Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
Ahhhh... David Icke. What a nutjob.
Are the NWO getting her in to help them with something or does she have something they want from her...? Are they antagonistic?
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
BritGAF |OT4| - "Our Only Goal In Life Is To Become As Alpha As Possible"
- Thread starter NinjaBoiX
- Start date
- Status
Ahhhh... David Icke. What a nutjob.
Are the NWO getting her in to help them with something or does she have something they want from her...? Are they antagonistic?
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
It's kind of a crap power, she can't really control it all that much. Probably will be accidentally shifting or being influenced by others (this is based on a 'true story' where a woman literally believes she's a shifter - one particular event had her become temporarily pregnant after she thought about it too much). She might be able to control it eventually but not at first.
Thinking about having her be discovered by a forum dwelling conspiracy nut who happens to be a furry. And then they go on a road trip through the dizzying true world of alien bases, hollow earth cities all all other crazy shit. Interspersed with flashbacks showing the great 911 Gold Robbery, the Dulce Grey War of 1979, aliens attacking Washington DC in 1952, the cradle of humanity back in Sumeria and whatever other crazy shit I find out about between now and the end of November.
Hot Coldman
Banned
Ah, OK. Well I suppose it wouldn't be much fun if she had control over it. I always liked powers influenced by emotion.
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
This is a great point. I'm super tempted to have the NWO be good guys, maybe as a late reveal. My tentative big plot so far is that they want to use Annunaki technology to turn gold bullion into a reflective substance in the troposphere to reflect sunlight, thereby halting global warming and saving the planet. But the conspiracy nuts will stop the plan coming to fruition and doom the planet.
Maybe.
The whole alien mythology is super complex and has a whole bunch of alliances and enmities mixed up in it, so I need to be sure which races I'm having help and which ones are antagonistic.
Honestly, I think this story is way too ambitious. But I figure it's better to shoot for the moon and end up in scotland by accident.
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
Yeah totally, I'm thinking that high emotional states could be a trigger, and she can be psychically influenced by others, like a physically transformative empathy.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
You know your conspiracy shit, sir.
I love that crap, it's always a good laugh and often wildly imaginative. Your story sounds like a wild ride akin to Warren Ellis' Crooked Little Vein (minus the Godzilla Glove wanking) meets the Illuminate Trilogy. Here's a mental site for you to peruse.
So, for instance, if she has sex with someone she would turn into them? That's hot.
That'd be a nice twist. What the hell is wrong with the New World Order anyway? Sounds like a great idea
You could tie that last bit in with Project Bluebeam.
Rubbish King
The gift that keeps on giving
I'm so tired right now, I woke up, took a delivery and got back into bed to watch some tv and fell asleep again untill now, not enough time, I can either go to the gym or go food shopping
I'm not going to the gym
fuck that
I'm not going to the gym
fuck that
Musha_Soturi
Member
Basically it's about Lucifer and Eve falling in love in the Garden of Eden, God finds out and is super pissed, banishes Lucifer to Hell and punishes Eve by not allowing her to ever enter Heaven of Hell, instead she is constantly reincarnated.
The story follows Eve in her recent day incarnation. Lucifer discovers a way out of hell, has some bio-mech wings made to escape and goes looking for her. They are reunited and eventually Lucifer reveals who he, and she, are.
Mighty battle at the end between the Archangels and Lucifer, Eve and their friends. It ends with Eve being killed.
Epilogue is Eve waking up in a Past Life Regression session, the whole story was her reliving her previous life.
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
You know your conspiracy shit, sir.
Here's a mental site for you to peruse.
So, for instance, if she has sex with someone she would turn into them? That's hot.
STOP MAKING ME LOVE YOU!! Crooked Little Vein and Illuminatus! are two of my favourite books... big influences. Stir in some Invisibles, Manhattan Projects and David Icke nonsense and you have my book.
