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Post by ironhold on Nov 22, 2023 16:24:20 GMT
Moving this over here.
A bit back I had a dream in which I was the lead actor in a sitcom.
Based on what I could gather from the dream:
1. The male lead moved from a smaller town to a major city for some reason, likely work-related.
2. Much of the "humor" involved the character having to adjust to his new situation and the resulting culture clash. For example, his bright orange SUV was very obvious next to the neutral-colored compact cars and sedans most everyone else had.
3. A big part of this new situation involved him moving into a loft-style apartment in a complex whereas he had previously lived by himself in a small house.
4. Living in an apartment meant having to interact with some of the more eclectic residents. This included a tsundere (re: runs hot and cold emotionally) career woman who both contrasted his more laid-back approach to life & very nerdy hobbies and represented the requisite "will they or won't they?" romance angle, an aging building maintenance worker who was struggling to keep up with everything all by himself, and a family whose teenage son was having to work just to help pay the bills.
5. The series ends with the male lead having to return home to deal with family issues, a planned finale.
6. The reason the series got a finale is because it was so loved for the warmth and complexity of its characters, this even *with* how often it sidestepped into the risqué. For example, the career woman is in the bathtub when she learns that the male lead is leaving, leading to her quite literally streaking down the hallway to his unit in order to declare that if he's leaving then she's going with.
Trying to piece together what would have potentially brought this specific turn of events all around to where the male lead - who is presumably quite educated and able to function - would relocate to a bigger city for work only to have to go back home for family matters a few years later.
One idea I had yesterday is that perhaps he's the "black sheep" of an old money family (cattle ranching, oil, investing, or something along those lines) who wound up on the fringes because of his nerdy hobbies and his generally being "off" (re: high-functioning autistic). The guy has a gift when it comes to investing, such that he's already turned the little bit of seed money into a financial juggernaut that requires little personal attention on his part, hence his spending so much time being weird as he can literally afford to be idle. However, relatives who didn't understand this "othered" him in the belief that he was sponging off of the family's fortunes, and it got to the point to where he made up an excuse to leave town so he could have his peace. The revelation of his wealth could be a major plot twist (there had previously been hints that he had some "in" with a powerful but mysterious financial group), with his decision to move into an apartment instead of something more in keeping with what he could afford being based on his desire to have a simplistic life out of the spotlight. The "family matter" compelling his return could be some sort of coup within the family, such as the patriarch declaring *him* the heir after discovering his financial prowess and believing him the best person to handle the family fortune.
How's that sound?
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Post by the light works on Nov 22, 2023 17:19:04 GMT
to be honest, it sounds like a cross between Forrest Gump and a self insert. I kind of favor the sitcom within a sitcom treatment.
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Post by ironhold on Nov 22, 2023 18:54:00 GMT
to be honest, it sounds like a cross between Forrest Gump and a self insert. I kind of favor the sitcom within a sitcom treatment. Never said it was a good idea. Just that it was an idea. In all honesty though, a few years back a brokerage firm did an ad campaign premised on people not taking advantage of critical investment opportunities throughout history because they didn't foresee what might be, such as one commercial where a guy who was given the option to invest in what was implied to be Microsoft instead spent his money on a new 8-track player. So it is possible that a hypothetical character got in on the ground floor of something and rode it out because he saw an opportunity that others missed. A little bit of research, a little bit of luck, and a few similar investments later, and said hypothetical character could be independently wealthy.
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Post by the light works on Nov 23, 2023 0:44:36 GMT
to be honest, it sounds like a cross between Forrest Gump and a self insert. I kind of favor the sitcom within a sitcom treatment. Never said it was a good idea. Just that it was an idea. In all honesty though, a few years back a brokerage firm did an ad campaign premised on people not taking advantage of critical investment opportunities throughout history because they didn't foresee what might be, such as one commercial where a guy who was given the option to invest in what was implied to be Microsoft instead spent his money on a new 8-track player. So it is possible that a hypothetical character got in on the ground floor of something and rode it out because he saw an opportunity that others missed. A little bit of research, a little bit of luck, and a few similar investments later, and said hypothetical character could be independently wealthy. remember the "he said he'd invested in some kinda fruit company, and I didn't have to worry about money any more... which is good... I mean, one less thing..." as he pulls an envelope with the Apple logo on it out of the mailbox; scene. there's also, I think The Ship Who Searched by Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey about a brainship who uses her spare time to find incipient crises and then invests in the people who will have the opportunity to be johnny-on-the-spot to deal with the crisis - and sends them a message explaining the upcoming crisis and how they need to prepare to take advantage of it. the reality is, it takes a massive stroke of luck to do a rags-to-riches by investing. maybe instead, have him invest in a company that looks promising, and then it falls all to pieces, so he goes and gets a job at the company, and the sitcom involves him trying to get this dysfunctional business back on an even keel to protect his investment.
