Ideas Dump

[YuukiCrossPudding]

Waa~ I'm having a really weird dream.
and I dreamed it like I am the main character T^T it's sticking inside my mind
but it's too complicated fro the details
and It looks like it can be a story or whatever it is >A<
I'll just write what story I get from that dream (before I forgot about it)

There's a woman who have 1 younger brother and 1 younger sister, unfortunately her parent divorced a long time ago.
Her mother taken care for her brother and sister, while her father take care of her.
She's always lonely, since her father always work. and no matter she called her mom, and told her to bring her siblings home, her mother always end angry at her.
After those bitter years. She went into the highschool, and met a boy.
The boy fell in love with her, and so do her.
But she already closed her heart to anyone, she never trust someone and believe love always end with pain.
So she rejected him, and so on..
after many years, she finished her studies and start to work.
She's workaholic and never socialize with people well.
one day her younger sister contact her. (I don't know why in my dream she just end up in that boy house)
It looked like her sister have interest in that boy. The woman just feel so sad, since the boy ignored her and care for her sister.
even she's the one who rejected him. her heart is full with pain, loneliness and regret.
and she still can't see her little brother.
then there's a scene from my dream where the boy saw the woman begged to her mother (via telephone) to allow her to see her brother, but her mother just mad at her again.
It looked like the boy still love her, but since she said he's annoy her, he just start to ignore her for her sake.

So from there maybe it'll have many endings, depend on the choice again... xD
(sorry for bad grammar!)
That's one weird dream I ever had I suppose >A<
maybe I'm thinking about stories too much xP

[SusanTheCat]

Have a multi-character story where instead of making decisions, you choose which person to follow. If that character meets someone else, you can switch to that character.

Yes, this idea has been used before in a book. (I am not naming the title on purpose)

Susan

[IonicMomo]

Have a multi-character story where instead of making decisions, you choose which person to follow. If that character meets someone else, you can switch to that character.

I really like this idea! Too bad I don't really have the skill to pull it off at this point. Maybe someday. The premise sort of reminds me of Richard Linklater's film Slacker.

[pondrthis]

Have a multi-character story where instead of making decisions, you choose which person to follow. If that character meets someone else, you can switch to that character.

The problem with really open-ended plot structures like this is that you can't control what the reader gets first in the story. It's fine for character-centric branching storylines, but for a plot-intensive story... you end up inevitably spoiling the reader.

Unless, of course, you only allow this switching up until a certain point in the story... then you could maybe add the ability to switch during the climax to a "true end" character after you've read all the other plotlines which would unveil all the assorted mysteries left unexplained earlier.

This would be interesting in my opinion because it actually makes you agonize over your choices. Naturally, people don't want to miss the opportunity to follow that rarely-seen character, but by the time you get to the choice you've already become attached to your current point of view.

It would also be pretty easy to write. It's not really "branching" so much as "parallel and intertwined".

[SusanTheCat]

This would be interesting in my opinion because it actually makes you agonize over your choices. Naturally, people don't want to miss the opportunity to follow that rarely-seen character, but by the time you get to the choice you've already become attached to your current point of view.

I thought it would be interesting to write the story from two opposite points of view then have a poll to see who thinks which ending is the "True" one. (and how often it is also the first character they pick)

Susan

[Greeny]

This would be interesting in my opinion because it actually makes you agonize over your choices. Naturally, people don't want to miss the opportunity to follow that rarely-seen character, but by the time you get to the choice you've already become attached to your current point of view.

I thought it would be interesting to write the story from two opposite points of view then have a poll to see who thinks which ending is the "True" one. (and how often it is also the first character they pick)

Susan

Wouldn't that form of gameplay make all endings the same ending, just from a different point of view?
Interesting concept though, if done right.

[qq]

I had the same idea for a wuxia like story. I was thinking to make the interface explicitly show the character's pov and personality. Also I was thinking of having 4 main characters, but only be able to switch between 3 of them (they're all siblings) I don't know how to execute it though. Plus it won't be made for a long while, lol.

[pondrthis]

Wouldn't that form of gameplay make all endings the same ending, just from a different point of view?
Interesting concept though, if done right.

