Hey there /lit/, I'm trying to get back into writing to fulfill my dream of writing a novel, but between work and school and not being a good writer in general, I've decided to write some short stories to warm up, and I'm not sure where to begin
I came up with a whole slew of ideas for short stories, and I wanted to know which one you guys would most like to read, I'll leave this up for several days to get many responses, and then I will try to start and finish this short story first draft in a single day, possibly two if I don't have the time
Numbers with a's and b's at the end (such as 1, 1a, 1b) are relying on the same foundation, but present different options for that foundation
http://www.strawpoll.me/10643068
Here's the outlines:
"Texting Purgatory" 1) a chat session online between someone who is in hell (like fire and brimstone) and someone who lives in the real world (a sci-fi futuristic setting) over a long period of time
"Inferno Road" 1b) a cyber detective enters a simulation/virtual world where people live their lives (due to overpopulation in some places and the higher quality of "life" and its much cheaper due to less room needed in the real world and less food consumption) to investigate some murder/mystery/theft and discovers a gateway in the simulation that takes him to some other place in the OuterNet and finds himself in "hell", except all of the people there are hundreds of years old from the original earth
"Replicated Nature" 2) A W074-N type (Brea's genome type human) tries to escape her home on a station during a viscious riot in which the rioters are murdering all W074-N types, she has NO training but her nature allows her to survive a great length of time and escape (or die) (this story demonstrates the strength of nature vs. nurture)
"Wind, want, and wendigo" 3) A woman infected heavily with "Wendigo" viruses (degenerated human minds in data banks, cyber-ghosts of humans) hallucinates and navigates her own mind to try and survive the infection, but discovers that she is already dead and:
3a) she sacrifices herself to save a "child" wendigo virus (the degenerated mind of a human who was a child at the time of their mind being being moved into a data bank)
3b) she assists another dead wendigo (herself) to save a "child" wendigo" from being consumed by others, and gives the "child" her prosthetic body and then disconnects it from the network, killing herself
"At the top of the White Tower" 4) A man of the VAULT (or FATE) organization investigates a series of breaches on SanC (an independent human planet-nation) and discovers a connection to 2 mega-corporations and a research facility, but is executed for what he finds
"Marcy" 5) A young man (Marcus) on the UTL Homeworld (ruled by the Feminist Party government) goes out clubbing (illegal for men to be outside of certain zones without a license) dressed as a woman (illegal camoflauge, also Marcus is an illegal genome type because his appearance makes him passable as a woman, all 3 of these things he can be "retired"/executed for) has to experience the adrenaline rush of a single night out on the town, but is hunted by one of the Government "Good Hunters", enforcers who retire such illegals and halt such illegal activities
"Solyent Meat" 6) Brea, a young female soldier takes part in a shock-raid on an orbiting meat processing facility that has been shown to be "Meat swapping" (the act of using human meat and tagging it as animal meat to sell for profit) is given command of the raid after her commanding officer is killed during the raid and has to lead her team to complete the mission and seize the facility...at any cost
"December 23rd" 7) A transcript of a Parliament/Senate type of meeting between the various government bodies that pits the UTL's Feminist Party against the Centari and other governments, ending with a disbarment from a seat at the accusation of practices of slavery, which disqualifies the UTL from having a seat on the House, however the UTL accuses the Centari of creating puppet governments of the many smaller human colonies that have been erected after the last war
"Tyranny" 8) A standoff of a young woman in her apartment where she has to be talked down from suicide by a police officer, as a group of doctors have come to take her to the "looney bin", at first it seems like corruption in the government, but through the conversation its revealed she may be much more troubled and deserving than first shown
"The Queen of Attica" 9) A young woman from the UTL relocates to (placeholder name) Attica (a colony) with expectations of male gratification and attention everywhere she goes, holding onto a sexual fantasy in which she gets attention from the many, many men of Attica (who are not bound by the anti-male idealology of the UTL Homeworld) but has a slow, progressive mental breakdown as she is constantly told how awful her personality is, and how she is constantly rejected by everyone she meets, ending in a complete psychotic break when she literally THROWS herself into a group of men for attention, and they reject her for an extremely feminine young man, who they take right in front of her
"Customer review: 1/5" 10) A professional debt collector acquires assets (banking information for debtors so that clients can collect owed debts via the legal system) and infiltrates a meat processing facility, only to discover it is participating in "Meat swapping", and is presented with a choice:
a) leave the facility to continue turning humans into meat products, as the pay the debt, and the collector make a ton of money or
b) expose the facility and have it shut down
The choice made will never be shown, however this is the same facility from 6 "Soylent Meat"
Sorry about that first paragraph, my time is extremely limited and I was being rushed out the door and messed up the spacing
>>8230934
I like the Wendigo idea.
