An Old Repository of Plot Concepts

[Syn]

I came across an old file on my laptop today. It appears that I made an attempt at writing down plot concepts for future novels three years ago.

I'm going to share them with you all. Rip them apart. Discuss them. Add your own.

I don't claim dibs on any of them. Do with them as you please.

[Syn]

[001]
[Science Fiction]
Crashed on a foreign world, the character loses his memory and believes himself to be a native of that society. As the locals study the wreckage of the scout vessel, they discover a document that reveals the newcomer’s identity. Why does this society resemble humanity, and will the character survive his isolation while rediscovering his roots?
- 28/02/2015

[002]
[Fantasy]
A recent graduate from the Warrior’s Academy, the character must forge his destiny in a world seemingly mired in boredom. When a kingdom’s entire population of children suddenly disappears, drama, war, and conflict break out throughout the realm. Which road will the character take in his journey?
- 28/02/2015

[003]
[Fantasy]
Born to a broken home, the character finds comfort and escape in school. With a new arrival to his class, he stumbles upon a lifestyle and world he couldn’t dream existed, a world that murders his family and leaves him all alone. Will this new life break him and take his life too?
- 01/03/2015

[004]
[Dystopia/Thriller]
A handful of random citizens are selected to participate in a competition that pits them against each other. The free-for-all is mandatory, with anyone showing mercy or teaming up immediately being terminated remotely. However, the character’s remote detonator seems to be malfunctioning, and soon the nature of the competition changes.
- 01/03/2015

[005]
[Fantasy]
In a life or death situation, the character suddenly manifests supernatural abilities. As he finds his bearings and begins to learn about his new life, he accidentally uncovers a secret government project that puts him at risk as well as all of his friends.
- 01/03/2015

[006]
[Military Fiction]
Pinned down behind enemy lines, a group of soldiers must survive while finding their way home. Because of their discovery, the soldiers must cross into unknown territory in which they discover a new enemy that is amassing for war.
- 02/03/2015

[007]
[Fantasy]
The main character is an elderly man who is approached by a pharmaceutical company that promises him the fountain of youth in the form of a pill. The catch? He needs to be under their supervision twenty-four hours a day. As he settles into the treatment, the man regains his youth but also gains uncertain abilities. He discovers that anti-aging wasn’t the goal, but instead his powers to inflict great harm.
- 03/03/2015

[008]
[Science Fiction]
After an apocalyptic event (undetermined), humanity must retreat underground to a specially constructed city. As time progresses and systems begin to degrade, the government of this city must consider outside expeditions to determine conditions on the surface. What they discover on the way brings up many questions, and with the door outside locked with no apparent key leaves the residents of the underground city with a difficult decision to make.
- 25/03/2015

[009]
[Thriller]
An isolated warrior tribe’s way of life is disturbed when religious zealots come across them. While many of the villagers adopt the new traditions, there are others who resist. As they slowly lose numbers in the wake of an expanding enemy and continued conversion of their brethren, they discover that the new religion is actually a ruse for enslavement.
- 25/03/2015

[010]
[Mystery/Thriller]
A criminal psychologist is contracted by a police agency to understand and predict the actions of a killer. The modus operandi? Killing those who are at the top of the ladder in any field locally, be it something as minor as a certain instrument or something as important as cancer research. Where many assume a hatred for intelligence, the main character begins to notice quirks and specific variations in who gets targeted. An open and shut motive quickly becomes a mystery, and police are left scratching their heads on how to find the killer before he kills again.
- 26/03/2015

[011]
[Fantasy]
A main character’s journey, written as a memoir, through a cult upbringing. What is first presented as what could qualify as a non-fiction journal gradually becomes a log of the supernatural, the character’s experience going from tragic to nail-biting as the world they know gets turned upside down and their prior understanding of the cult is challenged by what has become “real”.
- 27/03/2015

[012]
[Science Fiction]
Testing the first Faster-Than-Light engine with a human subject, a unified world space agency loses contact after the initial jump. The main character has no choice but to land on a planet due to an inability to re-enter FTL. Once landed, he discovers that there is sentient life on this world. Even more, he realizes that anything with the ability of free will is seemingly incapable of dying, spontaneously re-appearing the next day regardless of how they may have passed.
- 27/03/2015

[013]
[Dystopia/Mystery)
Victims of a Panopticon-inspired government, a society begins to question the validity of the ever watchful eye. Rumours swirl of criminals no longer disappearing, of errant chatter no longer being artificially quelled, and of broken routines no longer being punished. As factions form due to newfound anarchistic freedom, one group in particular asks the golden question: What happened?
- 27/03/2015

[014]
[Literary Fiction]
The appearance of an infant in a small village leaves the villagers scratching their heads over the boy’s origins. With no apparent family, he becomes a communal responsibility and has every step of his upbringing planned out without his input. When he nears adulthood, the main character begins to question his purpose and sets upon a journey meant to discover where he came from and who abandoned him.
- 28/03/2015

[015]
[Fantasy]
A group of friends develop a “meld” between their personalities, granting them a type of sixth-sense when it comes to teamwork and each of their thoughts. Due to their young age, they don’t understand what’s going on, the implications, or how to properly control it. This changes when someone befriends one of the members of the group and their connection is seemingly cut off. This continues until only two people are left with the meld, and they desperately isolate themselves to prevent the same fate.
- 28/03/2015