As for the sex question, I got the 'idea' (aka am stealing wholesale) from an episode of the Keith and the Girl podcast where they had a guy on who said he was in a relationship with a genuine shifter. The first time he saw it was post-coitus, laying in bed when a passing thought of an ex gf went through his mind. He glanced up and the shifter lady had turned into his ex GF without realising it (different hair colour/length, different body shape too). Sounded like a cool idea to me. Yoink.
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
That'd be a nice twist. What the hell is wrong with the New World Order anyway? Sounds like a great idea
You could tie that last bit in with Project Bluebeam.
Holy crap that's totally brilliant and fits right in with my idea of having Google kickstart the Singularity (thanks Jackben!). Technologically stimulated second coming + google making an electronic brain = Jesus comes back to earth with a digital soul. Ohhhh shit that's too good, I must use it!
That sounds super cool! I love all the biblical mythology, very powerful archetypes. Especially with the Miltonian non-evil Lucifer, very interesting. Kinda like the Sandman take of him as a tortured romantic. It's neat, I would totes read it.
Musha_Soturi
Member
Yeah it started off with the idea that the snake was Lucifer and the apple was sex, but I thought rather than have it be all about lust, it should be about love.
My difficulty will be trying to not have it become the next teen girl franchise, I definitely want it to appeal to adults and guys. Thinking maybe lots of swearing, blood, sex, violence etc. But then do I really want to ostracise the teen market? Must find happy medium.....
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
I'm on top, y'dig?
Shit, it's Illuminatus, isn't it? D'oh.
Yep, I'm a fully paid up Discordian. My daughter's middle name is Eris, ferrchristsakes! If it had been a boy, I'd have insisted his middle name was Hagbard.
That's... that's insane. Dig he genuinely believe that? The conspiracy set can be genuinely scary. I remember reading a story about a couple that lost their child during pregnancy. The only way they could cope with it was believing that Fourth Dimensional Shape-Shifting Aliens had swiped it. They still campaign for the baby's return to this day... fucking tragic.
That is the kind of idea that makes other writers say "why the hell didn't I think of that?" (pun intended).
Jed, everything about yours is sounding super-exciting to read. Should be pretty pacey to write, too, as whenever you get stuck on something you can just bang on with another huge random conspiracy. You've given yourself license to keep 'turning everyone into Transformers' (eh? EH?) and it won't ruin your story. Genius.
Ahhh yes, it's all coming back now - sounding epic and in need of an 80s rock soundtrack.
Do I get to read these?
Ahhh yes, it's all coming back now - sounding epic and in need of an 80s rock soundtrack.
Do I get to read these?
NinjaBoiX
Member
Don't try and pander to a particular demographic Musha, write it how you feel it should be written. Try and appeal to everyone and you end up appealing to no-one.
Or fuck it, sell out big time and go and spend the rest of your life drinking cocktails on a beach in the Bahamas!
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
The best thing about NaNo being a first draft is that you can write it purely for you. And if that means ten pages of hard fucking every chapter then go for it. My second novel that was meant to be a YA thing had a massively protracted hardcore sequence at the end where I was getting bored of writing what I was writing and wanted to spice it up.
I think that the best way to steer away from Twilight territory would be to go darker and harder with it. Give us horrific violence and sexy sexy times. Teens will love it, but it won't be utter shit.
Shit, it's Illuminatus, isn't it? D'oh.
Yep, I'm a fully paid up Discordian. My daughter's middle name is Eris, ferrchristsakes! If it had been a boy, I'd have insisted his middle name was Hagbard.
Oh really? That's totally awesome! Eris is a really pretty name actually, I might suggest that for a couple years time... I have a friend (who I was going to write about in that weird friends thread, also called Andy) who I completely warped by lending Illuminatus to. He was all about discordianism for quite some time afterwards, kept talking about fnords and 23 skidoo and reality tunnels and all that jazz. I gave the book to my wife this year but she got 300 pages in a dropped it, I was most let down.
