Hi First of all: thanks for taking the time to read this i've just started writing a book about a apocalypse (maybe zombie, not sure yet though). So far i've come up with this plan (that i've had in mind for some weeks now): The opening scene is in an airplane. The main character comes home from a trip to Europe with his friend (he lives in America). During this flight (or short after the landing) things get weird, Something odd happens and people seem to change (or something else regarding an apocalypse-like thing happens). One way or another (not sure how yet) our main character loses consciousness and when he wakes up everything is dark, out of power and abandoned. Ofcourse he is shocked and he's looking for a way to get home. This is what i came up with so far. I know it's still a bit vague but it's a start. I'm now looking for a good way to expand this plot. How does the story continue and what are some good plot twists? I'm not looking for someone who can complete my story for me, i'm just looking for all kinds of inspiration. So please brainstorm with me: write anything you can actually think of. I'm really looking forward to getting more input Thanks in advance, Nick PS: Sorry for my English, it's not my native language.
Sorry, but there's nothing to work with, you barely even have a premise. You should spend some time thinking about your story. Set some foundations and build a few basic plot points on them, maybe get an idea of who your protagonist is and what they're like.
Yes, this is vague but it's a start, and everything starts somewhere. When people start to "change," is it physically or behaviorally? And if the main character loses consciousness, on the plane or after landing, if it was on the plane they might have just fallen asleep instead of lose consciousness. When they lose consciousness/fall asleep, it could get interesting if they wake up in a different location. Just a few ideas! Have fun writing this story, you have good ideas!
I'm not sure I'll be much help brainstorming, but I can give some advice on how you might flesh out your own ideas. What I like to do is what you're doing. I come up with a premise that I think sounds fun. You've got that. You've even got an idea for how you want your story to begin. My advice on what you should do next is to decide where you want your story to go. What is its end goal? Does everyone die? Is there some villain to be overcome? Is it simply for your character to survive until the end of the book? I ask this because once you have a start and an end, you have points A and B that you can draw a line between. That line is your extremely basic plot. You're going to need to start filling in more details now, but don't feel like you're committing to any one idea. Figure out a series of events that can take you from point A to point B. You can change them later (including the beginning and ending), but doing this will give your story some structure that you can build off of. You should probably figure out who your characters are going to be around this point, too, as your characters' personalities will affect how events play out. Note that this is definitely not the only way to write a story, but I always find it easier to brainstorm my ideas once I have some scaffolding in place. It might work for you, too.
I'd say maybe focus on your character. What kind of person is he? What sorts of things is he good at doing; what sorts of things is he bad at doing, etc? I'm not suggesting you make a list. A list is the last thing you need when you're thinking up a story. What you need is to get a feel for that character. Who are the other people in his life? What matters to him? What if you were in his shoes? At what point would you begin to notice things are 'weird' on that plane. What makes that happen? (We don't need to know this, here on this forum thread, but you do.) And what's his destination on that flight? I don't mean what country, I mean why is he going there just now? What has he left behind? What is he thinking about on that flight? What does he expect will happen at the other end, when he gets there? Obviously things will change, but will the things he'd planned to do have any impact on the changed circumstances? Was somebody supposed to meet his plane? Somebody he knows? Or somebody he's never met? What has happened to THEM in the meantime? This can all figure into your plot and into what happens next. I'd say keep the focus small. Keep it on him and what happens to HIM. All these kinds of things will get you (and your readers) firmly into the picture before anything really starts to happen. Then you can just let things happen afterwards and see where they lead you. OR, if you have an end goal in mind (as @SolZephyr suggested) you can start building towards that end. But first of all, I reckon you need a fleshed-out character whom you AND your readers will care about by the time he wakes up from being unconscious. Don't be tempted to rush through the beginning. It sets the foundation for the whole story, and will determine whether people want to keep reading about this guy or not.
It could begin with passengers standing. At first your MC doesn't notice it assuming people are just stretching their legs but as the flight progresses more and more people start standing in their spots and he then notices that they're drooling/staring into space/mouthing something to themselves etc. and when he goes to look for the crew he finds them in the back doing the same thing as the passengers and as he runs towards the cockpit that's when he blacks out and finds himself in the middle of an abandoned airport. The passengers and crew start dying unusual deaths such as shrivelling up and dying in their seats like fruit dehydrating, scream suddenly then choke as if the air has been sucked out of their lungs, develop leprosy, bodies become covered in boils and so on. As hysteria spreads through the plane the people begin to become ultra paranoid of one another and start turning on eachother. During the mayhem the MC falls to the ground and is knocked unconscious then wakes up in the dark, void of any human voice but can hear the planes engines.
You have a vague idea of a scene, you don't have a plot. A plot is the entire concept of a story, the beginning, middle and end. You have an "apocalyptic story, maybe with zombies". You really need to figure out what it is that you want to write. What happens and why? Who does it happen to? Create characters and put them in situations and decide what the point of your story is? Why are you telling it? What's going to happen?
It sounds like you need to ask yourself a lot of questions in order to flesh out where to go next. Some questions that I'd like to know are: Is his friend on the same flight as him? If so does the friend end up going through these changes too? How does that affect the lead? How are people changing? Is it mentally, they start to exhibit strange behavior? Is it physical, they start to melt for example? Is it both physical and mental changes, like they start to turn into werewolves and become violent? Why wasn't he affected by the changes? Were other people likewise spared? If so maybe they can become important characters for him to interact with after he wakes up. What happened to everyone while he was out? How is it related to the changes? Why is the power out? How long has he been out?
In the event of an apocalyptic event theres a very high probability that the nuclear option will be used. Thecresulting EM from the nuke's detonation could knockout the electronics on the plane forcing a water landing. The survivors would be adrift on what they could pull together would make it to shore a few days later to discover that things have definately gone wrong. That would easily provide the dissconect you're looking for. Though thats just a suggestion meant to fuel thought and imagination. I hope this helps.
