Squawk Radio
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Eloisa on Plots that Someone Else Should Write
You know what one of the problems with being a writer is? There's a gremlin that takes over your brain and hits you on and off throughout the day with brilliant ideas for plots that you really don't want to write. You don't have time; heck, you don't even have the inclination. Picture me sitting in a Very Important Meeting with the Dean (the person in charge of graduate student budgets) talking about a five year layout for budget lines, and I have to shake myself out of thinking of the world 50 million years from now.
Because that's the kind of plot that often occurs to me: futuristic, totally improbable, what-the-heck-could-you-do-with-that type of book. Of course, there are those who have done big things with this kind of novel. And it occurred to me that perhaps, reading this Squawk blog, there's someone with a burning desire to write a novel who just needs a plot to get started. My gift to you!
They are kind of weird plots. But here's two that occurred to me in the last few days, and you're more than welcome to use them.
In the first one, our heroine would wake up one Saturday morning to find that a lot of people in the world were dead. In fact, at least a third of them. Every one died peacefully in their sleep, with no sign of distress. Total chaos! Crisis! Craziness! Her mother is dead. One of her brothers is dead. Her husband and infant son are fine. Her boss is fine. Her housecleaner is gone. What is going on?
Finally, after a few weeks, our heroine realizes that . . . the bad people are dead. All the people who were bad at heart.
I leave it to your imaginations what happens next...what happens to the world...what happens to her. Does she tell anyone?
Here's another idea. The first one is sort of a morality tale, a story that would be as weird as The Handmaid's Tale. This one is kind of futuristic romantic fun.
It shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone who read this far to learn that I adored Isaac Asimov as a teenager. Do you remember his Robot stories? There was one about a robot who was sent to a woman's house to be her servant. But he wasn't programmed all that well, and he interpreted his mission to help her as not only giving her a better hair cut, and redesigning the house, but sweet-talking her and...before you knew it, she fell in love.
So what if a story was set in the future, and robot servants -- as in Blade Runner, indecipherable from real humans -- were employed all over the place, albeit with loads of ethical controls built into them. And then the FBI (or futuristic equivalent) decides to send in one of their agents as if he were a robot. He's sent to be the personal servant of a beautiful young senator...except he's not really a robot. He doesn't really have those "ethical" controls. And pretty soon the young senator is finding that her robot is a lemon...sort of!
Anyone else got any great futuristic ideas? What's your favorite plot-about-the-future?
Because that's the kind of plot that often occurs to me: futuristic, totally improbable, what-the-heck-could-you-do-with-that type of book. Of course, there are those who have done big things with this kind of novel. And it occurred to me that perhaps, reading this Squawk blog, there's someone with a burning desire to write a novel who just needs a plot to get started. My gift to you!
They are kind of weird plots. But here's two that occurred to me in the last few days, and you're more than welcome to use them.
In the first one, our heroine would wake up one Saturday morning to find that a lot of people in the world were dead. In fact, at least a third of them. Every one died peacefully in their sleep, with no sign of distress. Total chaos! Crisis! Craziness! Her mother is dead. One of her brothers is dead. Her husband and infant son are fine. Her boss is fine. Her housecleaner is gone. What is going on?Finally, after a few weeks, our heroine realizes that . . . the bad people are dead. All the people who were bad at heart.
I leave it to your imaginations what happens next...what happens to the world...what happens to her. Does she tell anyone?
Here's another idea. The first one is sort of a morality tale, a story that would be as weird as The Handmaid's Tale. This one is kind of futuristic romantic fun.
It shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone who read this far to learn that I adored Isaac Asimov as a teenager. Do you remember his Robot stories? There was one about a robot who was sent to a woman's house to be her servant. But he wasn't programmed all that well, and he interpreted his mission to help her as not only giving her a better hair cut, and redesigning the house, but sweet-talking her and...before you knew it, she fell in love.
So what if a story was set in the future, and robot servants -- as in Blade Runner, indecipherable from real humans -- were employed all over the place, albeit with loads of ethical controls built into them. And then the FBI (or futuristic equivalent) decides to send in one of their agents as if he were a robot. He's sent to be the personal servant of a beautiful young senator...except he's not really a robot. He doesn't really have those "ethical" controls. And pretty soon the young senator is finding that her robot is a lemon...sort of!
Anyone else got any great futuristic ideas? What's your favorite plot-about-the-future?
Eloisa James, 9:31 PM
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