Give an idea, take an idea

[jokergirl]

We have quite a bunch of literary-minded BAUTizens here. I've seen a similar thread on NaNoWriMo (called Adopt-a-plot) and it worked quite well there.
The point was to give, ask for or take ideas for stories and the like. It's also a place to store things that you might not necessarily want to expand upon, but feel are interesting enough to keep for some reason.

Rules:
Leave as many ideas/plots up for adoption as you want.
If you take an idea, please notify in this thread.
If you take an idea, leave an idea as well.
If you ask for help with an idea, you must answer a call for ideas as well (first one free, of course, as I don't have a question).


I'll start out with one that I have no particular interest in pursuing at this time, but I liked the sentence:
"The rift was a black sharpie squiggle on the fabric of the universe; a ribbon of darkness twisting through space, impenetrable by any wavelength, silent, and utterly two-dimensional."

[MAPNUT]

Hmm, not many ideas here? I wasn't going to bother offering mine, but maybe it can help get things started. I'm a civil engineer who likes to write. I've managed a short story about skiing, and some short humor pieces on line, but I feel like I have a novel in me. They say write about what you know, but most people probably think civil engineering is even duller than electrical engineering. I know if I start talking about my work at the dinner table, someone immediately changes the subject. But the only subject I ever thought capable of being novel-length would have to have a CE as the main character.

Anyway, global warming has taken off to the point where the polar ice caps are melting and sea level is rising rapidly. Our hero works for a big engineering company in New York City, and gets involved in the reconstruction of the city on high ground as sections of the city get flooded out. (No tidal waves.) If you think rebuilding the World Trade Center and the September 11th memorial is fraught with conflict, this would be much worse. The available high ground, the Hudson Highlands, is all parkland. And there would be social issues like those involved in rebuilding New Orleans. At some point we would have a desperate struggle to save the Catskill Aqueduct from being flooded with salt water. That's about all I have at this point. You have 5 years (until I retire) to grab this idea and run with it.

[J Riff]

Aliens appear in the sky one day, and everyone in the world can see their huge ships floating in the upper atmosphere.
The Aliens request that we upload examples of our culture. And so we do, sending them all the great music, movies, artwork etc.
Then they just blast off without another word.

Write a 30,000 word treatise on the difficulties involved in tracking mechanical royalties and other fees owed, in intergalctic space.

[MAPNUT]

Aliens appear in the sky one day, and everyone in the world can see their huge ships floating in the upper atmosphere.
The Aliens request that we upload examples of our culture. And so we do, sending them all the great music, movies, artwork etc.
Then they just blast off without another word.

Way back at least 30 years ago I read a story including that idea. Can't remember by whom or the title; I posted an inquiry here but nobody responded. There was more to the story: it was a post-nuclear-war world and the aliens offered to decontaminate the planet for us in return for a large consignment of Earth's greatest art works. For some reason the president of the US was put in charge of collecting the art works after the aliens had done the decontamination. Word got out in the US that almost none of the requested art works were American, and the public was outraged. President Buckbinder (for some reason I remember that) was under a lot of pressure (sign at demonstration: "Bukbinder luvs xtrateresteals!") and he substituted American artworks for the aliens' list. When they came back to collect payment, they rejected the art, re-contaminated the planet for us, and went away saying "Never trust an Earthling." A funny story. It could still be done a different way.

[J Riff]

Now that you mention it, it rings a few distant bells. There's precious few older scifi novels/short stories I didn't get to... who writes funny stuff like that ? Fredric Brown ? Sheckley ? I'm on it, Mapnut I've sent out a couple emails, we'll find it. - Detective Riff

[J Riff]

Can you remember AnyTHING else about the story ? Was it in a book anthology or a magazine ?
Harry Harrison ? Silverberg, Simak, Sturgeon... It's bothering me now too ! )
Focusing on aliens cleaning up environmental problems... probably written in the 60s-70s... hmmmm...

[MAPNUT]

My guess is a book anthology. Probably about a 20-page story, and in the time frame you mentioned. Sorry, that's about it. Searches on "Buckbinder" and "Never trust earthling" didn't help.