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Post by the light works on Dec 10, 2023 14:41:13 GMT
I wrote a short some time back featuring an engineer on a starship getting in a political marriage on a first contact planet, and I'd had the thought that it might develop into an entire series of first contact short stories featuring personnel from the same exploration ship.
so this morning's thought was, how would a first contact go between a human exploration ship and a hive species? I'm envisioning a star system made up of a rather dense cloud of smaller planets, with light gravity and thin atmospheres. basically, the hive would consider human gravity to be an extreme environment, and humans can't get enough oxygen in the hive atmosphere. this would justify there being no basis for conflict between the humans and the hive. I'm thinking of having the hive mentality be belligerent isolationism, which would mean the end result of the story would be that an amicable relationship could be reached, but a no unnecessary contact agreement would be the final conclusion of the story. the story itself would involve the process of establishing communications, and explore how the hive society's character was largely incompatible with human society; without conflicting with human society.
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Post by ironhold on Dec 10, 2023 15:58:37 GMT
I wrote a short some time back featuring an engineer on a starship getting in a political marriage on a first contact planet, and I'd had the thought that it might develop into an entire series of first contact short stories featuring personnel from the same exploration ship. so this morning's thought was, how would a first contact go between a human exploration ship and a hive species? I'm envisioning a star system made up of a rather dense cloud of smaller planets, with light gravity and thin atmospheres. basically, the hive would consider human gravity to be an extreme environment, and humans can't get enough oxygen in the hive atmosphere. this would justify there being no basis for conflict between the humans and the hive. I'm thinking of having the hive mentality be belligerent isolationism, which would mean the end result of the story would be that an amicable relationship could be reached, but a no unnecessary contact agreement would be the final conclusion of the story. the story itself would involve the process of establishing communications, and explore how the hive society's character was largely incompatible with human society; without conflicting with human society. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_Climber_MOSPEADAIn the United States, it's known as the third segment of Robotech. Here, the Inbit operate as an insect-like species. The Queen and select specially-created individuals who are a hybrid of human and Inbit DNA are the only ones able to communicate with humans, the Queen largely doing so telepathically. The rest of the Inbit are unable to communicate with humans, and the lowest forms are actually barely capable of speech or intellect, either. These lower individuals just follow the orders of higher-level beings, including "brains" created artificially to take the load off of the Queen. They'll handle their own survival needs, but that's it. You might be able to make a model off of this.
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Post by the light works on Dec 11, 2023 2:55:59 GMT
I wrote a short some time back featuring an engineer on a starship getting in a political marriage on a first contact planet, and I'd had the thought that it might develop into an entire series of first contact short stories featuring personnel from the same exploration ship. so this morning's thought was, how would a first contact go between a human exploration ship and a hive species? I'm envisioning a star system made up of a rather dense cloud of smaller planets, with light gravity and thin atmospheres. basically, the hive would consider human gravity to be an extreme environment, and humans can't get enough oxygen in the hive atmosphere. this would justify there being no basis for conflict between the humans and the hive. I'm thinking of having the hive mentality be belligerent isolationism, which would mean the end result of the story would be that an amicable relationship could be reached, but a no unnecessary contact agreement would be the final conclusion of the story. the story itself would involve the process of establishing communications, and explore how the hive society's character was largely incompatible with human society; without conflicting with human society. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_Climber_MOSPEADAIn the United States, it's known as the third segment of Robotech. Here, the Inbit operate as an insect-like species. The Queen and select specially-created individuals who are a hybrid of human and Inbit DNA are the only ones able to communicate with humans, the Queen largely doing so telepathically. The rest of the Inbit are unable to communicate with humans, and the lowest forms are actually barely capable of speech or intellect, either. These lower individuals just follow the orders of higher-level beings, including "brains" created artificially to take the load off of the Queen. They'll handle their own survival needs, but that's it. You might be able to make a model off of this. I was going in a bit different direction. I was putting the aliens as something that would compare to giant sapient honeybees. and I did use a universal translator in the previous story, but it does take time to develop a vocabulary. that would mean there would still be first contact communications problems. I would make them a spacefaring race, with a central government, then each city would essentially be a hive, with next to no material commerce, and only minimal communication between hives. basically, a hive would grow until it was able to build a colony ship, and then it would breed a new queen, and a colony would find a vacant section of a planet to settle. I might have two queens born in a queen's life cycle, with one taking over the old colony, when the other starting a new one.