[016]
[Science Fiction]
In a society which prides itself upon wholesale “humane” punishment for crimes, something goes wrong when the machines don’t wake up the prisoners from their incarceration. This society punishes criminals by artificially forcing them to live through a jail sentence in their mind in the span of minutes while in a coma-like state. With the first batch being several thousand at the same time, uproar erupts throughout the country. As the government scrambles to deal with the PR fallout, it must also figure out what happened and how to fix it.
- 28/03/2015

[017]
[Thriller]
The main character is a bounty hunter who, after a particularly risky mission, seemingly gets a bounty put on their own head as a result. Taking personal offense, the main character seeks out the person who did it but must utilize old friends, flames, and connections to remain hidden until he’s found the answer.
- 29/03/2015

[018]
[Literary Fiction]
A modern day spin on slavery, a woman must deal with the challenges life throws at her while living in a typically progressive nation. Enslaved and kept obedient, her conscience begins to reawaken and beg her to dare to change how life for her and her friends will continue.
- 30/03/2015

[019]
[Science Fiction]
Twelve years into a generation ship’s journey to another solar system in order to save the human race, the story tracks the character developments of the core members of the ship’s government. The story explores the concepts of how the reasons for such long travel can be skewed via isolation, how people may change in such controlled isolation, and how mortality becomes an overbearing concern with their fates being what they are.
- 04/04/2015

[020]
[Literary Fiction]
A spin on your typical terminally ill young person story, this one would not concentrate on a silver lining but instead be meant to explore the various ways that a fear of death can manifest itself throughout an individual’s final journey. Meant to be read as an emotional novel that invokes introspection.
- 04/04/2015

[021]
[Literary Fiction]
What if society had developed differently? This story would turn the tables of what we’re currently living through. Instead of warlike to peaceful, the society in question would be turning warlike through a long history of peacefulness. The main character is someone caught in the middle of it all, being one of the first to voluntarily aggress rather than defend out of necessity. The story would follow the main character’s journey as their perspective on the world they live in changes drastically in a short amount of time.
- 07/04/2015

[022]
[Science Fiction]
Although humanity has reached the stars and spread throughout numerous worlds, the justice systems have remained archaic. One planet in particular has become the go-to drop off for prisoners of all governments. What was once a hospitable world deemed suitable for colonization has become a penal colony, cut off from the rest of the galaxy. The story follows the efforts of a handful of ambitious convicts to form a government and establish a working society.
- 07/04/2015

[023]
[Mystery]
The main character suffers from an incredibly rare condition that doctors claim will kill them if they love. Forced into a life of unhappy isolation by his parents, it’s well into adulthood when he meets someone and begins to lose his ability to maintain the isolation he had grown so comfortable with. As he becomes more and more open, he realizes that he is quickly approaching the vague descriptions given to him by medical professionals. Yet, he is not dead. The story follows the main character as he falls in love and desperately seeks an answer to why he was told what he was his entire life. He discovers that there is no such condition and that it was all an experiment, one that would shatter the public’s trust in the government if it became public.
- 07/04/2015

[024]
[Thriller/Maybe Fantasy?]
A member of a family-born cult, the main character intensely believes in the myths until a life shattering event occurs in their late teenhood. Afterwards, they make it their sole objective to compromise, weaken, and eventually dismantle the cult from the inside. Where others escape and try to forget the cult ever existed, the main character remains until every shred of the cult’s influence and power has been crippled.
- 07/04/2015

[025]
[Mystery]
On a camping trip, the main character leaves for a moment only to return to a camp full of strangers. These strangers seemingly know who he is and take him captive. The main character stumbled into a situation that they didn’t belong in and is taken along for a journey that brings them unbearably close to death or grievous harm.
- 11/04/2015

[Buster's Uncle]

Not to take a whiz on your hard work and impressive generosity, but because I'll be joking in my grave, comedy titles started writing themselves, and I had to stop myself before I mocked the lot...

[001]
[Science Fiction]
Crashed on a foreign world, the character loses his memory and believes himself to be a native of that society. As the locals study the wreckage of the scout vessel, they discover a document that reveals the newcomer’s identity. Why does this society resemble humanity, and will the character survive his isolation while rediscovering his roots?
- 28/02/2015

"I am the great god Kirok!"

[002]
[Fantasy]
A recent graduate from the Warrior’s Academy, the character must forge his destiny in a world seemingly mired in boredom. When a kingdom’s entire population of children suddenly disappears, drama, war, and conflict break out throughout the realm. Which road will the character take in his journey?
- 28/02/2015

"Ender's Lost Game"

[003]
[Fantasy]
Born to a broken home, the character finds comfort and escape in school. With a new arrival to his class, he stumbles upon a lifestyle and world he couldn’t dream existed, a world that murders his family and leaves him all alone. Will this new life break him and take his life too?
- 01/03/2015

"Harry Blood Blotter"

---

Actually, this is a fantastic opportunity for a Generating a Story exercise.  Pick any idea, and we kick it around and free-associate until you or someone else has enough to sit down and write...

[Syn]

Mock away, I completely forgot about these and hold no attachment to them.