Yeah he totally believed, he said that he saw the transformation (also saw her transform into an 8 months pregnant woman as well). And he wasn't even outwardly that mad, a professional stand up comic, spent most of the interview talking ribald sex stories, and then comes out with this shit at the end.
I find the conspiracy stuff so interesting in that it's out current society's mode of expressing these fringe ideas. In times past it would be faeries or monsters or demons, these days it's aliens and shit. Also interesting how with the reptillians we're going back to some of the oldest archetypes that exist, all the stuff with the serpents and stuff goes back past biblical times even to the Sumerians and proto humans. There is something in humanity that constantly has these experiences though, that's what's interesting to me.
Ah, good stuff. Glad it's going well for you! Won't be long until she's in the smiling and cooing stage (the little 'un that is, not the missus).
All is well here. Mrs S is suffering a bit (heartburn) but she's generally in good spirits. Just trying to get everything ready for March when she arrives and generally tips our lives upside down.
I can't fucking wait!
6 quid on GMG with the voucher (activates on steam), don't buy it on steam
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
It's not something you can casually read, that's for sure. There needs to be some kind of commitment (I'm not dissing your missus!). After Gravity's Rainbow and Catch 22, it is one of the denser novels I've read. It gets pretty fucked up in places.
I always thought Operation: Mindfuck would make a great band name... if I had the music to live up to it. XD
That's a good point. It's very much become a syncretic religion, fusing aspects of Christianity, Alien worship and Gnosticism into this weird gelatinous mess. I know it isn't solely an American tradition, but it's almost like their paranoid cultural subconscious writ large. I find it endlessly fascinating.
Man, I can't wait to make Evy Eris laugh
Awesome to hear! Do you know the gender yet, because I think heartburn indicates (Old Wives tale alert) that it might be a
boy
dapperbandit
Banned
Wow you guys have some really imaginative stuff going on.
Mine's more of a grounded thriller that follows the lives of four or five people living in a alternate version of Britain where a Fascist party has taken control.
Different characters interact with the setting in different ways: I wanted to avoid the straight-up resistance to the regime cliche. So almost all the main characters are either ambivolent to the regime or are actually complicit/support it.
I wanted to explore some of the perhaps more mundane things that are generally neglected in this sort of setting; imagine doing your Christmas shopping in late November and you're only clue that anything has changed is that security forces wearing Party armbands are on patrol. Or what about TV? Besides the propaganda (which I've decided is voiced by the guy that does the O2 adverts right now) how does TV change? Are there still panel shows and comedies? Things like that make a more believable setting I think.
Intersecting the mundane stuff is the ultraviolent activities of a contract killer who's been given a list of targets by someone who may be working with or against the government, and the targets on the list connect every character's story.
Mine's more of a grounded thriller that follows the lives of four or five people living in a alternate version of Britain where a Fascist party has taken control.
Different characters interact with the setting in different ways: I wanted to avoid the straight-up resistance to the regime cliche. So almost all the main characters are either ambivolent to the regime or are actually complicit/support it.
I wanted to explore some of the perhaps more mundane things that are generally neglected in this sort of setting; imagine doing your Christmas shopping in late November and you're only clue that anything has changed is that security forces wearing Party armbands are on patrol. Or what about TV? Besides the propaganda (which I've decided is voiced by the guy that does the O2 adverts right now) how does TV change? Are there still panel shows and comedies? Things like that make a more believable setting I think.
Intersecting the mundane stuff is the ultraviolent activities of a contract killer who's been given a list of targets by someone who may be working with or against the government, and the targets on the list connect every character's story.
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
This idea sounds super cool, and I think it taps into the zeitgeist of defeat in our culture. The idea of a comfortable and profitable totalitarian state is fascinating. What injustices will the public stomach if their lives are good? 100% employment and housing would be nice...
