# Your idea for the novel you (probably) will never write **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 7, 2023, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177 "2023-08-07T08:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2023, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/41 "2023-08-12T23:21:50Z")
I like those movies like _Ocean’s Eleven._ You know, elaborate robberies with many twists and turns. Write a novel like that but set in the Old West, or the Antebellum South. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/42 "2023-08-13T01:12:35Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Too much hassle from folks accusing me of violating HIPAA The same reason I can’t write about my years as an ASL/English (and on a few occasions, Hebrew) interpreter. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/43 "2023-08-13T02:43:33Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > You know, elaborate robberies with many twists and turns. If you want to do some research on the genre they’re called Heist Movies. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/44 "2023-08-13T04:04:51Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > I want to write a good murder mystery. Part of me wants to make it a serial killer deal, but another doesn’t like “glamorizing” them. I have a few scenes sketched out on paper, but no main engine or character just yet. And of course, I’d love to write a novel or even an issue of favorite comic book characters even though that’s not a novel. Are graphic novels allowed? I briefly considered a story about a young man and his girlfriend who were shot by a serial killer. The girl died but the young man survived and became obsessed with finding the killer. He goes to college to study law enforcement, rises in the ranks of the state police, then becomes a prosecutor, and eventually politician, all the while studying the killings and inching closer to identifying the killer. Of course an intense dramatic scene where he closes in on the killer reveals that he was setting up a political enemy and he was actually the serial killer all along! Bwah-ha-ha… hmm, no… yawn. How incredibly trite. For several days I had my self convinced to do this. Not at all something that would suit my inconsistently available writing ability. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/45 "2023-08-13T04:57:42Z")
Mine was going to be a novelization of the apocryphal book of Judith. Talk about empowering women. There are many paintings of her holding up a dripping head but I don’t think I ever saw a novel. That story made her out to be a very clever woman. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/46 "2023-08-13T11:24:20Z")
And of course there’s the issue of writing a brilliant character when the author (me) just doesn’t know how to do that properly. It’s an old writing question, of course. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/47 "2023-08-13T13:32:07Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Part of me wants to make it a serial killer deal, but another doesn’t like “glamorizing” them. Part of what I wanted to take on in my Jack the Ripper novel is this. In making him a nobody, who, in my book wouldn’t even have a last name, and a very common for the time and place, first name, I’d hope to take off some of the sheen he has from being cast as Queen Victoria’s personal doctor, or her grandson, Prince Albert Victor; actor Richard Mansfield; or even more impossibly, Lewis Carroll. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/48 "2023-08-13T14:08:23Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > It won’t happen, though. Too much hassle from folks accusing me of violating HIPAA (even though I wouldn’t be committing any such violations, as patients and other confidential info would not be identified in any way). So, no chapter on the bagel penis guy? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/49 "2023-08-13T14:43:01Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > So, no chapter on the bagel penis guy? what was written stays written, and if you know, you know. 🥯 ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/50 "2023-08-13T19:45:41Z")
On the morning of September 11, 2001, a man who works in the World Trade Center says goodbye to his wife in New Jersey and heads into work, except he doesn’t go to work – he goes to a whorehouse. As he watches the towers fall he’s unable to work up the courage to tell his wife that he survived, and why. As the days roll by it becomes more and more impossible to come clean, and he finds himself having unintentionally faked his own death not just to his wife, but to the world, and has to carve out an existence under a new identity. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/51 "2023-08-14T14:30:15Z")
I like that idea, actually. Let me know if you ever do REALLY write it. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/52 "2023-08-14T21:25:01Z")
Yes, that is a really neat idea. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/53 "2023-08-14T21:37:01Z")
