Escape Artists
The Lounge at the End of the Universe => The Writing Forum => Topic started by: Raving_Lunatic on December 06, 2008, 08:32:02 PM
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An experience I had in my childhood, where I came up with a brilliant idea. People had retreated into the earth, living underground, civilised and human. Millions of years later, another human race evolved on the surface and began to attack the civilised ones, forcing them to return to the surface and relearn the art of war.
The next day I read the Time Traveller and decided that maybe I needed to ground myself in the classics before I do any original SF writing.
IDK though, looking back my idea may still be workable, if I make it a virus rather than a race of savages that forces the metaphorical descision to face the real world (i.e. the surface) rather than withdrawing into a fantasy world (i.e. the perfect, controlled, below ground environment. ) What do you think, guys? Would this work as something that didn't rip off The Time Traveller?
Or, worse still, does this rip off any other book/movie/tv plot that you know about that I should be aware of?
Basically, is this a workable idea?
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hahaha as i was reading the first paragraph I was thinking
"is this a joke? this is The Time Traveller!"
pretty interesting that you came up with the same idea on your own!
as for the modified idea, I dont know of anything it is ripping off, but why would a virus make them return to the surface? i guess it would work if you wrote it/formulated it well enough.
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I was thinking some sort of freaky cult/religion that made them believe that seeing daylight would cure the illness, something along those lines.
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Whatever you do, don't start listening to classic sci-fi radio shows like X Minus One or Escape. I don't think it would be good for your psyche.
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An experience I had in my childhood, where I came up with a brilliant idea. People had retreated into the earth, living underground, civilised and human. Millions of years later, another human race evolved on the surface and began to attack the civilised ones, forcing them to return to the surface and relearn the art of war.
The next day I read the Time Traveller and decided that maybe I needed to ground myself in the classics before I do any original SF writing.
Do you mean The Time Machine (as in H.G. Wells)? If so, I wouldn't worry about ripping off Wells. People steal from the classics all the time; that's how literature gets created. If you have a new take on the material, with your own interesting ideas and style, you should be fine.
I do think you'd do well to read the classics-- in SF as well as in other genres-- if you're going to write. What people read tends to inform their writing, and you might as well be borrowing from the good stuff.
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Thanks for the advice. I guess it's well known that all the good plots in SF have been used. And frankly if I wrote anything, I wouldn't expect it to ever get published to a huge market.
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And you're a horror writer.
If you write a bestseller based on that idea, send me a card with 50% of the royalties.
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Whatever you do, don't start listening to classic sci-fi radio shows like X Minus One or Escape. I don't think it would be good for your psyche.
X Minus One rocks!
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Just to add my 2 cents...
You should take a crack at it. Especially if it's something you really care about. Everything's been done before. There's nothing new under the sun. John Scalzi blatantly ripped off Heinlen's Starship Troopers (his words) but because he did such a good job and it was so much fun, we love him for it.
At the very least, you've tried writing something. If it doesn't work, you can try writing something else.
Good luck!
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I'll second DKT.
Some of my favorite fantasy stories are retellings of the "great classics." Why can't horror do the same? The basic structure stands, but you people it in a diffrent way and your ideas of what could happen in that world will of course be diffrent. I bet it'd still be a truly awesome story. Good luck!
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X Minus One rocks!
As does its predecessor, Dimension X