Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written?

#11

Post by capnrefsmmat » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 3:31 PM UTC

Imagine if Hell were a sort of financial market. Demons trade soul futures, essentially betting on the future price of souls, which of course they consume for food. Other demons (backed by investors) devise new schemes to tempt humans into mortal sin. Failure means the souls go to Heaven, not Hell.

If the demons bringing in souls should somehow create a bubble with a grand new scheme that's guaranteed to bring many souls, but then fail, the soul futures market would crash with catastrophic results.

You could make a hilarious book satirizing the mortgage crisis or the dot-com bubble this way. (Something like Good Omens, but financial.)

I have all sorts of notes on how this could work, but no idea how to write a novel with them.

Re: Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written?

#12

Post by malabar » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 3:33 PM UTC

a story about some jackass that stole my laptop from my apartment. when I track the laptop down he had upgraded the memory, larger hdd and upgraded from windows to linux. he also left a bunch of pics of him and my girlfriend having "fun". So i lost my girlfriend, but I got a kick ass laptop.

Re: Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written?

#13

Post by NAFV_P » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 3:36 PM UTC

A bunch of HN hackers collaborate in solving a heinous murder. Rather than writing it in "novel" form, just post it directly on HN in many parts. You could leave clues lying around in certain articles of your own, or even include real articles and incorporate it into the story.

Since it involves programmers, you might want to consider including some deliberate loopholes, or even make it highly obfuscated.

Re: Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written?

#14

Post by pesenti » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 3:39 PM UTC

A book about a security analyst/encryption specialist who finds messages deep inside natural sequences of numbers (like pi's decimals).

Re: Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written?

#15

Post by contextual » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 3:44 PM UTC

Hidden Bible verses and what they mean. Why King David was a sadistic mass murderer, the real story behind Paul and the "Super Apostles", why Jesus was likely learned in Buddhism and what His name I AM THAT I AM means... all supported by scripture.

For those interested in the surprising answers (and many more): if I hit 25 points by 9pm EST, I'll write the book.

Re: Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written?

#16

Post by realrocker » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 3:45 PM UTC

Tragedy hits a genius scientist when his family of(wife and two kids) is attacked by a gang of young men with high up political connections. His wife is killed on spot. His children later kidnapped and murdered from a location supposedly protected by the police. The entrenched corruption in the government has removed all hopes of justice. A life long pacifist, he won't succumb to violence still so he takes to the ultimate protest sit down of all time. Unknown to all the scientist had invented a super strong indestructible alloy. He creates a faceless armor out of the alloy and a very long chain. In the middle of the night He sneaks into the national monument campus with the help of his other scientist friends and drills down the chain miles into earth. And binds himself to the armor and the chain. The armor can keep him alive indefinitely but it can't be destroyed. The genius scientist is irremovable from his protest and the whole world is watching. GO!

P.S: I have been thinking about this one for a while, but don't have the courage to write it down right now.

Re: Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written?

#17

Post by _xhok » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 3:47 PM UTC

I've always been fascinated by (or scared of) the concepts of those moments before you die. What must it feel like being led up to the electric chair, or held at gunpoint? What would your thoughts be, knowing you'd soon stop existing (or go wherever you believe dead people go)?

I imagine a city where every day one person is selected at random who will die in 24 hours and is told so. (I got this particular idea from another story, but lots of story ideas are fundamentally the same.)

Re: Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written?

#18

Post by monsterix » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 3:49 PM UTC

A close account of how the world/nations/family/people would look only 50 years from now? - post oil, post-anything that's supposed to die and with whatever that's supposed to be adopted.

Re: Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written?

#19

Post by kahoon » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 3:50 PM UTC

It is 120K years AD. Humanity has suffered 53 nuclear holocausts (this was made possible by advanced recovery methods researched over time). Peace for 18000 years is being upheld by an artificial intelligence which governs a flying city, eradicating advanced human settlements which threaten to develop into nuclear threats. A group of cavern dwelling humans aim to destroy this flying city by detonating a hydrogen bomb at the right place at the right time.

Re: Ask HN: Burning idea for a story you've always wanted written?

#20

Post by hluska » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 3:52 PM UTC

I've always been drawn to a world in which neural implants are so widespread that they begin to attract malware developers. Seems to me that when humanity's age old enemy (the virus) crosses the human/machine divide, some interesting (and not entirely pleasant) things will happen.

* edited for more inclusive language.