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  1. Scroll Troll

    Scroll Troll Banned

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    Purely exploratory: how would you write a show named Growing Good?

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by Scroll Troll, Jan 5, 2023.

    IMO:

    • It would be boring to have it start in hell with a vanilla bad dude. I would use a place that isn't native for good; like, sheep in the jungle.
    • No sappyness. Our protagonist does something good a little tactically and a little accidentally, and it starts getting muscular behind his back. He finds himself doing, well, good, and it goes from there.
    • The protagonist has a very cynically opportunistic take on being the good guy.
    • When in doubt, don't treat it as a morality lesson and instead treat good as a philosophical exercise.
    Thoughts?
     
  2. Set2Stun

    Set2Stun Rejection Collector Contributor Contest Winner 2022 Contest Winner 2024 Contest Winner 2023

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    I'd write a show about a drug kingpin who gradually gives away his ill-gotten fortune while incrementally removing himself from the drug business. While doing so, he strengthens his relationships with his wife, son, and in-laws. He grows gooder and gooder over the course of the story arc, eventually going completely legit as a high school chemistry teacher.
     
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  3. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    Sounds like a vehicle for a small time pot grower who works diligently to improve the THC content of her crop.
     
  4. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    I see what you did there. But then, the idea is already implicit in the title, isn't it?
     
  5. Scroll Troll

    Scroll Troll Banned

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    Despite every possible temptation to do more evil things. That's kind of the obvious Breaking Bad counterpart: continuing on a good path despite temptation.

    ... Not sure if I like it the best... sounds a little bit more like greatness, then goodness...
     
  6. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    Well, it is great that she's growing the good s**t, right?
     
  7. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    I would write a show about a boy who escapes a dying planet and lands on a farm somewhere out west, is brought up by the couple who own it, and must use his super powers to battle crop disease, pests and an evil mastermind.
     
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  8. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    How about a former evil warlord, the worst of them all, and let's make it a woman, who has turned over a new leaf and, with her naive sidekick (also a woman), decides to ride around the ancient Greek world fighting against the other evil warlords and throwing a steel ring that acts like a sentient boomerang. And yodeling.

    I think the problem is the idea is too generic, it's really just "Somebody who Breaks Good". And the title makes it too obviosuly connected to Breaking Bad. You need to have more of an idea than that, something a lot more concrete, and then we could help you evaluate it and maybe work up more ideas. But you're essentially asking us to come up with story ideas based on a title that's already very derivative. That's early brainstorming stuff, you don't outsource that to a group of strangers.
     
  9. Scroll Troll

    Scroll Troll Banned

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    You mistake me. I don't want to write this story; but if you can make this story fresh then you can definitely write some fresh good guy characters/scenarios.

    A good writer should gimp himself. It's not all about the concept so much as the execution.

    In my OP, I tried to avoid "break" and underline "grow." You're not looking at this as enough of a cynical bastard. Everyone knows the advantages of being good - it's about intelligently exploiting good, at a remove, and ending up good anyway.

    It's like the opposite of Walter White going in blind to badness in Breaking Bad. This is more "enlightened amoralist" gets given the good guy stick.
     
  10. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Oh, ok, so it isn't to help you develop an idea for your own story, it's more like a prompt? I think you have a very complex and subtle idea around it, and that's hard to get across clearly. I sort of understand where you're coming from, but it's expecting a lot, for people online to understand something that nuanced and work with it. I think you're going to mostly get jokes and simplified ideas in response. That's just the nature of the internet when complex ideas are presented, unfortunately.
     
  11. Hammer

    Hammer Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor

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    In which case you may have confused people by posting this in the plot development forum where people usually work on... plot development
     
  12. Scroll Troll

    Scroll Troll Banned

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    Honestly Xoic, all you need is provocation.

    And Hammer, I'm simply developing my plot development.
     
  13. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    I'm still crushed that my story of the grower seeking to break her THC content out of merely good to excellent was discounted. Field botanists simply don't get the literary attention they deserve.
     
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  14. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    then please stop wasting our members’ time

    :closed:
     
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