Hello strangers. Excuse anything against the grain, I'm new here. I've never written fiction. My experience is in technical writing, but I'm well read and have a desire to venture into fiction [I hope I'm in the right place. ]. There is this idea that lives in my mind and keeps me up at night. I've started creating a whole world in my head based on what I think I know best. I started with very vague constraints, but now I feel like this world has clearly defined rules/limitations based on the logic I used to get there. After the world made enough sense, I started thinking of a good plot to present and showcase my brain baby. I free-form wrote a synopsis of the plot I came up with and would like to share it with you. I'm itching to. I need to get it out; I need to know what people think of it, but I have a concern. Is there any record on this site of ideas being stolen? I'm being paranoid, of course, but it's keeping me from attempting to get help. I don't think many people would have the perspective and particular flavor of crazy required to make this world work, but I can't help but worry about this.
In my own opinion, it's harder to use a stolen idea, as it's your inspiration, so you'll be motivated to write it. I don't know about a stealing record, and it would be hard to find out about it. I don't think I'm alone in saying I'd like to hear your idea The only other technical writer I ever met online was an absolutely amazing fictional writer, and she wasn't even on this site
There's no real record as far as I am aware of. However, be as vague as possible in summarizing your story. Putting anything online related to your story is the same thing as publishing parts of it - there's no profit to be made if it's freely availiable. Otherwise, feel free to ask for help. If you must refer to your story, only post what is absolutely neccessary for answering your question
You make a good point. It is my inspiration and my story. It's fairly ambitious too. You'd have to be me to want to see this thing through to the end. I hate to word vomit like this, but there's so much background to cover before I can actually talk about plot. This is a Sci-Fi novel, and here we go. So there's this concept called the technological singularity that I would like to paraphrase for you. Basically, it states that technology will advance until eventually a human mind can be replicated on a piece of hardware. Supposedly this is the last invention humans will ever have to make on their own as a mind on a computer will be smart enough to improve its own design; It can help sort the kinks on any imperfect technologies and basically the rate at which paradox-altering technologies are invented will skyrocket. Applications include nano-technology, genetics, and artificial intelligence. My story takes place long after this has happened and will feature an entire digital world/society. The story does not take place entirely in this world, but will feature interactions between the digital world and the actual world by means of the main characters. The digital world is my brain baby. I'm a computer scientist and have attempted to apply my knowledge to form an entirely plausible world equipped with activities, settings, features, and augmented/advanced social interactions. An infrastructure is present in my mind and will allow for complete freedom of narration. I also hope to sprinkle philosophical tidbits and social commentary that can be applied IRL. Taking your advice in to consideration, I have chosen to omit my climax. Here's a synopsis. Keep in mind I've never come up with a plot before. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ L.H. = Live human D.H. = Digital human Story centered on the interaction of a single L.H. and a single D.H. The L.H. lives in space station as a result of irreversible damage done to earth by human short-sightedness. The space station orbiting the sun uses solar energy to power the station/agriculture as well as server farms on the opposite side of the station. L.H. interacts with D.H. by means of a technology that allows him to place an avatar in the digital world. The D.H. has a series of interactions with the L.H. which serves as a tour of the digital world. Includes social commentary, entertainment, and outlines the structure of the world. The digital world works in tiers. The basic tier is being born into a perfect replication of human life, with no straying from your body. Helps to develop personality, social skills, and have strong roots to what it means to be human. Surpassing this level opens up more and more of the world until finally you can participate in a society based on the limitless potential provided by living in a digital environment. There is a third tier. I wish I could tell you about it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I realize that a lot of the work will be in character development, but I want to straighten out a plot so that the digital world isn't the only enticing aspect of the book. I guess I'm just not sure what should be happening in the real world. All of the scenes in the digital world will basically be descriptive as well as provide commentary on what is happening in the real world. I'd love to write more books that expand the universe I'm describing, so I need to make sure I build a strong foundation. Inspiration includes the Ender's Game series, Foundation, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Dune. Also, just comments in general. If you're into sci-fi, would you read this?
Maybe some resources are dwindling in the live world and one of the settlements makes apower grab and succeeds and decides to keep trying for more?
A lot of someones once told me that if it's worth stealing, it's worth publishing so just write it. Got the idea? Got the drive to write it? Then sit down and write.
A story concept means nothing. I can tell you now, it has all been done before. What matters is how you write it, the characterization, the flow, the imagery, all of it. There's no benefit in asking what other people think of the concept! They'll either say,"Sounds great," or, "it sounds like a ripoff of..." If the idea stirs you, write it. Then ask people what they think of the final story. After they tell you what they don't like about it, revise it, usually several times, until you're happy with it or until you throw up your hands and say the hell with it. Please read What is Plot Creation and Development? There's really nothing to steal from just an idea or synopsis. Every writer will develop it differently.