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Post by ironhold on Dec 12, 2023 17:06:49 GMT
Female INTERPOL agent secretly loves romance novels. Her current favorite read is a period piece recounting how a standoffish female MI agent fell for a cunning but disciplined American covert operative during a joint mission.
Agent discovers evidence to indicate that high-ranking individuals on both sides of a conflict are actually conspiring with each to profiteer off of the war.
She gets discovered while pursuing the evidence, and is left to die *by* the high-ranking individuals.
She gets rescued by an American black ops guy who was also investigating the same conspiracy, just from a different angle.
Turns out that his paternal grandmother was the one who wrote the novel in question.
...As a fictionalized account of how she was won over by the guy's paternal grandfather and came to live with him in the United States.
Spycraft is the family business, and it's actually quite common for the men of the family to bring home "souvenirs" of their international exploits...
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Post by mrfatso on Dec 12, 2023 21:05:11 GMT
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Post by the light works on Dec 13, 2023 6:37:22 GMT
Female INTERPOL agent secretly loves romance novels. Her current favorite read is a period piece recounting how a standoffish female MI agent fell for a cunning but disciplined American covert operative during a joint mission. Agent discovers evidence to indicate that high-ranking individuals on both sides of a conflict are actually conspiring with each to profiteer off of the war. She gets discovered while pursuing the evidence, and is left to die *by* the high-ranking individuals. She gets rescued by an American black ops guy who was also investigating the same conspiracy, just from a different angle. Turns out that his paternal grandmother was the one who wrote the novel in question. ... As a fictionalized account of how she was won over by the guy's paternal grandfather and came to live with him in the United States. Spycraft is the family business, and it's actually quite common for the men of the family to bring home "souvenirs" of their international exploits... it has potential.
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Post by ironhold on Dec 23, 2023 12:01:43 GMT
Just had a bit of a dream which included me seeing what looked like the trailer for some romance TV series.
Trying to assemble a possible story based on it.
So far -
Male lead was originally born in a smaller, more rural community. His parents decided to head to the big city when he was a kid for "greater" opportunities, but he never wanted to go as he loved it where he was. Shortly after arriving in the big city, he learned about telecommuting and work from home from a news program and so made that his goal: get a job where he could work from anywhere that had reliable internet access, get some money in the bank, and then move back.
In the time it takes him to get his degree in computers and get set up as an IT guy, he is able to blunder into a polyamorous relationship with three women who not only know of each other but also know that he intends to leave town once he gets the money together to buy his grandparents out & get the old family estate fixed up. The three agree to spot him the rest of the money he needs because they've all decided to come live with him, but before they head on out they convince him to make room for one more: the somewhat confused and standoffish granddaughter of the CEO, who they *also* know has feelings for him but who is conflicted about pretty much everything in life because she was gaslit into believing that she was in constant competition with her siblings. This costs male lead his job with the company, but a skilled IT guy is a skilled IT guy and so he's able to pretty quickly find another job.
Male lead splits his time between his IT job, getting the family property in a state where it can pay for itself, and generally keeping atop everything. Granddaughter takes a job in town as a voluntary effort to deprogram herself, using her mother's maiden name; trying to decide if it'd be a bank position or working at a local retailer. Of the other three, one decides to drop out of the "rat race" entirely to manage the household as to her being at the company was nothing more than a way to pay her bills. Thinking of having one decide to directly work with the land itself, and the third perhaps working with the handful of animals (chickens, most likely) they maintain.
Doesn't take long until all four women are pregnant, which leads to the main point of conflict: granddaughter will be the first among *all* of the grandchildren to have a child, making that child a possible heir to the company. When her father finds this out, he tells her that even though she chose to "abandon" the family and "sully" herself, if she returns home with the child he will "forgive" her and "restore" her to her place in the family hierarchy provided she never contacts the others again.
