Any Writers In Here? Need Some Advice

MariaJLM

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Okay, so I have a potentially interesting idea floating around in my head for a post-apocalyptic story.

The basic premise is that an apocalyptic event(which remains vague in the actual storyline as it's not really important to the plot) recently wiped out most of humanity. Those that survived have kind of taken to living off underground shelters and stuff, forming their own like-minded communities. In the months following the apocalypse they are working on re-establishing civilization. Among those survivors is a single bishop, which soon captures the interest of local Doomsday Cultists that have cropped up since the near complete destruction of humanity. They, being the fanatics they are, quickly learn who the bishop is and what he potentially represents to the rest of the survivors. Since they want to finish what they believe is incomplete they seek to kill the bishop, ending the church as he is the last direct link to the line of apostolic succession.

In comes our main protagonists, a rag-tag group of survivors who are soon tasked with protecting the bishop and transporting him to a place of refuge so he can attempt to rebuild the church and restore hope. It is a task they only reluctantly accept, but over time they become more devoted to it as they learn more deeply what exactly is at stake if they fail. (All the details between there are to be filled in along the way.)

That's the basic premise, but I'm honestly stuck on how to conduct the opening. It's the one thing currently holding me back from writing it. It is meant to begin with the group of survivors and then a couple chapters or so in they discover the bishop. Keep in mind that this particular group of survivors is made up of pretty awful people, or at least ones who did awful things in their lives previously to the apocalypse. I'm talking atheists, Satanists, thieves, gang members, etc. Exactly the sort of personalities one would not expect to be protecting a Christian bishop, of all people.

So yea, how do I go about starting this little tale off? I am a writer so I'm usually pretty good at this sort of thing. If anybody is wondering I'm going for dark and gritty, possibly violent due to the inevitable clashes with the antagonist faction. I also get a Mad Max sort of vibe, but with Orthodoxy.
 

DennisTate

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Never mind. Just remembered there's a creative writing subsection here. I'll ask to have this moved there.

Good idea to have this moved to the Creative Writing forum here....... I do have some ideas on how you can begin this but I think you may find something rather inspiring that I read a few years ago. Near death experiencer and former skeptic Howard Storm was shown that every prediction in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the minor prophets will come to pass and by the year 2185 G-d wants this earth to be very different than it is at this time:

Howard Storm's Near-Death Experience
The image of the future that they gave me then, and it was their image, not one that I created, surprised me. My image had previously been sort of like Star Wars, where everything was space age, plastics, and technology.



The future that they showed me was almost no technology at all. What everybody, absolutely everybody, in this euphoric future spent most of their time doing was raising children. The chief concern of people was children, and everybody considered children to be the most precious commodity in the world.



And when a person became an adult, there was no sense of anxiety, nor hatred, nor competition.



There was this enormous sense of trust and mutual respect. If a person, in this view of the future, became disturbed, then the community of people all cared about the disturbed person falling away from the harmony of the group. Spiritually, through prayer and love, the others would elevate the afflicted person.



What people did with the rest of their time was that they gardened, with almost no physical effort. They showed me that plants, with prayer, would produce huge fruits and vegetables.



People, in unison, could control the climate of the planet through prayer. Everybody would work with mutual trust and the people would call the rain, when needed, and the sun to shine.



Animals lived with people, in harmony.
 
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ArmyMatt

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Okay, so I have a potentially interesting idea floating around in my head for a post-apocalyptic story.

The basic premise is that an apocalyptic event(which remains vague in the actual storyline as it's not really important to the plot) recently wiped out most of humanity. Those that survived have kind of taken to living off underground shelters and stuff, forming their own like-minded communities. In the months following the apocalypse they are working on re-establishing civilization. Among those survivors is a single bishop, which soon captures the interest of local Doomsday Cultists that have cropped up since the near complete destruction of humanity. They, being the fanatics they are, quickly learn who the bishop is and what he potentially represents to the rest of the survivors. Since they want to finish what they believe is incomplete they seek to kill the bishop, ending the church as he is the last direct link to the line of apostolic succession.