Even though you came up with this plot on your own you may not be the only one who thought of it, [unless you’ve posted this idea elsewhere](https://www.quora.com/Do-you-think-some-people-faked-their-own-deaths-on-9-11-It-would-be-easy-since-lots-of-bodies-were-never-found). Still could be a good story. Are we still talking about books? I think people on this board read far more than the average person. It’s all about movies now. As the joke goes, I haven’t seen the movie, I’m waiting for it to be made into a book. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/54 "2023-08-14T21:37:57Z")
Written from the pov of an RAF serviceman or woman based at an airstrip in England. It would be written as a series of diary entries or correspondences starting shortly before D-day describing the events as they occur, including the failure of Operation Overlord and the ensuing dragging on of the war. Throughout the novel would be the beginnings of early jet fighter vs jet fighter air combat and possibly the use of Arado Blitz jet bombers against England. Eventually, the narrator would describe the mystery and excitement of the appearance of new, radically different American B-29s, leading to nuclear strikes against Nazi Germany. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/55 "2023-08-14T21:53:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Even though you came up with this plot on your own you may not be the only one who thought of it, [unless you’ve posted this idea elsewhere](https://www.quora.com/Do-you-think-some-people-faked-their-own-deaths-on-9-11-It-would-be-easy-since-lots-of-bodies-were-never-found). IIRC, they used that in the HUMAN TARGET comic book, with an opportunist who’d used the chance to exit his May-Have-Soon-Faced-White-Collar-Criminal-Charges identity: leaving behind a wife and child who thereby received, what, _sympathy and insurance money,_ instead of, y’know, _sneers and no money?_ ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/56 "2023-08-14T21:56:42Z")
Maybe they stole the idea from @Briny_Deep. I’ll wait to see what he says. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2023, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/57 "2023-08-15T02:19:27Z")
Nope! I’ve had the idea for a long time but this is the first place I’ve written it down. I didn’t think it could be particularly original, though. Would like to see that comic! ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2023, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/58 "2023-08-15T09:43:54Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > You just have to do a “James Herriot” and fictionalise it all. Or Adam Kay: > **[This Is Going to Hurt](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Going_to_Hurt)** > > This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor is a nonfiction book by the British comedy writer Adam Kay, published in 2017 by Picador. It is a collection of diary entries written by Kay during his medical training from 2004 to 2010. Kay's book discusses political issues in the health care system of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom and societal conflicts between the general population and neglected doctors. Kay accomplishes this by incorporating humour into his perso... For myself, I toyed with the idea of an “unreliable narrator” novel based on a pompous ass of a great-uncle of mine, who, I recently discovered, was for a time in the 1920s in charge of a Fascist splinter group, until doubts were raised about his financial probity and there was an incident with a transvestite’s unlicensed revolver. Eventually he turned to various pseudo-charity scams and ended up in prison in his 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2023, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/59 "2023-08-15T20:41:04Z")
I had an idea to do a Fight Club for women. Men aren’t the only people who want to beat the shit out of someone sometimes. Maybe the twist is they fight men. Or maybe the Fight Club isn’t fighting, but something else. Car theft, maybe. Art heists. Wilderness survival. Who knows. My next project is going to be about a mercenary clone who falls in love with a Shapeshifter mark (like Odo from DS9.) I haven’t fleshed out the details, but I have a couple discovery chapters, and it should be considerably more upbeat than previous efforts. I hope. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177/60 "2023-08-23T17:29:28Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > On the morning of September 11, 2001, a man who works in the World Trade Center says goodbye to his wife in New Jersey and heads into work, except he doesn’t go to work – he goes to a whorehouse. As he watches the towers fall he’s unable to work up the courage to tell his wife that he survived, and why. As the days roll by it becomes more and more impossible to come clean, and he finds himself having unintentionally faked his own death not just to his wife, but to the world, and has to carve out an existence under a new identity. Considering that only a fraction of people in the Twin Towers died that day, it seems like it would be unnecessary for the man to fake his death. He could simply plausibly claim to his wife, “Oh, I happened to be in the first floor lobby when the plane hit, so I could easily run out and survive long before the tower collapsed” - something like that. Plenty of people survived. Or, if he were in the South Tower, he could say he was among the thousands of occupants who evacuated after seeing the North Tower ablaze. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-idea-for-the-novel-you-probably-will-never-write/988177.md?page=4)