Their minds can mingle and explore each other in the digital space [kind of like digital mind sex], but DH can't be uploaded/downloaded into LH's body. A brain is wired uniquely to each individual personality and mind and it would have to be physically changed to accommodate a different mind. An embedded chip of some sort may allow this, but It's all conjecture. However, DH can be uploaded to technology such as humanoid robots... I like questions like that. It made me think of something I hadn't before. Most of my thoughts were about life in the digital world I'm code-naming Eden Prime. I don't think this is entirely true. Post-singularity speculative fiction is pretty brand spanking new.
A good writer can take a mundane idea and make it shine, whereas weak writing can wreck the mopst brilliant concept ever conceived. New writers in particular are obseesed with the story concept. It's really worth nothing compared with the effort put into turning it into a story. The most important thing about a story concept is if it excites you enough to keep you laboring at it until it is a completed, well polished manuscript.
i have to say what you have written doesnt really count as a plot at all merely a bit of back ground (which sounds interesting) so can you explain plot in say 5 to 10 sentences so as not to spoil but so we can throw ideas eg. man steals x meats woman who steals x of him man and woman fall in love etc
Okay, so the main character is a live human [LH] who has recently become a member of the population of a huge space station orbiting the sun. The population aboard the space station is a combination of the most intelligent scientists or technologists and a portion of the population of the earth that was selected via lottery to be saved. Saved from what? The deteriorating ecology of planet earth. The space station was a last ditch effort to make a self-sustaining haven for humanity while the earth withers. The earth is under repair, but I won't go into detail about how. There's a chance that everyone on earth will die, but they aren't copulating and will die of natural causes so it's kinda okay. Anyway. The plot I guess is our MC assimilating to the new environment of the space station, which includes the digital world I've created. The technology exists for him to venture into this world and he's just plain fascinated. Almost seems like a YA book, tbh, and it may very will be, but so is Ender's Game and adults love that book. There is also talk of colonizing distant planets by the higher-ups, but that's fairly ambitious for a species that is struggling to survive. I want it to be debated. I know how I want the book to end, but getting there is what I'm worried about. I'm hoping that the man vs. god/circumstance/nature conflict will work enough for me because I can't imagine having an actual antagonist. Humans are sullen, and hoping for the best. This is a bleak time and I can't imagine someone wanting to make anyone's lives harder than they already are.
I heard publishers and movie companies reject people's stories because the story idea has been done already. And it has been done TO DEATH. I wrote a story. I thought it was good, but I was told that the concept was done to death. Therefore, I don't think igorning the story conecept, especially if you're an aspriing or professional screenwriter, is always a good idea.
I'm confused as to how this is different from existing fiction about artificial intelligences that reach human-like intelligence? ChickenFreak
Err... what about the THOUSANDS of dystopian novels...? Your idea sounds like it's got potential, but I'd disagree with you that it's completely new and original. Frankly, it sounds like every other sci-fi film I've come across. The same A.I/other-worldly/technology vs human struggles. There's this film - though I haven't watched this so I could be wrong - your story reminds me of called Moon. About a single-man mission on the Moon and he must endure solitude for 3 years. Or perhaps I Am Legend - another one about solitude (the film, at least, and part of the book.) All in all, it sounds like you got yourself a nice mish-mash of Avatar plus Matrix. Anyway, what makes your story interesting isn't the world - it's the characters. The reason why I wanna know more about the world of Lord of the Rings? And the world of Avatar? And Gotham from The Dark Knight? Because of the story, because I loved the characters, because I loved the adventures they took in it and all the themes and morality they explore. Otherwise, it's just a make-belief world that I have no need to care about.
you will need some really good sub plots to make this work also something has to go wrong then you fix it and it just gets worse then you fix it and all hell breaks out and then a last minute/long shot pays off and boy gets girl the end
So I was considering an uprising of humans that don't agree with the premise of the digital world. They too explored a little bit, but felt so small and dumb compared to the digital society that they choose to reject it. They lobby or terrorize for the shutdown of that world claiming it to be unhuman, whereas the rest of the people don't care either way, or see those digital humans as part of the future of humanity. Also, you guys/gals have made it abundantly clear that character development is pretty much the most important thing and I am reading to that affect. I've been reading creative writing books nonstop and have been writing tidbits I plan on editing when I've finished reading. -Add girl -colonization sub-plot -civil unrest over digital world sub-plot -exploration of digital world plot Any ideas?
this type of story must make the technology seem normal like an every day thing just like toasters are normal to us but to a cave man is magical so dont concentrate on the world just the situation if you get my drift. for example It was a typical day in New York. People walking on the pavements, cars queued on the road a group of kids whizzed past on their hover boards an old man waving his stick at them shouting "GET A JOB" before mumbling "damn students".
Great suggestion. I had planned on doing this for everything except for what is new to the MC. I really appreciate your feedback. I started writing just to make sure I'd be able to [never written fiction. I have only been writing down concepts and ideas], and I think I did surprisingly well. I'd be interested in knowing what you guys think. So here it is.