In comes our main protagonists, a rag-tag group of survivors who are soon tasked with protecting the bishop and transporting him to a place of refuge so he can attempt to rebuild the church and restore hope. It is a task they only reluctantly accept, but over time they become more devoted to it as they learn more deeply what exactly is at stake if they fail. (All the details between there are to be filled in along the way.)

That's the basic premise, but I'm honestly stuck on how to conduct the opening. It's the one thing currently holding me back from writing it. It is meant to begin with the group of survivors and then a couple chapters or so in they discover the bishop. Keep in mind that this particular group of survivors is made up of pretty awful people, or at least ones who did awful things in their lives previously to the apocalypse. I'm talking atheists, Satanists, thieves, gang members, etc. Exactly the sort of personalities one would not expect to be protecting a Christian bishop, of all people.

So yea, how do I go about starting this little tale off? I am a writer so I'm usually pretty good at this sort of thing. If anybody is wondering I'm going for dark and gritty, possibly violent due to the inevitable clashes with the antagonist faction. I also get a Mad Max sort of vibe, but with Orthodoxy.

PM Dorothea on here. she is a budding author.
 
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DennisTate

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~Anastasia~

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Only a sec here but I dabbled in such things.

Since your event is vague go the sake of the story, Id jump right into action that shows the setting and the characters, but creates mystery of how it came to be that way. Gritty and grainy probably means a pretty intense scene, though that could be overdone for an opening.

I like the idea of a character fleeing, perhaps, along with a bit of stream of consciousness or at least motives and considerations, then drop them into interaction with other character/s.

I like your idea. :) Not sure of widespread acceptance but I like it a lot.
 
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-Sasha-

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My first inclination is that the opening scene could be your merry band of miscreants observing and planning to rob a lone survivor who they find foraging around near their camp. You could write it so that at first it sounds like a hunter vs prey animal scenario, only slowly adding details to make it apparent that is a human target.

I don't know if you've already figured out how to introduce your bishop into the mix, but you could perhaps incorporate him into the latter parts of this scene. Maybe they plan to take the lone survivor hostage, and he presents himself to be taken in her place. It could appeal to the atheists and satanists in your group to do so, and it would give an initial excuse for him being under their "protection" before they've become devoted to his cause, if the doomsday cults try to raid their camp to get access to the bishop.
 
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Phronema

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Okay, so I have a potentially interesting idea floating around in my head for a post-apocalyptic story.

The basic premise is that an apocalyptic event(which remains vague in the actual storyline as it's not really important to the plot) recently wiped out most of humanity. Those that survived have kind of taken to living off underground shelters and stuff, forming their own like-minded communities. In the months following the apocalypse they are working on re-establishing civilization. Among those survivors is a single bishop, which soon captures the interest of local Doomsday Cultists that have cropped up since the near complete destruction of humanity. They, being the fanatics they are, quickly learn who the bishop is and what he potentially represents to the rest of the survivors. Since they want to finish what they believe is incomplete they seek to kill the bishop, ending the church as he is the last direct link to the line of apostolic succession.

In comes our main protagonists, a rag-tag group of survivors who are soon tasked with protecting the bishop and transporting him to a place of refuge so he can attempt to rebuild the church and restore hope. It is a task they only reluctantly accept, but over time they become more devoted to it as they learn more deeply what exactly is at stake if they fail. (All the details between there are to be filled in along the way.)

That's the basic premise, but I'm honestly stuck on how to conduct the opening. It's the one thing currently holding me back from writing it. It is meant to begin with the group of survivors and then a couple chapters or so in they discover the bishop. Keep in mind that this particular group of survivors is made up of pretty awful people, or at least ones who did awful things in their lives previously to the apocalypse. I'm talking atheists, Satanists, thieves, gang members, etc. Exactly the sort of personalities one would not expect to be protecting a Christian bishop, of all people.

So yea, how do I go about starting this little tale off? I am a writer so I'm usually pretty good at this sort of thing. If anybody is wondering I'm going for dark and gritty, possibly violent due to the inevitable clashes with the antagonist faction. I also get a Mad Max sort of vibe, but with Orthodoxy.

I like the plot here ! I'd read your book!
 
