The Fan-fic Ideas and Advice Thread.

[Skydiver]

I have stories like that too. Ideas i’ve had but never been able to put them down on paper.

If I were writing it Id’ start with hunter showing up at the school. I”m presuming the teachers show up days/weeks before the term starts. He moves in and finds his way around. that;’s when it’s established that he’s a muggle. That some teachers accept him automatically, others not so much.

He’s half pitied, half detested. A normal ‘weak’ human. But an oddity because he doesn’t seem like a teacher. He’s confident, able to to take care of himself. some teachers can pick up on the sense of menace about him, it scares some, intrigues others. He has a attitude that they’re not always used to, a confidence that some aren’t used to.

He may also have a degree of disdain for magic that some pick up on. Maybe also a bit of mystery about him. Is he a squib? Where did he come from? How did he come to be at hogwarts?

when he teaches the kids there are issues. Why is he teaching them bout muggles and the muggle world?

To me it cn be just as much his relationship with the other teachers as students. He’s going to befriend someone or at least the relationships work to develop some mutual respect. they see him as more than a muggle, he realizes that magic isn’t just the easy way out.

Anyway, just thinking out loud.

[Princess Awinita]

Is this a private party or can anyone join in ?

If anyone can join in, heres my current seedling growing into a full on willowtree {With babies of its own!!!}

Namely, Why have we never seen or read a mystery story, at sea, a cruise liner stricken with a illness so severe thery dont risk alerting the mainland for 2 reasons, 1 the captain is scared someone on the ship set the virus afloat and doesnt want to alert them, and 2 even if he COULD get a notice to the mainland he cant due to signal static device shutting out all in and out communications

Alone at sea, four siblings and three of their friends for a two week cruise find them selves in a mystery after one of them contracts the illness but thanks to a doctor skilled with traditional chinerse medicines the seven friends have ot get to the bottom of the mystery....

Oh and the possible bad guy is named Mr Azul

[thekillman]

I have stories like that too. Ideas i’ve had but never been able to put them down on paper.

I could write a book about all the unfinished ideas i have, but that in itself would probably end up unfinished.

If I were writing it Id’ start with hunter showing up at the school. (...)But an oddity because he doesn’t seem like a teacher. He’s confident, able to to take care of himself. (...)He has a attitude that they’re not always used to, a confidence that some aren’t used to. (...) He may also have a degree of disdain for magic that some pick up on. Maybe also a bit of mystery about him. Is he a squib? Where did he come from? How did he come to be at hogwarts?

Yea this seems like the best approach. To someone like Hunter, magic would just be a tool like any other. Where normally muggles and squibs are mostly impressed or afraid of magic, Hunter would approach it with a casual attutide that would frustrate the proud wizards. If Hunter is confident he can take his opponent even if he's a wizard, then being threatened or bullied wouldn't impress him.

All in all, it seems to me that the culture conflict could be very interesting. Most muggles and squibs in HP so far have been citizens. What would a military man do? How would he deal with things? What would Wizards think of it? What would half-bloods think of it?

[thekillman]

Namely, Why have we never seen or read a mystery story, at sea, a cruise liner stricken with a illness so severe thery dont risk alerting the mainland for 2 reasons, 1 the captain is scared someone on the ship set the virus afloat and doesnt want to alert them, and 2 even if he COULD get a notice to the mainland he cant due to signal static device shutting out all in and out communications

The issue i think is that the biggest problem with disease is containment, and a ship is the ideal containment.

[BruTak]

I kind of feel Hunter would start with the basics.

He's got a small dish of a fine black powder on the desk in front of him. "This is gun powder. It is comprised of sulphur, saltpeter, and charcoal. This is what happens when you set light to it."

[BruTak]

The issue i think is that the biggest problem with disease is containment, and a ship is the ideal containment.

Yeah, it's an enclosed environment. You can only get so far away from other people.

[Skydiver]

As to the boat....think about how you feel right now with teh flu outbreak.....I’m shopping and someone coughing a lot gets close to me.....I move. I don’t want to be around them, don’t want to be near them.

so on a boat some wouldn’t care. some would have bravado and others would hide in their cabins. While others would hide in groups...usually until someone in that group gets sick.

there would also be fears about food and water beause on a boat there are only so many sources. some would want to control it. Likely by threats and violence.

some would expect them to head to port immediately and when that doesn’t happen the mood and violence potential will escalate.

and in the middle of this chaos, solving a murder

[BruTak]

Initially, the ship's crew would do everything they could to disguise the outbreak. Not wanting to spoil other people's cruise.

[Princess Awinita]

BruTak is correct; the ships crew would do everything they can to ensure everyone has a happy cruise, maybe hieghtned sanitary rules and regs or the like. Again the captain wouldnt be able to inform the mainland due to the signal jammer onboard, brought aboard by a passenger {Possibly Mr Azul}

The Captain also wouldnt inform the crew other then to increase the sanitary and cleaniiness of the ship and he fears one of the crew might be at fault since a friend of the 4 siblings {who was placed on the crew at the Captains request} had become violently ill from the strange virus

Now, onto the finer details; the cruise liner is 1.2KM long, can hold over 3200 guests plus full crew, 22 PUBLIC ACCESS decks {not including crew only areas of each deck} The crew itself, two members of it are friends to the four siblings on the cruise as part of their parents last will and testament. Deck 4 has the Tender Lobbies to go ashore as well as at midship the Medical Center which is able to do everything but full on brain surgery and heart transplants. There are two helicopter landing decks, one is directly behind the bridge, and the other is directly accessed via lay out ramp for the medical center in the case a paitent has to be airlifed to the nearest actual hospital

The Captain has the final say of what happens aboard the ship and he can only trust the four siblings and their three friends, two of which are on the bridge crew with his life.

