I Could Use Some Help with Story Ideas

The title says it all. I want to write something, but I'm not sure what to write. I've had several ideas, but I'm not too sure about them. I'm hoping the denizens of Fakku can help me out by offering their thoughts and opinions.

First, a little background. I'm 22 years old, and I'm an otaku who likes to play games, watch anime, and read manga. Pretty obvious. I wrote a lot in high school, often for classes or to submit to our school's literary magazine. People tended to like my stuff, and my senior year, a friend of mine, who was also a writer, said that he could foresee us together on the best seller's list. That shouldn't be taken too lightly because this was in an Honors Writing class, and the guy was super smart. (I say all this not to brag, but to show that I don't just want to write a fanfiction or something simple. I'm not saying I'm going to try to get published, but it is a dream.)

Next, here are some story ideas I came up with. Please give me opinions on how good or bad you think they are.

1) Killer College Student (not actual title, just what it is)


I got the basic idea for this from Friday the 13th. Watching the movie, I thought, "Serial killers never kill a whole lot of people. I'd like to see a case where a guy killed at least twenty people and still didn't get caught." I built the story around that idea.

I like this idea, but I'm not very enthusiastic about it. I might get pumped up if people say that they like it and would want to read it.

2) Wishes


This would have a surprise ending that I think only 2% of people would fall for.

I wrote a lot of stuff preparing for this story, planning out the first couple of chapters and the ending, detailing the young man's character, but the story feels too similar to Death Note, which isn't much of a surprise since I was reading the series when I came up with the idea. At first, I thought it was different enough from Death Note, but as more time passed, it seems like I'm really copying the series. Also, I'm not sure what to have the main character wish for, without making the guy a complete idea or turning the series into an action title. I planned to have the guy kill people he didn't like, but that would really be like Death Note.

3) Going Back Ten Years


I got the idea for this from 4chan's /x/ board, when a person asked what people would do if they woke up and the past ten years had never happened. It really intrigued me, and I came up with something fairly quickly.

My detailed idea was to have the character be 25, and wake up as a 15-year-old. He remembers his teen years being shitty, so he decides to use his knowledge of the future to accomplish the things he didn't do in high school. He knows that a certain girl likes him, so he talks to her and gets in her pants, that sort of thing. But when things start to change, like a friend is supposed to break his arm, but he instead breaks his leg, the man starts to wonder what is going on.

Even more detailed idea:


I liked this idea, and I wrote a lot about it, but I'm not sure how people would enjoy it.

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Well, those are my three big story ideas. I have more, but I like these three the most. Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated. And to anyone who read this entire thing, thank you very much for spending that sort of time reading my shit.

All Ideas except the the 2nd one (Wishes was the Title), seemed very interesting.

I'm not in the position to give many ideas because I ain't much of a writer. And I had a disdain for the English subject in my High School years.

But I'm really intrigued by your innovation to some of your ideas. Even some of the ideas that I know have been used before, namely the Going Back Ten Years idea, You managed to put in an interesting twist to it.

Personally, If you had already put all of these into a novel, and these we're all the summaries (Or whatever you call that block of text on the back of a book) of these books. I'd go with the "Going Back Ten Years Idea". I can just imagine what shenanigans can insue in that Novel.

I may come up with something if I ever run into anything that manages to inspire me.

So Good Luck with all that Shaggy

You seem to be interested in Demonic pacts and demon interference in the human world. You might want to look at some works like "Tragical History of Dr. Faustus" or the legend of "Die Freischutz"(there are countless others) to get a feel for what has been done and what kind of approaches people have taken.

I think for your "Wishes" idea, the twist doesn't really make sense. Faustian pacts are interesting because they are governed by a set of rules, and the tension comes from the risk/reward nature of what is happening. Think Code Geas or Death Note in anime. The limitations and costs are clear, and they present the inherent conflict.

I think the final idea is most interesting, but what if it was the man who was allowed to alter his world? He doesn't know what he is trying to stop, but he has to change something, right? I think it is more interesting that way.