[tashirosgt]

Louis L'Amour, the prolific writer of westerns, wrote a strange memoir titled "Education Of A Wandering Man", which includes some advice on writing. I'm not being particularly interested in his fiction, but I admire his advice. One of his observations was that ideas for fiction are everywhere. They are essentially a dime a dozen. He said that any newspaper can be a good source. He was speaking of plots. Thoughts such as global warming causing the poles to melt, are what I would call "contexts" for a story, not plots. Likewise for "aliens arrive". (If we are going to have aliens in a context for a story, why not have something original like aliens threatening to depart?)

[J Riff]

Mapnut..do you remember the aliens using robots to clean the planet up ? And a sort of pied piper theme ? There was a shortage of manpower left on earth...and the aliens just left the place as it was, facing poverty.
This is a tough one, Ive posted it to the SF newsgroup and got those suggestions back, so someone else at least remembers the story.

[jokergirl]

Louis L'Amour, the prolific writer of westerns, wrote a strange memoir titled "Education Of A Wandering Man", which includes some advice on writing. I'm not being particularly interested in his fiction, but I admire his advice. One of his observations was that ideas for fiction are everywhere. They are essentially a dime a dozen. He said that any newspaper can be a good source. He was speaking of plots. Thoughts such as global warming causing the poles to melt, are what I would call "contexts" for a story, not plots. Likewise for "aliens arrive". (If we are going to have aliens in a context for a story, why not have something original like aliens threatening to depart?)

Exactly, but why let perfectly good ideas go to waste?

[J Riff]

A guy searching for a science fiction story on the internet. He becomes obsessed and spends months scouring ceaselessly. When he eventually finds out that it was all a hoax, and there is no such story, he writes the story himself and sells it for big bucks. The End

Mapnut, I'm still looking. Are you sure it wasn't an episode of ' Perry Rhodan' >? or somesuch ...? Naaah you must have better taste n' that. )

[ABR.]

MAPNUT and J Riff...this story rings a bell with me. I'll put some thought into it. In the meantime, there is a STICKY thread here that was set up for searching for old stories like this. You might try posting there as well. We've had some success on the thread, although ToSeek has managed to stump everyone with one story.

[KaiYeves]

On one night every year, deep within the corridors of a deserted museum, the ghosts of great explorers from the past meet and swap stories...

[FarmMarsNow]

My idea is to make a sequel to Six String Samurai and actually make it into a cool movie that people can enjoy, not as horrible as the original. The original movie is a spoof of apocalypse films and is painful to watch, really purposely horrible. I think that a sequel done well would surprise and quickly become very popular and make tons of money.

My second idea is for some producer or director to make it a habit of taking horrible movies and making good sequels. Its a twist, because once the sequel is successful there will be very big demand for a reworked original.

[Sarawak]

My second idea is for some producer or director to make it a habit of taking horrible movies and making good sequels. Its a twist, because once the sequel is successful there will be very big demand for a reworked original.

George Lucas seems to have had that idea, except for the bit about producing the original first. I leave out any value judgments about the quality of either the originals or the prequels.

[Strange]

What if humans were egg-laying mammals. There could be a number of short stories in this, exploring the issues. How would it change society or technology? Presumably, mothers would have to keep their eggs warm for some period before they hatch - presumably several months. Incubators would be developed allowing mothers to go out to work (or socialize) between laying eggs and hatching. Or they could hire "egg minders" to look after them. Or "egg sitters" if they are just going out for the evening. Poor mothers who had to work would make do: lots of blankets and bottles of warm water?

Would people disapprove of leaving eggs unattended as much / more / less than leaving newborns? Would it become normal for egg laying and/or hatching to be done in hospital? Would there be "natural birth" movement?

Opportunities for stories about egg-swapping or egg-napping.

Would it become traditional to keep baby's egg as a memento? (Gold plated if you are rich.) Or perhaps, fragments made into jewelry. There could be a fad for diets or drugs that change the shell color. Perhaps also as a way of preventing egg swapping.

What if women layed eggs every three months (say). But only the ones that had been fertilized were viable? (Maybe gets a bit weird there). There are also opportunities in the horror genre as well...

Would there still be twins?

OK. Enough.

I also have some ideas on the difficulties of communicating with a totally alien species (based on telephone conferences with one of our overseas offices!) which I will write up one day...

[Sarawak]

Would there be "natural birth" movement?

Shouldn't that be a "natural hatching" movement?