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GoingByzantine

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Good for you, and sounds like a fun story!

There are corners of Orthodoxy that claim we shouldn't write fiction, especially fantasy and sci-fi, but I strongly disagree. As Christians we need to find ways to connect Christianity to the people. These genres are great for doing that.
 
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Okay, so I have a potentially interesting idea floating around in my head for a post-apocalyptic story.

The basic premise is that an apocalyptic event(which remains vague in the actual storyline as it's not really important to the plot) recently wiped out most of humanity. Those that survived have kind of taken to living off underground shelters and stuff, forming their own like-minded communities. In the months following the apocalypse they are working on re-establishing civilization. Among those survivors is a single bishop, which soon captures the interest of local Doomsday Cultists that have cropped up since the near complete destruction of humanity. They, being the fanatics they are, quickly learn who the bishop is and what he potentially represents to the rest of the survivors. Since they want to finish what they believe is incomplete they seek to kill the bishop, ending the church as he is the last direct link to the line of apostolic succession.

In comes our main protagonists, a rag-tag group of survivors who are soon tasked with protecting the bishop and transporting him to a place of refuge so he can attempt to rebuild the church and restore hope. It is a task they only reluctantly accept, but over time they become more devoted to it as they learn more deeply what exactly is at stake if they fail. (All the details between there are to be filled in along the way.)

That's the basic premise, but I'm honestly stuck on how to conduct the opening. It's the one thing currently holding me back from writing it. It is meant to begin with the group of survivors and then a couple chapters or so in they discover the bishop. Keep in mind that this particular group of survivors is made up of pretty awful people, or at least ones who did awful things in their lives previously to the apocalypse. I'm talking atheists, Satanists, thieves, gang members, etc. Exactly the sort of personalities one would not expect to be protecting a Christian bishop, of all people.

So yea, how do I go about starting this little tale off? I am a writer so I'm usually pretty good at this sort of thing. If anybody is wondering I'm going for dark and gritty, possibly violent due to the inevitable clashes with the antagonist faction. I also get a Mad Max sort of vibe, but with Orthodoxy.
I like it. Who will be the hero? The bishop? Or will it be one of the other characters in the story?
 
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MariaJLM

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Good for you, and sounds like a fun story!

There are corners of Orthodoxy that claim we shouldn't write fiction, especially fantasy and sci-fi, but I strongly disagree. As Christians we need to find ways to connect Christianity to the people. These genres are great for doing that.

Who says that? What a bunch of buzzkills.
 
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Pavel Mosko

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So yea, how do I go about starting this little tale off? I am a writer so I'm usually pretty good at this sort of thing. If anybody is wondering I'm going for dark and gritty, possibly violent due to the inevitable clashes with the antagonist faction. I also get a Mad Max sort of vibe, but with Orthodoxy.

Well there are a few ideas. The first is I have gotten a lot of amusement from Tv tropes, but that web site would probably help you a lot in the long run. Tropes are something you should familiarize yourself with in general so you can use them to create the right sort of mood, setting etc. A good way is to look up your favorite stories, movies, computer games and just read through some of the listings (they often can be quite funny).


Mad Max

One intriguing device I've seen used well is to tell the story from the perspective of another character who is not hero, or one of the heroes friends. Like from the perspective of a villain or a nobody commoner. One of the most interesting Spiderman Comics I ever read was written from the villains perspective.


Besides that, I also really love the false or decoy protagonist.

Decoy Protagonist - TV Tropes
 
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Mary of Bethany

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Interesting! This is neither here nor there, but as I was reading the description of your plot, I kept thinking of P. D. James’ The Children Of Men. (Just the very general outline, not the details.). It’s a good book with a Christian element to it.
 
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Good for you, and sounds like a fun story!

There are corners of Orthodoxy that claim we shouldn't write fiction, especially fantasy and sci-fi, but I strongly disagree. As Christians we need to find ways to connect Christianity to the people. These genres are great for doing that.

The ancient faith store has 3 fantasy books that are based off a Russian fairy tale.

I like writing stories myself. I hope to one day write a story once I am more estabkished in Orthodoxy and am not such a "n00b"
 
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