Adventure stories
10 Jun 2011 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennickelsOkay, to go along with my Jack/Sam and Daniel/Vala idea posts I bring this one: adventure story ideas.
I like to read and write stories with an adventure twist. Mostly stuck off world stuff. You know the bread and butter of the Stargate shows. But I tend to run out of original ideas.
So, I ask anyone that actually reads this (there's like 5 of you, I think) what are somethings you LIKE to read in regards to adventure stories? Stuff you hate? Any plot bunnies you'd like to give up for adoption? Prompts?
They can be general team stuff (although I reserve the right to add ship as I see fit) or shippy stuff (I don't write slash, though), old or new SG-1, AU, whatever.
I need some ideas for when I'm bored or lacking vision for any of the bigger stories I'm working on.
I like to read and write stories with an adventure twist. Mostly stuck off world stuff. You know the bread and butter of the Stargate shows. But I tend to run out of original ideas.
So, I ask anyone that actually reads this (there's like 5 of you, I think) what are somethings you LIKE to read in regards to adventure stories? Stuff you hate? Any plot bunnies you'd like to give up for adoption? Prompts?
They can be general team stuff (although I reserve the right to add ship as I see fit) or shippy stuff (I don't write slash, though), old or new SG-1, AU, whatever.
I need some ideas for when I'm bored or lacking vision for any of the bigger stories I'm working on.
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Date: 10 Jun 2011 07:57 pm (UTC)Adventure stories are the best!! Especially when they are filled with angst and lots of tension and intrigue. Almost all my stories are adventure laden, and basically I just put the team in a situation (almost always off-world), throw in a conflict or add a bad guy that has them trapped or in a tight situation, then explain how they get out of that situation using guns (Jack's favorite), analytical thinking (Sam's forte), brawn (yay! Teal'c) and cultural knowledge that only Daniel seems to possess. Piece of cake (says the person who is struggling to bring her own ideas to fruitation).
And despite the fact that it seems like everyone has done something to death, there is still a different story in any given situation. I mean, how many times have you read a fic with the team held prisoner and their struggles to escape. Even I have a few of those stories.
Don't worry if your idea is not an original plot. You will be adding in your own slant to it which will make it just as interesting and completely original. So go for it!
Now with all that said... You want plot ideas, right?
Hmmm.... how about...
SG-1 (new or old) ends up on a planet, travels several miles to a nearby village/city only to find that the natives have cannibalistic tendancies and have decided the strangers fit right in with their idea of a great feast. They manage to escape, but soon come to realize that they ran in the wrong direction and now have to find their way back to the Gate while at the same time running from the natives who are intent on enjoying that great feast.
OR
Maybe the team is camping off-world when all of a sudden a huge earthquake (worldquake?? planetquake??) separates them leaving Daniel and Vala on one side and Cam and Teal'c on the other. Of course, this could also work with Jack and Sam separated from Daniel and Teal'c. Or even Daniel and Sam (they make a great pairing, trust me!) separated from their teammates. Then let the shipping ensue as the team struggles to save each other.
I'm sure once you put your mind to it, your story will come to you, no matter what it's about. Go you!!
And as an aside, my
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Date: 10 Jun 2011 08:19 pm (UTC)I actually have a stranded during and earthquake story jotted down. SG-1 are on a planet doing a meet and great cultural thing when a HUGE earthquake hits separating them from Daniel and Teal'c and the stargate. The others escape along with most of the native people before the stargate is destroyed leaving Sam and Jack alone on a completely unstable planet with nothing but what was in their packs (which isn't much).
On top of that Sam was pissed at Jack to begin with for something he did/said (hadn't actually decided what he had done to piss her off so greatly) so she's barely speaking to him.
Your het_bigbang sounds like how my story Last Chance starts off... stranded on a planet because their ship wrecked. And it's cold. They don't meet any people but get attacked by giant, demented cats. And get to starve to death. Actually there's no resolution... they supposedly die at the end (either of the cold or starvation). I got a lot of flak for the ending of that one. I do plan to write a sequel when I get so inspired to do so.
As I was reading/writing all that I was thinking of my originality problem. Obviously it's not so much about originality (what's that saying about all stories already having been written, it's just in how you tell it) it's more about combining the non-original/cliches into something interesting.
I need like what they do during NaNoWriMo where they toss out random weird things that could happen to a character and the challenge is to incorporate that into the story. Maybe that's what I need. Not so much an overall story idea but some little twists, turns and bumps for the heroes to get over/through, you know.
Probably should stop playing Sims 3 and start actually thinking about some plots for all these projects, lol.
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Date: 10 Jun 2011 09:20 pm (UTC)But seriously, I just came up with those story ideas on the fly as I was typing them up, and already you can see that a few of them are a lot like ones you've already written. Originality already out the door here. And besides, your earthquake story sounds an awful lot like the "Hundred Days" episode - which is just a play on the same plot line, just different characters.
I admit I haven't read many of your fics, but now see that I'm going to have to rectify that oversight. :) I think I'll wait until my big bang story is done before reading Last Chance though so I'm not influenced, but I can say that there are no giant, demented... cats... in the.... wait a minute! Maybe I could use that! Hee!! I'll make it a bear or something. lol
On top of that Sam was pissed at Jack to begin with for something he did/said (hadn't actually decided what he had done to piss her off so greatly) so she's barely speaking to him.
