For the exercises from season 10, episode 2,(http://www.writingexcuses.com/2015/01/11/writing-excuses-10-2-i-have-an-idea-what-do-i-do-now). I am using the story ideas from both my first and second pass at the 10.1 homework.
The short-hand titles for my ideas are here:
- Hologram playdates
- Adopting for Status
- AIs seeking base code
- Animal religion
- Judgemental coyotes
- Celestial custodian
- Stardust
- Binary life
- The good evil
- Church for sale
Exercise: Using last week’s five story ideas (or five new ones):
Take one and change the genre underneath it.
The Good Evil — From Fantasy to Contemporary. Large corporation (& wealth / greedy CEO) aims to make money, and devil may care of the consequences. Its actions, unpopular and highly criticized, and selfish, end up saving thousands of lives and the CEO is touted as a genius.
Take one and change the ages and genders of everybody you had in mind for it
Stardust — Had imagined as middle age man and maybe a 20 something first mate / son. Change to old woman running the Stardust ship, and is doing so with a young girl / stowaway / orphan.
Take one and have a character make the opposite choice.
Celestial Custodian — Woman deity loves a man, and had set him to an impossible task to keep him. She admits she’s in love with him, and sets him free. Her admitting her feelings makes him respect her. Does he leave – she go with him? Does he stay – but it is uncomfortable – what is the consequence of her admitting it? If he stops cleaning the stars – do the stars go out? The universe die? Make the custodian a woman.
Take two of them and combine them into one story.
The Good Evil + Church for Sale — The evil corporation buys a church, and gets all the followers. The corporation tries to use them for its own ends, but it ends up being loved by the parishioners who go out and change the world.
Celestial Custodian + Hologram Playdates — Woman knows her love is dying, and inserts him in holograms where there is a version of her; she gives him an unfinishable task because it is the time out of the hologram that would kill him. But she cannot interact with him, so he lives, but she’s alone.
Could combine the AI stories Binary Life and AIs Seeking Base Code
Could combine the Celestial Custodian and Stardust story
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So as you can see, these are still works in progress/ still some stuff to work out on them. So they are not complete ideas, but a place to pick up. And I think some of them have potential with a little more thought.