That was actually part of the detailed idea, to have the main character be able to change the world around him, too. It's cool to see another person suggest it.

Thanks for the replies, you two. I'll respond more tomorrow, after I've slept.

no romance in it?.......

My first thought was, "What would I do if I went back ten years?" And immediately, I thought, "I'd fuck all the high school girls I couldn't fuck then and can't fuck now." Of course, that leads to the main character manipulating girls just to have sex, but I think I could spin it as the story progresses so that things change enough to allow the main character to meet a new girl (like, if he transfers to a different high school or something) and seriously fall in love with her. I'm not sure at the moment how I want it to go, but I see all sorts of possibilities.

Blank_Zai, thanks for thanking my ideas sound good. Everything under the sun has pretty much been done already, and I'm honestly not that creative when it comes to creating new things, but I can change things to make them interesting again, so that's what I try to focus on.

WhiteLion, the problem I had with the Wishes idea was, after the first few days, I had absolutely no conflict, and I'm sure it's because of what you said, that the rules aren't clear. Of course, if the rule is clear that each wish is a year of the person's life, the character wouldn't make any wishes. The idea might be suitable for an episode of Tales from the Darkside, but not for something I'd want to write. Thanks for helping me clear that up.

I think I'm going to start working on the details of the Ten Years in the Past story. There is a lot I could do with it, and that really interests me. Thanks for the help, guys. :)

I like the third one but the version without the demon.

ill go with no.3............btw....

[size=10]The third story seemed interesting, kinda depressing when I think about what I'd feel like in that situation. Wow... ten years gone to waste.... and even if they're not going to waste, you have to live em all over. Lol, being pessemistic and thinking the way I do.. It'd be a depressing read. Haha, but at the same time it could be pretty interesting.

Unfortunately, I've no ideas to offer you but I do support you in writing. I think if you were to have your writing published and put on display, people would definitely take a look at it. As long as they have some sort of idea on what it is that you've written.

Ah, and the first and second story ideas were also pretty good. I liked the first more than the second though. The whole mystery of who the actual murderer is seems interesting and it was pretty funny to read that one part.
"I'd like to see a case where a guy killed at least twenty people and still didn't get caught."
Lol, that would be pretty cool.

And finally, like WhiteLion mentioned, and you responded to, there's the Demonic situation. While I do like fantasy, when reading a book, I rather have it seem more realistic than like a fantasy. So while the demon idea isn't bad, I'd be hoping that the stories have a more realistic feel to them than a fantasy feel.

Well there's my response, small bit of criticism and what not. Perhaps if more comes to mind, I'll post it![/h]

Thanks for the response. :)

With the third story, I was thinking that I could have it be funny and realistic. It'd be like a high school sexcapade movie, but the main character wouldn't be as pathetic as a standard high school geek. Being mentally older, he'd know how to treat a woman and how to act to get women to like him. He also wouldn't be shy about doing things or around people.

I know the story could seem depressing, but if the character is optimistic, I don't think it will be.

As for the demon being there or not, I'm really not sure. I think I could actually write two different stories, one with a demon doing it all, and another that's more realistic.

For the third idea, which seems to be favourite right now, I think you should develop on it a little more.
Like some people before me said, it could do without the demon and all. I mean like the Guy would already know what to do to majorly alter his life. Example are pretty obvious too.
Sure the idea of a demon messing around with his fate, can be amusing, but just seems abit too predictable, to me.
For instance, the guy tries to hook up with the girl of his dreams and then the demon suddenly wants to throw in a bit of excitement here and there. So the demon gets some midget to beat the crap out of the guy, while he's acting all cool in front of her (I dunno best thing I could up with during today, sue me). And ends in utterly humiliating himself.
But when you think about it, where is the conflict going to be, when there is no demon messing with him. Within himself? Well you said earlier that it would be. I'm just conflicted whether or not it be better with or without the demon...

More ideas I'll post later...

Hope your enhoying yourself Shaggy~