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Post by the light works on Dec 23, 2023 13:38:30 GMT
Just had a bit of a dream which included me seeing what looked like the trailer for some romance TV series. Trying to assemble a possible story based on it. So far - Male lead was originally born in a smaller, more rural community. His parents decided to head to the big city when he was a kid for "greater" opportunities, but he never wanted to go as he loved it where he was. Shortly after arriving in the big city, he learned about telecommuting and work from home from a news program and so made that his goal: get a job where he could work from anywhere that had reliable internet access, get some money in the bank, and then move back. In the time it takes him to get his degree in computers and get set up as an IT guy, he is able to blunder into a polyamorous relationship with three women who not only know of each other but also know that he intends to leave town once he gets the money together to buy his grandparents out & get the old family estate fixed up. The three agree to spot him the rest of the money he needs because they've all decided to come live with him, but before they head on out they convince him to make room for one more: the somewhat confused and standoffish granddaughter of the CEO, who they *also* know has feelings for him but who is conflicted about pretty much everything in life because she was gaslit into believing that she was in constant competition with her siblings. This costs male lead his job with the company, but a skilled IT guy is a skilled IT guy and so he's able to pretty quickly find another job. Male lead splits his time between his IT job, getting the family property in a state where it can pay for itself, and generally keeping atop everything. Granddaughter takes a job in town as a voluntary effort to deprogram herself, using her mother's maiden name; trying to decide if it'd be a bank position or working at a local retailer. Of the other three, one decides to drop out of the "rat race" entirely to manage the household as to her being at the company was nothing more than a way to pay her bills. Thinking of having one decide to directly work with the land itself, and the third perhaps working with the handful of animals (chickens, most likely) they maintain. Doesn't take long until all four women are pregnant, which leads to the main point of conflict: granddaughter will be the first among *all* of the grandchildren to have a child, making that child a possible heir to the company. When her father finds this out, he tells her that even though she chose to "abandon" the family and "sully" herself, if she returns home with the child he will "forgive" her and "restore" her to her place in the family hierarchy provided she never contacts the others again. sounds like a story with an extremely narrow market.
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Post by ironhold on Dec 23, 2023 16:39:59 GMT
sounds like a story with an extremely narrow market. Probably just use it as background fluff in something else, maybe a show that some characters have watched.
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Post by ironhold on Dec 28, 2023 17:31:04 GMT
Another odd dream I'm trying to possibly convert into material -
A cutthroat business tycoon doesn't understand that daughter A does in fact have a heart condition and so cannot follow in mommy's footsteps, so forcibly installs A as the head of a new shopping mall. It turns out that this mall is actually quite poorly designed, including rather awkward parking, and so A spends most of her time fielding complaints from retailers and customers alike until she finally suffers a fatal medical episode in spite of male lead's efforts to keep her alive.
Daughter B tracks down male lead to understand just what happened with her sister, and in the process works with male lead to start figuring out solutions to the problems with the facility ("Due to the way the parking lots here, here, and here are laid out, we have wasted space. If we redid the directional flow we could gain about a dozen extra spaces. And right here is an open spot we could designate for official vehicles, freeing up a slot in general parking."). This leads to B developing an attachment to male lead, complicating mommy's plans to marry her off to the boorish son of a wealthy family.
Cue mommy deciding that she'd rather have no daughters at all than a second daughter who is a disappointment, so she hires a hitman to take out both B and male lead; once things are over and done with, *she* will move on the other dude.
It ends with mommy and other dude in jail alongside the hitman, with male lead and B married & in charge of the shopping center alongside some of mommy's other business properties. Thus, mommy's fear of a "lower class" person marrying into the family ironically coming true.
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Post by wvengineer on Dec 28, 2023 19:13:20 GMT
What does Mommy do normally that she wants daughter to follow her in? How does the heart condition play into it? There are tons of examples of successful business people who have various disabilities. A heart condition is the least of them. As stated, I can't see a heart condition being enough of a factor for someone to not run the family empire.
Besides, Daughter A is an adult and has means, why can't she get treatment? Just because Mom says no isn't really a believable excuse. Need more than that.
Wow, Mom hiring a hit man really comes out of left field. Going from being opposed to a wedding and not liking a career path to murder for hire is a huge leap. You will need to really work that out in to the story.
