Thread: My idea, suggestions?

Hey,
I've been brainstorming ideas today and I believe that I finally thought of something semi-decent to use as an outline to a novel.

Society was normal, Shadows ( dark hooded figures) watched over it peacefully, hiding themselves away from humans, now society has began to crumble and a group of shadows have went against their sworn rules and have became violent, taking out their own justice on misbehaving citizens

The shadows mainly focus on a group of six people (aged from teens to late twenties) with different talents
Shadows are unknown to society until it begins to deteriorate.

I know its a very basic outline at the moment but I will be developing it over the next few weeks.
I've decided on four of the six characters in the group so far, only went into detail on two though.

Suggestions/thoughts would be appreciated.

The only suggestion I have is ---write it, so I can read it! Sounds intriguing ....Good luck. peace...Jul

Your plot idea sounds very good to me, but please type it in a word program that has grammar check. Look at this line: "a group of shadows have went against their sworn rules and have became violent," Does this wording look and sound right to you? Here's another example: "I know its a very basic outline" Do you know the difference between it's and its and when to use each? It's okay not to know, but it's not okay not to learn before you write any kind of story. Luckily we do have grammar check available nowadays, but that only helps if you use it.

Also, just in this small blurb, I see missing commas and even missing periods. I hope the checking programs catch punctuation as well.

That said, I too would like to read some of this story. Sounds intriguing! Guardians of society gone bad could create so many interesting situations.

My suggestion would be to expand this a little so that you have the main character and major plot points, see where the conflict is going to come from, and see how you feel about it then.

A slightly longer summary would open my imagination. Nevertheless, hooded figures always pique my interest, so go ahead!

The concept reminds me a little of China Mieville's The City and the City, which involved a mysterious group of wardens watching for Breach between the two titular cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma.

Anyway, when you say that the Shadows only begin to become known of when things deteriorate, do you mean that society's collapse brings about their emergence into a greater role or that the actions of the rogue Shadows bring them out into the light?

Society's collapse forces the shadows to take on a greater role and make themselves known but only when it is needed. Before the collapse their existence wasn't known to humans.

It does seem intriguing--I'm very curious to know what the Shadows' own society/culture is like, and where they came from.

But I see a logical error in your idea, or at least in the way you phrased it. You say first they watch over humans, but then that they break their own rules by punishing the villains. If their rules forbid them from doing this how are they "watching over us"? In fact, if "normal" consists in the current state of affairs and these Shadows just look on without lifting a finger to help, I fail to see how they're guardians at all.

Unless, of course, they protect us from some other menace that we also can't see? Like, I don't know, Bad Shadows. Something supernatural that we're not aware of and mustn't become aware of. And then for some reason our society gets so bad they intervene even in human affairs...but even then, I have to say--things could hardly get worse than they are. Unless it's a matter of nuclear holocaust or something...you're going to have to show a very strong reason the Shadows didn't show themselves earlier, otherwise, they'll be the worst villains, IMO--because they could have stopped so many evils and didn't.

"Evil prevails when good men fail to act." I don't remember who said this, unfortunately, but truer words were seldom spoken, IMO. If you can get around this somehow, it's still an interesting scenario. Good luck.

My initial question was the same as Sunflower's. Did the Shadows deal with misbehaving citizens in other aspects prior to the breakdown? Were the Shadows a just group and have now turned to violence as a first step to resolution? Why is it that the Shadows correlate the breakdown of society with their own acts of violence?

They do intervene in matters without revealing themselves, to the humans it would appear as chance/luck/fate etc . Their rules prevented them from revealing themselves and using violence.

ahhh.. the guardians gone bad.
warcraft 3 backstory.
but it can be delightful and interesting - good luck!