Resources for Fiction Writers #7

Hello, and welcome to my open source project. A frequent blog where I share ideas and resources for fiction writers of all genres. Each issue is brainstormed independently and is intended to invoke inspiration.

It’s been a while since the last iteration, and so I thought it necessary for a new image. It was created by Dall-e 2 with the phrase, “Science fiction and fantasy mixed together”. Not really what I was envisioning, but something about it spoke to me.

Time Travel

Twin Paradox — I’m sure you’re familiar with the Grandfather Paradox. A time paradox wherein you travel back in time to conceive yourself, or become a progenitor of your lineage. The Twin Paradox, however, is more specific. For a male, it would be traveling back ten or more months before you were conceived and lay with your mother which creates a slightly older paradoxical twin of you. For a female, it would require birthing the child prior to traveling back to the present.

Now, the reason that it’s a paradox is that, your alteration of the timeline somehow erases your memories of this occurrence, and to fix itself, the timeline creates a parallel timeline, allowing both of you to grow up with the same parents and removing it when the twin leaves to live on its own.

A lot of story ideas are brewing in my mind, but I’m busy with other stories at the moment.

Jeremy’s Paradox — Jeremy is an average single guy who meets with an interesting young woman at a party. She seems oddly familiar, and the two get blitzed which leads to a one-night stand. Nine months later, Jeremy wakes up and has full-blown amnesia, and to make matters worse, he supposedly wakes up in someone else’s house.

Half-naked and hungry, he tries to use his debit card at an ATM, only it eats the card and tells him that his account doesn’t exist.

Unfortunately for Jeremy, the timeline chose not to go the Twin Paradox route, and instead, erased Jeremy’s existence without removing his physical body — no energy or matter lost or gained and all that.

In Jeremy’s case, the woman at the party was his future daughter who then birthed their son. Their son then grew up and eventually traveled back in time to sleep with Jeremy’s mother to create him, only, the timeline was having a bad hair day and just said, “Nope!”.

Breath Weapons

Liquid Fire — It looks and acts just like fire, except that it is in a viscous liquid form. It flows smoothly and slowly, but not as slowly as lava. It doesn’t get absorbed, but dissipates as it sets things on fire instead. It’s also light blue in color just like the base of the flame on a lighter. Imagine drowning in fire. No thank you.

Acid Glob — Instead of a thin liquid, this acid breath comes out as a mucousy glob that slightly sticks where it lands, and can explode upon impact. There may be a certain amount of time before another one can be fired.

Magic

Quantum Magic — As much as we like to separate science and magic, quantum sciences are telling us a different story. In most fantasy settings, magic trumps science in most cases, but I’ve always felt that spellcasters can too easily become demi-gods. A warrior does not have the same probability for a similar epithet.

Magic should have certain limitations, even at the highest levels. It should only be able to bend — not break — the laws of physics. Be it mixing technology and magic, or just scientific insight that improves your magic, quantum science is the penultimate level of knowledge to take your magic to the next tier.

I would suggest keeping it simple. Maybe a high-level wizard divines some knowledge about the quantum realm, and now realizes how they can extend the limitations of their teleportation spells. Or maybe this knowledge allows them to travel short distances through time.

There is a lot of information, and a lot of ways that quantum sciences could affect/improve magic. I could write a whole series of issues about it, but it’s up to you to find out more.

Names

First Names

Brennim

Vielanya

Zimbral

Iniestro

Elengehr

Last Names

Gristener

Gatebreaker

vin Draulin

Wildstone

Ayemvir

Place Names

Gilded Crest

Anville

Lagrea

Nightwind

Longwood

Spell Names

Felger’s Dweomer

Valgred’s Disc

Tendrils of Horror

Lightning Whip

Syndra’s Submersible

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider leaving some feedback. Have a wonderful day….[[|:-)