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Post by ironhold on Dec 28, 2023 19:23:39 GMT
What does Mommy do normally that she wants daughter to follow her in? How does the heart condition play into it? There are tons of examples of successful business people who have various disabilities. A heart condition is the least of them. As stated, I can't see a heart condition being enough of a factor for someone to not run the family empire. Besides, Daughter A is an adult and has means, why can't she get treatment? Just because Mom says no isn't really a believable excuse. Need more than that. Wow, Mom hiring a hit man really comes out of left field. Going from being opposed to a wedding and not liking a career path to murder for hire is a huge leap. You will need to really work that out in to the story. Hence why I said I'm trying to make sense of what was in a dream on the off-chance I could actually make something of it.
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Post by the light works on Dec 28, 2023 23:29:31 GMT
it's campy and melodramatic as heck. it could probably work as a spoof
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Post by ironhold on Jan 19, 2024 16:42:54 GMT
Idea that came to me last night:
A burned CIA asset suspects that the person who burned him was the handler for a "kill" team that he sometimes had to work with, and that the burning was a result of the asset realizing that they were dirty even by CIA standards. When the asset realizes that a drug cartel was getting a little too cozy up in the border town the asset calls home while he was away, he decides to handle both matters at once by arranging for the "kill" team and the cartel to engage each other in front of cameras.
Handler (upon realizing what just happened and that he's being monitored): "Egypt. This is for Egypt, isn't it?! All right! I burned you! You knew that we did what we had to do! But you never understood that collateral damage is inevitable in a situation like that! I had to burn you! I had to discredit you so that you wouldn't shut us down! The world needs us! The world needed everyone who died today! If anything, you're the villain for doing this!"
Asset (through a speaker): "I did what I did to defend this country *and* its principles. You never understood *that*. Now be a dear and cooperate with that FBI team coming up behind you."
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Post by the light works on Jan 19, 2024 22:09:51 GMT
Idea that came to me last night: A burned CIA asset suspects that the person who burned him was the handler for a "kill" team that he sometimes had to work with, and that the burning was a result of the asset realizing that they were dirty even by CIA standards. When the asset realizes that a drug cartel was getting a little too cozy up in the border town the asset calls home while he was away, he decides to handle both matters at once by arranging for the "kill" team and the cartel to engage each other in front of cameras. Handler (upon realizing what just happened and that he's being monitored): "Egypt. This is for Egypt, isn't it?! All right! I burned you! You knew that we did what we had to do! But you never understood that collateral damage is inevitable in a situation like that! I had to burn you! I had to discredit you so that you wouldn't shut us down! The world needs us! The world needed everyone who died today! If anything, you're the villain for doing this!" Asset (through a speaker): "I did what I did to defend this country *and* its principles. You never understood *that*. Now be a dear and cooperate with that FBI team coming up behind you." key question is how the burned asset managed to stay alive and have enough influence to get the kill team and the cartel to have a meet and greet.
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Post by ironhold on Jan 20, 2024 22:24:21 GMT
Idea that came to me last night: A burned CIA asset suspects that the person who burned him was the handler for a "kill" team that he sometimes had to work with, and that the burning was a result of the asset realizing that they were dirty even by CIA standards. When the asset realizes that a drug cartel was getting a little too cozy up in the border town the asset calls home while he was away, he decides to handle both matters at once by arranging for the "kill" team and the cartel to engage each other in front of cameras. Handler (upon realizing what just happened and that he's being monitored): "Egypt. This is for Egypt, isn't it?! All right! I burned you! You knew that we did what we had to do! But you never understood that collateral damage is inevitable in a situation like that! I had to burn you! I had to discredit you so that you wouldn't shut us down! The world needs us! The world needed everyone who died today! If anything, you're the villain for doing this!" Asset (through a speaker): "I did what I did to defend this country *and* its principles. You never understood *that*. Now be a dear and cooperate with that FBI team coming up behind you." key question is how the burned asset managed to stay alive and have enough influence to get the kill team and the cartel to have a meet and greet. In real life, the host of the original Gong Show claimed that he had actually been a CIA asset *while* hosting the show during the early years. Pulp fiction is also replete with similar stories, various agencies using diplomats, celebrities, and their entourages as a shield in some fashion, if not as the agents themselves. If I have him as a celebrity of some kind, it could be that his being burned was a "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you" type of situation when he found himself up against goons while overseas; they figured the goons would take him out, but he took them out and made his way back Stateside in such a fashion that they couldn't immediately get at him.
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