OK, here’s the deal. My sister is participating in a rather silly project, the National Novel Writing Month, about which you can read more here. The basic idea is to get as many people as possible to write a 50,000+ word novel by the end of November. The emphasis is firmly on quantity over quality. At the end of the month, you can send in your novel. The Powers That Be will check its word count (without reading it, I believe) and if it’s long enough, you get a little certificate. Anyway, the point is to encourage people that have always wanted to write a novel to get it done.
And so here we are at the point of this thread. My sister, as I said, is participating by writing a fantasy novel. She asked me for some ideas of what I would like to see in a fantasy novel. She’s looking for kind of a random idea generator for the novel. I pointed out that this would be a good thread, and she agreed.
So, what would you like to see? Here are some examples she gave me:
Trolls that spit green venom
A shifty-eyed hero who always wears mismatched socks
Monkeys that turn into unicorns when someone gives them correct change
Poison shamrocks
Silly, serious, invented, drawn from real books, whatever. What would you like to see???
My sister will be lurking, so who knows? Your idea just may pop up in a real life unread novel!
Oh, bugger. That should be “ideal” in the title. Mods? Help? Thanks.
An unlikely hero gets unwittingly drawn into an epic struggle to save the world from a vast and ancient evil…
Something like that would be interesting for a change.
An orge that wants to be an opera star–and who has the voice for it.
A swordswoman who really wants to quit, find a husband and have lots of babies, but can’t because her father would disown her.
A dumb dragon.
A giant three-headed moth, allergic to wool, in love with a sheep.
A wizard looking for a monkey to give the correct change to.
A swordman who really wants to quit, find a husband and adopt lots of babies. And does.
I’d very much love to see one of those generic Gandalf/Merlin type characters who is all knowing and all powerful and sends the heroes out on their quests do one or more of the following:
(a) turn out to be a drunken loser
(b) turn out to be a traitor
© go along with the heroes and kick a pretty serious amount of ass
I’d also love to read a book based on the premise: you have two years to prepare a squad of handpicked people to go back in time to the year 2000 BC/0AD/1500AD/1700AD/1935AD with what they can carry on their backs and change the world for the better (I’ve read a reasonable number of books in which people end up back in time and try to change history, but the only one I can think of off the top of my head that really covers the preparation time, which I think would be fascinating, is Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card)
a story where the main characters aren’t raped, abused or molested in any way
where the vampires aren’t romeos or seductresses and are actually played like the old legends
one where the hero begins as a butt hole and doesn’t get reformed
same thing for the snotty princess
a story where the villain isn’t insane in any way just a greedy sob
one where the corporations are actually the nice guys for once
one where the main characters arrant cynical world weary smart asses or naive dumb slobs just off the farm
if ya can accomplish this ya might have a good novel