And yes Sky, that is correct, there IS a murderer onboard somewhere on the ship, which again brings up Mr Azul, is he killer, viictim, innocent bystander ? Nobody knows yet. Like I said its growing and Im getting my notes together on the idea

[Skydiver]

So when they get too many sick they’d move them, maybe to the crew area? Somewhere they can control to keep the casual cruise goer away and ignorant.

eventually however word would get out. family members of hte sick would need to know

then the mood and issues would deteriorate from there. Depending on how many are sick.

Cruises re also prone to norovirus outbreaks so they’d have SOP for such things

[BruTak]

Cruises are also prone to norovirus outbreaks so they’d have SOP for such things

Oh heavens, yes. I live in a "cruise town", and it seems like every other year there's a story in the local paper about people getting sick on one of the ships.

In fact there was a story several years ago about how an entire ship, the MV Black Prince as I recall, had to be withdrawn from service, and cleaned and decontaminated from top to bottom, stem to stern, because so many passengers were getting ill.

[Princess Awinita]

So when they get too many sick they’d move them, maybe to the crew area? Somewhere they can control to keep the casual cruise goer away and ignorant.

eventually however word would get out. family members of hte sick would need to know

then the mood and issues would deteriorate from there. Depending on how many are sick.

Cruises re also prone to norovirus outbreaks so they’d have SOP for such things

Exactly, medical center is mostly 'Crew Only' so the ill would be kept there and monitored carefully. The only medical offical on crew is the one who is something akin to a miiracle worker. Right now I have him named as Dr Seadragon. Casual cruise goers would only notice the increase in sanitary rules and regs enforcement.

As for the families needing to be informed of their family members being ill, the inital four siblings have lost their parents to the same virus, they were, how shall I say it ? Political prisoners and also test dummies, so to speak, on said virus work. Both died. In thier last will, they insisted the four siblings go on a cruise for 2 weeks, they left clues for the four plus three friends, to follow to unmask the creator of the virus.

In total at the moment I only have plans for one of the main characters, a friend of the four siblings, to get violently ill, and have Dr Seadragon perform a miracle to get her back on her feet and virus free. then the body is discovered in a stateroom and begins a murder mystery for the 7 friends to solve before they get ot their next port.

They also have to deal with the increase in possible violence due to not able to trust anyone but themselves with two of the seven on crew, one directly next to the Captain at all times the other freely roaming the ship as a Section overseer officer, a third of the seven friends is also able to go into crew only areas if she needs to do so.

But there is also the problem of the signal jammer aboard the ship. No radio, internet or phone signals can go out or in. So informing the mainland of the virus outbreak is currently undoable

So I now ask

Can it be done ? If so, can I do it.... correctly ?

[Skydiver]

I think you can do anything you want

THe key with this would probably be to make it long enough to tell the story but not drag it out forever because I find it hard to believe that an ocean liner can be out of contact for more than a few days without someone questioning it. Because wouldn’t they have a backup sat phone? and other methods of communication? so going dark for too long would raise eyebrows, especially in this day and age of terrorism and piracy.
I guess my point is there may be a time limit to how long they are cut off

[BruTak]

Also bear in mind that the ocean is a big place.

Even in this age of super accurate depth charts and GPS and so on, there's always human error to take into account.


There was a documentary I saw on TV some years ago about shipwrecks, and in one case a passenger ship was found to have sank because of an error on their charts.

Specifically, the contour marking for some rocks lying just below the surface being misinterpreted as a number one when new charts were being drawn up.

[Princess Awinita]

I was planning the maximum ammount of time for the signal jammer to be a 24 hour period, a full day at sea so to speak. Any longer and it'll break my plan, Basically there's a day at sea between two ports, {Day 1 is leaving the home port of Ft Lauderdale FL, Day 2 is Private Island, Day 3 is firdst day at sea, day 4 is second island stop at Jamaica, day 5 is second island stop that ends up as a day at sea due to rough waters at port stop location due to being an anchorage port, day 6 is Cozumel; the plan is to turn over the Signal Jammer to police at Cozumel}

Its after the delivery of the signal jammer when they discover the dead body. But I am not sure if it'll be Mr Azul or not.

But yeah, Signal Jammer will only be active for a 24 hour period, during which the first victim to be healed of the virus.

[Princess Awinita]

Also bear in mind that the ocean is a big place.

Even in this age of super accurate depth charts and GPS and so on, there's always human error to take into account.


There was a documentary I saw on TV some years ago about shipwrecks, and in one case a passenger ship was found to have sank because of an error on their charts.

Specifically, the contour marking for some rocks lying just below the surface being misinterpreted as a number one when new charts were being drawn up.

I didnt think of the charts! Thats a PERFECT surefire way of masking a murder! Screw around with the charts, have the ship travel in a zigzag to avoid phantom rocks!

BruTak you're a genius!

[BruTak]

I am?

[Skydiver]

If you’re doing ft Lauderdale you could also be in the vicinity to play off the bermuda triangle if you want aren’t you? Nag systems have been known to go caca in that area.

Not saying that it’s part of the story because it’s been largely debunked, but it could be a method of panic for passengers.

Apparently that eastern florida area is a very busy shipping lane, so there could be other craft tantalizingly close if need be.

[BruTak]

But the thing about the Bermuda Triangle, is that - depending on who you ask - it's either bigger than you think it is, smaller than you think it is, or takes in the tip of the Florida panhandle as well.

So you've a lot of leeway there.

[Skydiver]

Even if they’re no where near where it might be, if/when word gets out about the sickness, radio not working, etc, someone will go down that path. ANd it could toss a bit of a red herring into the story, let readers think it’s going down one path but remains firmly rooted in reality