That scenario showed up in my story, The Ties That Bind, and Jack being Jack had an inkling of what she was mad about but still not quite sure. Now that I think about it, she was majorly pissed at him in The Storm and Tangled Alliances too. I guess that all relationships have their quarrels, which is what makes writing their story all the more fun. Sometimes the making up part is just as good!
Good luck!!!
Edited AGAIN because apparently I am not all here today either! Sorry about that!
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Date: 10 Jun 2011 09:28 pm (UTC)That's okay about reading my stories. I haven't read many of yours. They're on my ereader but I started reading the oldest stories I have on there first. I've barely made it to 2005, lol. I'll have to make sure I have them all downloaded before I lose my internet so I have much to read (what did I do before ereaders?).
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Date: 11 Jun 2011 01:48 am (UTC)You know, I hadn't thought about an ereader to try and catch up on all the fic in my to-read pile. That's a great idea! I don't have an ereader or anything like that, but I do have a smartphone. Do you think that will work? I really hope so!!
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Date: 11 Jun 2011 02:51 am (UTC)I love my ereader. I got it in January for $100 at Best Buy. I've got so much fic on it I could read for a year and not have to download more. Beats sitting at my computer and reading.
I'm sure there are apps for smartphones. I know kindle has one (because my ereader runs on android so I downloaded their app to use to use the kindle store). To read my fanfic, though, I use one called Aldiko (http://www.aldiko.com/). It lets me load epub files onto my reader and then it imports them into the program so I can read them. There are others but I like that one the best because it lets me use the volume button to turn pages, lol (that's the only reason I chose that one over other ones I tried).
With that program I can download straight from AO3 (they have options for all formats). To download from ff.net I use a online converter. Getting fic off of LJ is annoying though since I haven't found something that can download from the journal. I do have an add-on to firefox that saves webpages for me to read later offline but then to import to my reader I have to save each page to a text document or something and use calibre to convert them to epub.
Luckily *most* LJ writers also have their stuff on AO3 or ff.net (one of the main reasons I upload everywhere, lol).
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Date: 10 Jun 2011 09:29 pm (UTC)It's just one of those days, I guess.
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Date: 11 Jun 2011 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 11 Jun 2011 02:42 am (UTC)I have days like that all the time.
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Date: 11 Jun 2011 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11 Jun 2011 08:00 pm (UTC)There's nothing new under the sun, but subverting a common story premise by making it go in an unexpected direction is where writers make their mark in originality.
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Date: 11 Jun 2011 08:07 pm (UTC)bunnies made me think of something my brother said when he was visiting a couple weeks ago. Him and the kids started discussing killer bunnies (long story) and he tells them bunnies look all cute and fuzzy but really their evil.
And that just made me think of Anya on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I kept giggling and my brother kept giving me weird looks. Found out later he was a big fan of Buffy when it was on (I never watched it until long after it ended).
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Date: 11 Jun 2011 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11 Jun 2011 09:27 pm (UTC)[now needs icon that says, "nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition"]
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Date: 11 Jun 2011 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11 Jun 2011 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 Jun 2011 07:51 pm (UTC)My peeve with ALL stories...adventure or otherwise is if the story isn't based in canon and if the characters aren't 3 dimensional...don't give me Vala as either a bitch, ditzy or a sex kitten....all three plus being competent works just fine. And please, please be logical..they are all fairly tall people, don't take me out of the story by having me wonder if some manoeuvre
was logically possible.
Campy's right, twisting the expected is really important since everything's been done at least once...I try to avoid cliche so I make a point of finding an event or reaction that while still logical or IC isn't the easy way out.
Oh and sorry I'm not providing any ideas...I've had a DV adventure simmering in the back of my brain for ages and I'm not giving anything away,lol
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Date: 12 Jun 2011 11:19 pm (UTC)I don't know if you've read any of my fic, other than (possibly) the SG-1 crack. It's mostly MacGyver action-adventure, mostly novel-length. I write complex plots with lots of intrigue, and I'm very fond of Chekov's Gun and sneaky turns.
And I don't start with the plot. To be honest, I start with the characters, and I start with research. Research tells me what a place is like, the kind of people who will be characters there, and the kind of struggles they're likely to have.
From that, I develop characters. Then I put the temporary cast in situ with the regular cast, whether it's SG-1 or MacGyver and company, and find out how they react to each other. If the combination isn't sufficiently good chemistry, I change the supporting cast and the setting until the chemistry works.
There's always a starting point, usually sparked from the show in question; I get those from re-watching episodes, or chatting fangirlwise with people, or from prompts, or from newspaper headlines, or whatever.
As for what I like to read for adventure stories, most of it's pretty standard. Characters in character. People acting like real people. Supporting characters and Bad Guys who are actual people, not walking cardboard (or Sues). Actual motivation. The lovely tasty blend of action, science, humanity and humour that's a good Stargate story (and a good story outside Stargate, too).
I really like plots that can't be summed up in one sentence, and stories in which the entire team/cast has something critical to contribute. I like whump, but I greatly dislike gratuitous whumpage. I personally find most angsty fanfic tedious, but that's largely because angst is so often blown up to ridiculous levels; I use the show as a gauge for just how much resistance a given character will put up when faced with angst or whumpage. I like that approach, sicne it focuses on a character's strength instead of relying on the character's weakness.
Also, most of what I know about writing action-adventure I learned from reading action-adventure books. I find both TV and fanfic to be poor sources from which to learn prose narrative storytelling skills, no matter how much I enjoy both for entertainment.
Hope this isn't too soapboxy for you . . .