An interesting story idea I never fully took advantage of

[Johan Liebert]

EDIT: I ended up writing a shitty plot twist because I had trouble trying to make this story work otherwise. It has a lot of potential, but I can't figure out how to make it as good as possible.

 

I had a wonderful idea for a story back in June. I continued and ran with a huge outline for awhile, but I could never figure out how to make things piece together and I'd like to ask for any suggestions. I'll post the outline below.

 

A set of characters that stay consistent with the plot, which changes genre every arc. The first arc is your typical high school dramedy. In the last scene, a sudden flash is seen and the main character wakes up, like it was all a dream. The genres change during every arc After the first arc, one character realizes what's going on, and he'll be the only one who remembers through every single arc. After the first several arcs, he tries to find out what's truly going on, and every time he finds one piece of the puzzle, the next arc begins. The following arcs occur after he loses his memories, and after these arcs, he regains his memories: Virtual Reality MMORPG Spoof Comedy and Tragic Love Story (he regains his memories after this arc). Finally, the list below contains each story arc in chronological order:

 

High School Drama-Comedy Anime

Philosophical Slice-of-Life

 

BELOW THIS LINE, THE MAIN CHARACTER REALIZES THAT THE GENRE-SWITCHING IS OCCURRING AND BEGINS TO TRY AND FIGURE OUT WHAT'S TRULY HAPPENING.

 

Psychological Mystery

Time Travel Story

The End of the World

Seinen Superpower Survival Game (I wrote a several-page outline of it: Powers.)

 

BELOW THIS LINE, THE MAIN CHARACTER LOSES HIS MEMORIES BECAUSE HE WAS KILLED IN THE FINAL BATTLE.

 

Virtual Reality MMORPG Spoof Comedy (with many references to movies, anime, and television series)

Tragic Love Story

 

BELOW THIS LINE, THE MAIN CHARACTER REGAINS HIS MEMORIES BECAUSE HE ENDS HIS OWN LIFE AFTER HIS FIANCÉ DIES.

 

Seinen Historical Fiction

Murder Mystery (The main character corners the murderer (he then vanishes) and the next arc begins.)

Crime Thriller (The main character becomes a detective and tries to find the killer from the previous arc, realizing that this killer is the last piece of the puzzle. The killer wears a unique mask and kills people in a pattern relating to every method killers use (cannibalism, bludgeoning, rape, poisoning, strangling, drowning, pushing someone off of a high place, etc.). Our main character finds the killer as he is about to push a women off of a large tower. The women is revealed to be the main character's sister; we only saw her in the first arc. The killer pushes her off the tower and she dies. The main character immediately grabs the killer, stabbing him with a sword. He takes off the killer's mask, and the killer is revealed to be him. The shock the main character feels brings the viewers/readers to a flashback: The main character's sister jumped off the top of the school and killed herself at the end of the first arc. The main character then finally wakes up, and it's revealed that he's been in a mental asylum for several years after the first arc occurred and his sister died. All of the story arcs were a result of his psychiatrist medically abusing him, and through finding this out, a message is sent to prove a point about medical facilities and the corruption of humanity.)

 

*NOTE #1 (June 14, 2015): It would be beneficial to have partners for writing this story because my strengths lie in dark and serious stuff; I might organize it so that, depending on the total number of people working on this idea I've come up with, I can distribute how many arcs each of us write. And, of course, we'd have to proof-read each other and give constructive criticism. I'm going to post something on FaceBook about this.

 

*NOTE #2 (October 2, 2015): Today, I figured out how to make this story work, and decided on changing it into what it is now.

[mitchermitcher]

Genre-switching is exciting when done right, but when you structure it to happen so many times, I cannot help but doubt that the impact will be lost long before you get to the end.

 

And for a such a meta-aware plot structure to have such a normal reveal just feels underwhelming, even more so in summary. I'm guessing this was the plot twist you weren't satisfied about but something more out of this world would be more fitting, perhaps. Depending on how you execute it though, the idea as it is might work.

[Johan Liebert]

Genre-switching is exciting when done right, but when you structure it to happen so many times, I cannot help but doubt that the impact will be lost long before you get to the end.

 

And for a such a meta-aware plot structure to have such a normal reveal just feels underwhelming, even more so in summary. I'm guessing this was the plot twist you weren't satisfied about but something more out of this world would be more fitting, perhaps. Depending on how you execute it though, the idea as it is might work.

I agree with everything you said. Whenever I think up story ideas, they're always in anime format. If this were an anime series, it'd be a very long one. In any case, I just can't feel satisfied with what I have written down. I was trying to think of a lesser-used plot twist... Also, in actual writing, love stories and slice-of-life stories aren't my strong suit, mainly because I acnt write dialogue worth sheet. XD But I'm really good at writing dark, thought-provoking, psychological, philosophical, and/or impactful kinds of things. I'd rather this be an anime series as opposed to any other medium of art.