybe they were supposed to be a group of five, but the villain quit because they were, in his words "too damn useless".

06-09-2004, 12:58 AM	#3
Sithdarth Friendly Neighborhood Quantum Hobo Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Outside the M-brane look'n in Posts: 5,403	The wheels start to turn. However, more suggestions are always welcome. Perhasp further talk along these lines will provoke further thought. Sidenote: Just a quick question what do you think of this story ideal so far? Its kind of incomplete as of now but I hope to get working on it. Oh and here is a little teaser, a scene I'm thinking of writing. Our four heros are locked in this really horrible dungeon from which none of escaped. The situation looks grim and no one appears to have an ideal. Sounding hopeful Mathias ask "So does anyone have any ideal at all on how we could get out of here?" Nathaniel suddenly picks his head up and looks excitied. He starts to say, "I've got it. It was so simple why didn't we see it before. All we have to do is ..." Then the all too familar sound of snoring is heard. "Damn it all to hell," shouts Finrod, "That damn brother of yours is so annoying. Hey I just had an ideal." With that he takes a lace out of his boot and ties a good sized rock to one end. He grabs the other end spinning it real fast and hits the same spot on the wall three times in quick succesion. A ripping sound fills the air and a blue vortex opens on the wall. The heros a little stunned get up and carry Nathaniel through the vortex. They find themselves outside in a field as the vortex closes behind them. Everyone looks at Finrod expecting an explaination. "What," Finrod asks, "you guys have never heard of the superstring theory?" Just then Nathaniel wakes up and says "So you see thats all there is to it." He realises there out side and states proudly, "See I told you that it was simple matter to get out of there."

06-09-2004, 01:03 PM	#9
Alex McCain Marine. Scotsman. Killer. Join Date: May 2004 Location: Where the Marines put me. Posts: 96	Just my 2 cents... Perhaps the Wizard you mention only loses to your unlikely heroes when all four of them are together, and the Wizard comes up with a complex, mind-bendingly crazy plan to split them up; the only reason it doesn't work is that when the plan goes into action, the 'heroes' are so inept that they walk right through the traps like they aren't even there. They solve these puzzles using each weakness to their advantage: One is told a word to remeber as a trick, for a mind reader will know which one he's been assigned to kill because he will remember the word. Unfortunately, with a memory problem, the reader wouldn't know which is his target. Another has to participate in a battle to the death, falls into deep sleep because of narcolepsy and is mistakenly declared dead; waking up just as the opponent is in celebration mode, he strikes. Another assasain depends on the exact arrival of a certain member of the group, and due to his extreme lateness, the trap goes off before he arrives. I'll let you come up with a fourth Anyway, it sounds good to me. __________________ trwhite1266 - Dec 11, 03 - 5:44 AM - There is a saying, and forgive me if I flub it, but �When they came for the people down the street, I did nothing. When they came for the people next door, I did nothing. Then, they came for me.� "It is useless for sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegatarianisim while wolves remain of a different opinon."

06-09-2004, 01:39 PM	#10
Sithdarth Friendly Neighborhood Quantum Hobo Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Outside the M-brane look'n in Posts: 5,403	Possible fourth trap: I complex puzzel that when solved springs a trap instead of opening the door. A wrong answer gives the impression that a trap will spring. The impulisve one thinks he has the answer, but of course he hasn't analyzed the entire problem. So he solves it wrong which deosn't spring the trap and they make it through. I also had thaughts on some minor characters. Like twin brothers that hate each other and have been cursed. The curse makes it so that they can never touch each other. If they try the just pass through each other and if they try to use objects to hurt each other the objects just pass through them too. So they are left wanting to kill each other but unable to ever do so and they can never be more than six feet apart.