It would be cool to have the government do something super horrific and balance it out with a muted public reaction, or even support. Although I guess it's very similar to the birth of Nazism and Germans' reactions to the plight of the jews.
Sounds great though, like a version of V for Vendetta with our modern sensibilities.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
That sounds cool!
Funny you should mention TV. I've always wondered what a show like COPS would've been like in, say, Nazi Germany; a camera crew following the SS or Brownshirts around as they hunt down Jews and Communists, showing them as exhasberated ordinary people who are just doing their job and trying to make Germany a safer place for ordinary folk.
I'm not a Nazi, btw.
All this talk of novel writing is really making me want to get involved...
I remember that night and story.
Interestingly, I've taken the initial plot of my story that I discussed that night and replanned it (for Nano) into a preachy, conscious, more futuristic cyperpunk-ish story about a group of hacker vigilantes. No, not Anonymous...jeez *rolles eyes*
This sounds awesome too - I've always had a bit of a yearning for a story from that kind of point-of-view. Are you doing much research for it, or are you a winger?
I've decided that changing my story so late was a great idea. I'm using the same characters, but I've aged them both by 5 years & Nathan has a new job (but he still PREVIOUSLY worked at Amazon). Also I've scrapped the idea that he's a mute, which I still love, but I can't think of a way for him to introduce himself to Amélie & have them getting along well enough to run away together all in the space of a 30 minute train delay if he's not able to speak to her.
I know it's the right decision because since changing track, I've got about 3 pages of stuff about my characters including what I love and love to hate about both of them along with a couple of pages of possible places for the story to go.
I need to figure out if they're going to go international or stay in the UK. I have a fun sequence planned out where they have to get Amélie's passport from her place without her nose-in-everyone's-business media student housemate noticing which should be fun.
I remember that night and story.
Interestingly, I've taken the initial plot of my story that I discussed that night and replanned it (for Nano) into a preachy, conscious, more futuristic cyperpunk-ish story about a group of hacker vigilantes. No, not Anonymous...jeez *rolles eyes*
Yeah that was a great night - loads of fun at Loading & chatting about our various story ideas - I love cyberpunk as a setting too (to be fair, I also love dieselpunk and steampunk...and whale oil punk if Dishonored has anything to say about it)
dapperbandit
Banned
Not a whole lot of research no. We covered Fascism in University and I've done some reading in my spare time over the years into people like Sir Oswald Mosley and so on. I think I'm sorted on that end.
What I was thinking of doing was never introducing the "Leader" as a character. And I have a kind of timeline imagined for when and why this part takes over but I'm not sure whether that's necessary either: I'm not sure whether an elaborate sequence of events explaining the setting is distracting or not. I think I might have people refer to it off hand and leave it at that.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
That'd be much better. Preserves the mystery and the sense that the characters are used to their environment. Saying that though, is a visable, iconic leader quite vital to a totalitarian dictatorship? Cult of Personality and all that.
Or just never explain it, but treat it almost like the reader should already know - reference it in small and natural ways & it'll create a sense of depth in your world along with keeping things vaguely mysterious & intriguing.
I love books that don't explain everything to you, they're the ones where your imagination can fill in the blanks, which makes the story feel more personally involving & compelling.
dapperbandit
Banned
Yeah I think I'll leave out the explanation as it would create plotholes I think.
As for the Cult of Personality stuff... I think it's needed but only in the right amounts. This Leader's face isn't going to be on bank notes for example.
What I was thinking was perhaps a TV/Radio broadcast based on Franklin D Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats" during the 1930's where he spoke directly to the public. So perhaps on a monthly basis, this Leader comes on TV and talks to the public about what's going on, what's planned, addressing people's fears and concerns, but also providing his own rationale for why he and his Party aren't just necessary for the times but why they're better than what came before.
That represents a significant challenge however, since as a writer you basically have to be this leader and think up what he would say and deliver it in a concise but charismatic way as you'd expect from a national leader.