Depending on how expansive your plot is, the endings could vary differently. One character could sacrifice himself to save another, a second character could live happily ever after with her lover, a third could commit suicide, and a fourth could save the world. The only reason I bring up "true ending" into the mix is because I think a story has overstayed its welcome when it stops revealing new things, so the true ending is the one which reveals the final plotpoints.

Even if both endings are happening at the same time, as long as they reveal different information, they're different endings.

[Friendbot2000]

I came up with this idea while watching "Lie To Me". The episode featured a witness with MPD(Multiple Personality Disorder). MPD sometimes develops because of an extremely traumatic experience, such as being orphaned etc. The two personality types that usually emerge are the regular you and the protector. A personality that protects you from harm and surfaces during danger and stuff.

So my idea is that there is this guy who has MPD but it hasn't been a problem until recently, until the Protector personality started killing people it thought to be a threat to the guy. This man leads a normal life. He has a family, goes to work everyday; you know, an Average Joe. At night though he becomes a methodical serial killer that is so perfect at his craft that the police are baffled. Slowly the Protector is starting to bleed into his everyday life. It is pushing the man's regular personality out of the picture to become a full blooded serial killer that will eventually take over the man's mind. It will be quite the suspenseful story.

[papillon]

Be aware that there's a huge amount of controversy about the idea of disassociative identity disorder (the term multiple personality disorder is out of favor these days), with many people arguing that the only true cases have been the result of psychologists badgering vulnerable people to behave in the way they imagined such people should behave, until they eventually believed it.

It's a really fun concept for fiction writers to play with, obviously, but the fun fiction aspects tend not to have much bearing on reality... and unfortunately, a lot of people seeing it occur in fiction think that that's how it works in the real world, which can have negative consequences for real people.

It's also been kinda overused in movies as a "shocking twist".

You could have an interesting story where you know from the start that your EvilSide is committing crimes at night and you're busy trying to stop yourself while still having to cover for yourself because you don't want to be arrested... but probably not so much with serial killing, though, because the protagonist looks like a real jerk if he's aware that he's killing people but is too afraid of prison to turn himself in.

[IonicMomo]

It would probably be easier to write (and more interesting) if you didn't try to come up with a wholly scientific explanation for the "other personality," like DID. It could still work as a kind of updated Jekyll/Hyde story.

[Friendbot2000]

I am aware of the controversy surrounding the disorder. I use MPD because that is the definition by which the disorder was defined when I was growing up. It kind of ingrained into my head. This is really just a raw idea. I really like the modern Jekyll/Hyde spin that Ionic mentioned. I think I will morph it to fit that instead. You have a point about the "being afraid to turn himself in". I will have to remedy that. Maybe his evil side could be an expert cat burglar

You are right about how media often affects our perceptions of actual reality in a negative way like the situation with MPD/DID. Take CSI as another example. I have a friend that is a lab assistant and he tells me that the majority of his time is spent narrowing down elements that a certain sample is NOT from. Processing one sample can take months, it doesn't just pop out results when you throw it into a machine. You would be surprised to find out just how many people believe the image that CSI projects about forensics.

[LVUER]

I think there are already Jekyll/Hyde modern version (If I'm not mistaken, it's titled Mr./Mrs.Hyde and starring Eddy Murphy)

Basically, the protagonist have created a medicine to turn him into a woman in order to understand better what woman want from their perfume. He did and he starts creating great products. The problem is that this woman version of protagonist is really evil. Scheming, extortion, etc... and finally, burning his/her own co-worker (in comedic way, you know Eddy's movies like)

[Friendbot2000]

I think this would be different because I am not drinking a potion or anything like that. This other person is actually inside me and comes out at night while I am asleep. Pretty soon the daytime self figures out what is going on and he has to make sure he doesn't get arrested and stuff. As the story goes on the other self will start to encroach on the daytime self and if the day time self doesn't try and stop it he will be swallowed up. So I don't think this is like the Eddie Murphy movie.

[IonicMomo]

There's are many modern retellings of the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One of the better versions, in my opinion, is the BBC miniseries "Jekyll." As long as you can keep your story interesting, it doesn't matter. The story is public domain now, and you aren't ripping it off directly, so it's fine. A lot of good stories are actually retellings or reinterpretations of OTHER good stories (eg. West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet). (By the way, that Eddie Murphy movie sounds dreadful. Just sayin'.)