The other day, my friend and I were discussing how relatively unpopulated the state of North Dakota is and I made some joke about how I've met all four of the state's inhabitants (I really have met an absurd number of people from Fargo in the last 2 years). Long story short, the joke continued until I thought it had potential for a sort of Christopher Moore humor-fantasy story. Here's what I have: North Dakota is home to 4 people, 3 and 1/2 of which live in Fargo. The other half runs around the state making it look more occupied, showing a leg ducking behind a barn in one town, an arm closing a window in the town over, and maybe an entire upper half driving through Bismarck. The half that remains in Fargo spends all its time drinking (Fargo being the third drunkest city in the country) to warm the traveling half. Each half is pretty insubstantial in that they aren't just top and bottom half, or left and right side. They are split in a fluid way that allows them freedom to draw on certain body parts as needed, so long as they only retain 50 percent of the entire body at one time. Now, the reason for all this is the large community of extra-terrestrials that have made their home in an advanced network of tunnels below the entire state of North Dakota. They employ these humans above ground to keep their delicate roof from collapsing under the weight of too much actual habitation and to avoid suspicion from the rest of the human race. This is how the fourth person is able to split in half, advanced alien technology. Now, with all that, I don't actually have a story at all. Why are the aliens here, what is driving the story, all that is still blurry. I'd love some help brainstorming! Thanks guys.
Wow, what a creative idea for a story. Hmm, I would say for the aliens being there... You could do a bunch of different things. A) They are on Earth because they lived here first and had to relocate underground because they are 1) allergic to humans, 2) don't like humans 3) afraid of humans, etc. B) They are on Earth because they are the last of their kind and are running away from something. C) They are gathering forces to invade (a little over done.... haha) D)They need something on Earth to survive (some kind of element not found elsewhere in the universe? You will have to decide why the aliens are here in order to find the motivation for the story. Are the bad guys coming to find them? What happens when Little Johnny from the next town over accidentally finds them by getting lost in a cave, etc. Hope this helps a little!
Thanks for your ideas! I like the idea of them living here first, but would they still be aliens then? Or were they just aliens that landed here before humans existed, that could be cool. I thought about having someone discover them, but I thought it would be funny to have them capture the human and keep it as a pet... So maybe they don't like humans? Answer 2? Or maybe they eat humans...
I love this idea, especially about eating humans and maybe even wanting to enslave them. Four people in the entire state seems a little far fetched, though. Maybe scattered small towns with a ridiculously small population, like 20 people per town?
Be careful that you don't over think the 1/2 person. It get's less funny the more you explain it. Also for 3rd drunkest. Maybe only one of the three is drunk all the time (making 25% of the population drunkards), but Milwaukee (or wherever) had them beat so the half a person had to drink too (bringing them up to a nice round 37.5%).
Oh no, Fargo actually, in reality, is the third drunkest city in north america. I didn't make that part up. Thats why its funny, like the half person drinks enough to make the town one of the highest consumers of alcohol. You're right about the half person, its more funny to just leave them as being a half person, and the reader can imagine it as they will. Mallory, you may be right, four people is a very small number. I wouldn't want to have scattered small towns though because then the roaming half person loses some relevance.
If the aliens don't like humans or want to eat/enslave them, does it still make sense for them to have hired humans to "inhabit" the town above them? How did they go about hiring them in the first place? What do these humans feel about the aliens beneath them? What's their motivation for keeping quiet about their employers? Should the "humans" living in Fargo be robots? Or projections?
I thought the same thing Rhysirl and then I realized, with no small amount of horror, that it could be similar to the Twilight vampires. They employ humans and humans are willing to keep quiet because they are fascinated. But with a bit more concentraion I came to the conclusion that it could be due to alien mind control. And they definitely craiglisted to find them haha. I like your idea about projections though! That could be what populates the rest of ND along with the halfman, just a bunch of ghostly hologramish things.
This sound really great, so I plot some ideas down for you. A) They are here to gather information on earth, learn everything they can before they contact the others. B) They are here because, something has destroyed there home world and they are the last of there kind, they are hiding from something but they do not know what that is or what has destroyed there home world. C) They crashed on earth, there ship is damage. Hided from the human world as they are hunted by certain federal agents and hunted from there plant or from some other planet that they have been at war with. D) Someone from there planet is hiding here and he/she dangerous, using the human as lab rats, they must hunted down the person from there planet before he/her ends the human kind. Hide to keep there landing a secret to the humans and to the person they are suppose to captured. I hope this help, let me know how it plans out. Look forward in seeing your work
Great concept, but you definitely need a plot: i.e. conflict. Maybe the protagonist can move to North Dakota for some reason, and then they slowly figure out what's really happening in the state. I'm thinking the protag is someone who is recently spurned, or has some other really good motivation for wanting to move somewhere remote and unpopulated...like a pop star/famous person who's reputation has been sullied and they want to get away. Maybe aforementioned pop star can fall in love with the half a person (the other half can't stand them, of course). Sounds like a lot of fun...good luck!