I like talking about it here though, your points give me insight into things I could do or change.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
That is interesting! It's a kind of riff on a (fairly) well known practice by a famous (specifically) democratic leader. Is your government going to be a sort of satricial take on current/past non-facist governments or a reference to actual facist governments of days gone by...?Are people forced in some way to watch it like 1984's '2 Minute Hates' (or whatever they're called)?
IWANTTOREADYOURBOOK
dapperbandit
Banned
It's not going to be as abstractly nightmarish as 1984. I'm thinking that kind of broadcast just temproarily takes over every channel and station while the message is played. But there's definitely some of the elements from famous regimes. National Service. State run organisations for children, state run labour unions that organise leisure for members. A lot of propaganda. Then there's the stress and paranoia of informants and secret police. Vague references to detention centres (but I'm going to avoid Holocaust comparisons, I''m trying to be somewhat more original). Like, you know those signs and announcements on public transport that tell you to report something suspicious? I'm kind of expanding that so that "suspicious" includes "dissidents".
It's a tricky job because the way I want to tell the story, you've basically got to sell the concept of Fascism as something people would buy into since several characters voluntarily work for the government. Why would they do that if the regime was abhorrent in every way?
Hot Coldman
Banned
100% true
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
Do they have much of a choice?
Given that most of the information they receive about the world is filtered through the government, do they know any different? It would seem normal to them, I guess.
It becomes a lot easier to buy into if these characters are doing well for themselves and for their families by being a cog in the regime.
People will do awful things to the faceless masses and fully justify it if they know they're keeping their family safe, fed and happy.
EDIT: Especially if they think that what they're doing is for the best. "Those idiots would be a lot happier if they just stopped resisting change & tried to fit into the society we've built for them"
Kind of reminds me of that bit in American History X (though I guess the context is hugely different
"What have you ever done that's improved your life...?"
*breaks down*
dapperbandit
Banned
There's coercion there, and some of the characters are reluctant about what they do. At least two of these characters ideologically support the Party though.
That's the difficulty. How can you make them support it without just making them nuts? Or explaining it away as indoctrination?
The Nazis didn't threaten or deceive every person who loved them into it, but there were people who loved them.
Also, about it seeming normal, I'm thinking that this is a government that's been around for maybe 7-10 years so virtually everyone remembers what came before (a liberal democracy). It's set slightly in the future but not very far, maybe 2022 or something.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
How did the party get into power, how did they manage to change the landscape so completely and effectively, and what is specifically reprehensible about their ideology?
This isn't stuff you necessarily need to address in the novel, but I reckon it'd be good to know when deciding your character's motivations.
Sorry for the shortness, on me phone and travelling home.
EDIT: are there accounts of ordinary people who have lived in and worked for fascist governments? Might give you some ideas!
dapperbandit
Banned
All good tips.
I specifically like the last suggestion but I have no idea where I could find stuff like that.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
I hope none of that came across as condescending or anything. I'm no writer, I'm just a punk.
There has to be books or something on t'internet. For example, I've got a journal knocking about written by Josef Mengles' (sp?) Jewish assistant. That's pretty gruesome and he certainly didn't want the job.
EDIT: http://www.bdmhistory.com/research/narratives.html
Might be useful. Didn't read much!
Hot Coldman
Banned
Little Old Man
Member
As jealous as I am of those peeps getting a PS4 next month, I'm glad that most of the things missing at launch will have *been patched in by the time I purchase one. No media streaming or mp3 playback? C'mon son.
*probably
*probably
dapperbandit
Banned
Hot Coldman
Banned
I have never heard a single piece of music from Nier. If it's so good why does no-one ever link it, huh? HUH?
anyway it's not going to be better than the best ever version of the best ever video game tune
NinjaBoiX
Member
Jackben
bitch I'm taking calls.
That's probably one of the best NES songs ever made.
Here's my contributions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFsoCfGij0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H5YoFv09uQ
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked