Author Topic: story ideas  (Read 3046 times)

guessingo

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story ideas
« on: September 08, 2010, 04:16:35 PM »
I thought about doing some writing as a hobby. One idea I have had is to combine a fantasy world with magic with technology. I don't want them to be mutual exclusive. It seems that most books that do this have magic fading away when technology starts advancing. I would want the world to have 2 tracks. Magic has been around for a long time and is advanced, but the world is starting to industrialized (more than the Robert Jordan world).

One tenant would be that people who use magic have it easy so they don't have to innovate and come up with better ways to do this. People without technology need to come up with better ways to do things. This is similiar to the north and south at the time of the civil war. The south had free slave labor so they did not look for new ways to farm or industrialize, but the north did not have any slaves so labor was more expensive. There was incentive to innovate.

I don't really have a plot idea for this, just a general idea. It is the kind of world I have wanted to see in fantasy, but I have not found it.

Shi

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Re: story ideas
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2010, 08:08:33 PM »
This could be a really interesting story! But how exactly are the two different tracks, magic and technology, going to affect each other?

You mentioned Magic being advanced, so those people have it easy. Does that mean these people are more prosperous and rich than the others? Are people that can't use magic poor, or looked down upon? If they're the lower class, then how are they getting the money they need to invent and build these machinery? Or, are the people who use magic afraid of industrialization, because it would make what they do obsolete? Where's the conflict?

See what I'm getting at? Push boundaries, ask question, and look at it from different angles! How will this affect society? And most importantly, how will this affect the characters?

Sounds like a lot of fun!

RavenstarRHJF

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Re: story ideas
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2010, 02:12:58 PM »
I have read some books that touched on the subject, but they never make it's never a major part of the plot.  Seems to me you'd have an open field for exploration!
A crown does not a King make, nor the lack of one a commoner.

guessingo

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Re: story ideas
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2010, 04:16:15 PM »
1. I don't like the rich wizards vs. poor people with technology trying to avoid change. Too cliched.
2. It doesn't take alot of money to start a business. Google was founded in a dorm room. Early technology improvements that helped alot were pretty simple. For example when more people started farming in northern Europe, they needed a heavier plow to turn the soil. This made a large difference, but was not something that required investment.

I thought about doing it from the perspective of a merchant who turns into a business tycoon. I want to do something different. He is terrible with magic so has to come up with other ways to do things. It would be terrible at first since to do this right, I would need to do alot of research on industrialization. It would be easy to see through if I fake it. I would just do it for fun anyway. I would probably use some non-human races to represent third world countries that have cheap labor.

guessingo

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Re: story ideas
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2010, 04:26:35 PM »
I also thought about a satire where our world comes into contact with a fantasy world. I would need to use tolkein like species or it would not be that funny.

The redskins sign a 2000 pound troll to play defensive tackle and they still suck.
Al Quaeda recruits goblins to be suicide bombers telling them they can have all the virgins they want  when they blow up(they want them for dinner)
Demons claim they are oppressed and the Civil Liberties Union defends them
The NRA protest for the right to have magic +5 AK-47s.
The democratic party hires an alchemist to create love potions to bring back the man love for Obama.
Then I'd steal an idea from District 9 and have nigerian gangsters trafficking in inter-species prostitution.
Elven princesses hooked on cocaine
Faeries who are con-artists

It would probably be bad also.

Shi

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Re: story ideas
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2010, 06:38:20 PM »
1. I don't like the rich wizards vs. poor people with technology trying to avoid change. Too cliched.
2. It doesn't take alot of money to start a business. Google was founded in a dorm room. Early technology improvements that helped alot were pretty simple. For example when more people started farming in northern Europe, they needed a heavier plow to turn the soil. This made a large difference, but was not something that required investment.

Ok, I think you totally missed the point. I wasn't saying that's what you had to do, I was talking about looking at all the different ways a story could go, and how one thing would affect another in the process. I was just giving an example to explain what I meant.

So good luck with your story.

dhalagirl

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Re: story ideas
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2011, 03:46:27 PM »
I thought about doing some writing as a hobby. One idea I have had is to combine a fantasy world with magic with technology. I don't want them to be mutual exclusive. It seems that most books that do this have magic fading away when technology starts advancing. I would want the world to have 2 tracks. Magic has been around for a long time and is advanced, but the world is starting to industrialized (more than the Robert Jordan world).

One tenant would be that people who use magic have it easy so they don't have to innovate and come up with better ways to do this. People without technology need to come up with better ways to do things. This is similiar to the north and south at the time of the civil war. The south had free slave labor so they did not look for new ways to farm or industrialize, but the north did not have any slaves so labor was more expensive. There was incentive to innovate.

I don't really have a plot idea for this, just a general idea. It is the kind of world I have wanted to see in fantasy, but I have not found it.

That's an interesting idea, but as a history student I have a problem with it.  Advances in society, whether it be technology, art, music, etc. is the product of free time.  When you're sweating in the fields earning your daily bread you don't have time to build a better mouse trap.  All of the advances of the Renaissance were because rich people paid poor people to be clever and artistic for them.  Because of their patronage the poor clever person now had the time and resources to create wonderful and terrible things.  So there almost needs to be a symbiotic relationship between your two forces for them to co-exist.

fardawg

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Re: story ideas
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2011, 02:41:00 PM »
guessingo
This is an interesting idea (similar to one I have). Keep Howard Tayler's "Donkey Rule" in mind (See the Writing Excuses episode on the Costs of Magic). If it is cheaper to use magic to create a candle than it is to use a donkey (to churn the wax) then all the candle makers (and their donkeys) just went out of business.
« Last Edit: June 13, 2011, 02:33:35 PM by fardawg »