Story Ideas:
As a ghostwriter, who used to sell ideas to popular storytellers, I have a lot of ideas for good stories. Some notebooks have hundreds of story ideas, which means I'll never get to write them all. In this series, Story Ideas, I'll share some of my favorites here on SteemIt, with the hopes that writers take the stories and make them their own!
This Story:
In the future, humanity begins to clone historical figures from the distant past, and they introduce these clones into present-day society. These clones of dead famous people are raised from birth by selected families, and the entire world watches who and what they become.
These clones lives like celebrities, reborn.
Why?
Because people are bored. In the future, television isn't enough. People are jaded by the movies. They've watched too many stories of bigger and better things, and now they want to be a part of a greater-than-life story. They want to live the plot of a fantastical TV show. They want to LIVE the entertainment. They want to BECOME the story. They want to FEEL like their life is the movie.
People want to participate in what they're watching.
Society becomes a real-time show that everyone is watching. Everything is a performance. Every time someone sees a clone, they live-stream it. Every time a clone does something of note, the news feed updates. But that's not all. The clones are just one of the in-real-life TV shows the media barons are producing, and real life is looking more and more like television from the 2010's.
Each person feels like their life has a role in this show, and in the future, they'll make movies about it.
Life has become a TV show. It's irl-TV.
But this is the plot of Version 1, which you can read more about here: https://steemit.com/story/@caincallen/news-flash-the-clones-of-marilyn-monroe-and-adolf-hitler-have-a-baby-free-story-idea-from-successful-ghostwriter
Below, we'll explore the second version.
Version 2:
As part of a long-term study on "Greatness" and "Nature vs Nurture," a group of scientists run a secret, long-term experiment.
In this experiment, the scientists clone 100 famous people from the distant past, whose DNA they have found, collected, and confirmed, and they create 100 clones of these historical people. This way they have a large sample size: 10,000 total clones.
Unlike the first version, the general public is not aware of these clones, and the scientists go to great lengths to introduce these clones into society without the public's knowledge.
The 100 Greats
One key question the scientists are wrestling with is the implication of "greatness." The 100 historical figures they choose were all movers and shakers, people who changed the world in obvious and unarguable ways, whether in science or art, war or peace.
This list would probably include: Alexander the Great, Goethe, Albert Einstein, Sappho (somehow), William Shakespeare, Ghandi, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, Marie Curie, Dostoevsky, Aristotle, and Genghis Khan (assuming they find his tomb).
The Experiment
Now that they have 100 clones of each historical figure, they have to account for various circumstances and variables, so they create a list of 10 different types of living conditions.
- A traditional middle-class nuclear family
- A lower-class, at-risk household
- An orphanage
- A wealthy family
And so on.
They then place ten clones of Genghis Khan in condition #1, ten clones in #2, all the way through #10. They do the same with the clones of the other ninety-nine figures on the list.
But Here's the Catch:
To make it so that the clones don't recognize each other as clones later in life, the scientists tweak their facial features ever so slightly. Just enough to make the clones look alike, perhaps recognizable as siblings, but not as clones. This will help you avoid the pitfalls of such an experiment that was explored in Orphan Black.
Who Are the Clones, Really?
Now that the scientists have their clone sets, it's time to study how they turn out. Do they develop wildly different personalities, with certain traits that remain constant? Do the clones of Genghis Khan who grew up in loving households turn out normal, while the clones who grew up in challenging living conditions grow up to be great leaders? What does this say about the DNA of certain types of leaders? Do they need hardship for their talents to emerge?
Does not one of the clones of Albert Einstein grow up to be a famous scientist? Instead, do most of the Clone Einsteins grow up to be very imaginative writers and inventors?
What if one of Ghandi's clones, who was raised in a situation similar to how Adolf Hitler was raised, became an instrument of war, instead of peace? That Ghandi clone, who was verbally and physically abused, tried to create a movement similar to the Nazi party, before the scientists put a stop to it? Is this how the news of the famous clone experiment is leaked?
** Ghandi Clone Hosts a Neo-Nazi House Party **
** Hitler clone wins the Nobel Peace Prize **
Do the Ghandi and Hitler Clones clash in an epic role reversal?
Details:
How will you write this? From the perspective of a scientist, following the clones through hidden cameras? Studying their entire lives, from birth to death? Perhaps each set of clones has a group of scientists devoted to that set, to that single historical figure, and then each group of scientists get together and discuss similarities and differences in their research findings. Perhaps they put all their data into an AI, which finds meaningful answers to the questions they've been asking.
Or would you write this from multiple perspectives? A third person omniscient narrator who shares the details of the experiment, and then zoom into a few individual characters, first person, exploring their lives and the personal worlds they live in?
Conclusion:
Ultimately, the scientists are curious about the DNA of great humans. Was Genghis Khan a product of his time and age, or would he be a great leader in this time as well? Was it his unique life experience in medieval Asia that made him who he was, or would he be great in whatever time period he lives in?
How do these clones change the world? Is it a giant flop, and most of the clones do nothing? Or do all these clones of great men, born all at one time, rise up and create a new and unimaginable world?
And how do you make these clones human? What are the little things that make us see not only the clones, but the original great men themselves, as real people with loves and heartbreaks, ambitions and failures?
I can't wait to read your ideas, and one day read this book, or even watch this show!
P.S. In the next post in this series, I'll share Version 3, which is a combination of the first two versions.
**Sharing ideas for business, products, inventions, stories and more. As followers grow, I'll share bigger and bigger ideas, just so the big ideas aren't lost and forgotten.
**Read why I'm giving away all my ideas here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@caincallen/hey-steemians-inventor-and-ghostwriter-here-sharing-why-i-have-to-give-away-all-my-ideas