Considering a new story idea (With Poll!)

Interest Level for the college dorm setting?

  • Total voters
    13
Graphite Golem

Graphite Golem

Virgin
Involving a college transfer student moving into a new university, and getting put into a co-ed dorm. The entire campus becomes the setting (allowing for an ever-expanding world) with some usual and unusual encounters. Would anyone be interested in seeing this?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!
 
It might start out like many of mine have (single male protagonist), but I'd like to open up other options for authors to add their own spin. More of a playground, as it were. Right now, there would be the new transfer student (who could be female, too; I've struggled with writing the protagonist viewpoint in the past for them is all). A roommate (likely gender dependent), a professor. Those are the ones in my head as of this moment.

The university as a setting is open to creation thus far; most of it isn't made up in my head, and I often like having those options open. Art classes, theater classes offer some fun, and for the more adventurous, the science labs could be interesting.
 
Has potential as a framing device, but doesn't really have an overarching story. It's more of the "Anthology" story idea, and that can really work, but at the same time, this story will probably never have an "End" point. If there were a little more framing, it could be very interesting. On its own... kinda meh, but games like the Persona series have taken the concept in interesting directions.

Guess... Ok idea, and great for pure porn setting. Could never end. But at the same time, I like endings, so... YMMV.
 
Thanks for the responses all! Part of the idea behind it is creating a bit of a playground. I might be able to structure it a little bit more, but I wouldn't be opposed to the "off campus adventure to the nightclub" that spawns its own story or something similar (which could easily have its own ending). So yeah, if you're into endings, this one might require someone to have that in mind.

One idea I did have was finding out one of the professors was a stripper; several definite endings for that branch popped into my head as I thought of it (a lot of them not great for the protagonist or professor).
 
Would this be a game style, out of curiosity?

To be honest, I avoid a lot of real-world setting stories, but secret stripper professor sounds pretty enticing! So depending on the kind of ideas you have and if you want feedback, I'd still give it a spin. ;)
 
MidbossMan said:
Would this be a game style, out of curiosity?

To be honest, I avoid a lot of real-world setting stories, but secret stripper professor sounds pretty enticing! So depending on the kind of ideas you have and if you want feedback, I'd still give it a spin. ;)
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Probably not game style, but I do like writing pieces that have consequences (both good and bad) for previous actions. Thanks for the feedback!
 
Overall sounds like a nice idea worth exploring. Maybe if you are planning an open playground type deal, have a short introduction as the first chapter where you don't specify the gender or look of the protagonist so other authors can introduce their own ideas. That way you can write the male paths you're more comfortable with and maybe someone else can make a female path if they like. That gives lots of scope for different kinds of characters to be brought into the university environment.
 
I frankly think of the setting as more than secondary in respect to the actual plot of the story, given of course that some settings are more adapt to specific plots and vice-versa.
That said, I think the university dorm has a solid fanbase out there.
Do your worst ;)
 
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At the risk of being rude, I don't really see how "takes place on college campus" is an idea; it's more of a trope, really, and one that plenty of stories on this site already follow. The "stripper professor" thing is indeed an idea, and a fairly good one, but it's not yet a story - it could be amazing or terrible, depending on your writing skills. Your story needs to have engagement before other authors write to it. Ask yourself: why would people add to your story instead of simply writing their own?

In a CHYOA story idea, there is usually an intrinsically sexual element beyond, "Man fucks woman, then fucks another, then fucks another..." I'm afraid the mere thought of a co-ed dorm doesn't exactly get me all hot and bothered. Trust me, I've lived in one, and they're not as racy as they sound. That's not to say what you've got so far is bad, it's just that you need more substance before people can determine how interested they would be. That substance often comes in the form of writing.

TL;DR: As it stands, it sounds like you have less of a playground and more of an empty yard. Try building something first.
 
insertnamehere said:
At the risk of being rude, I don't really see how "takes place on college campus" is an idea; it's more of a trope, really, and one that plenty of stories on this site already follow. The "stripper professor" thing is indeed an idea, and a fairly good one, but it's not yet a story - it could be amazing or terrible, depending on your writing skills. Your story needs to have engagement before other authors write to it. Ask yourself: why would people add to your story instead of simply writing their own?

In a CHYOA story idea, there is usually an intrinsically sexual element beyond, "Man fucks woman, then fucks another, then fucks another..." I'm afraid the mere thought of a co-ed dorm doesn't exactly get me all hot and bothered. Trust me, I've lived in one, and they're not as racy as they sound. That's not to say what you've got so far is bad, it's just that you need more substance before people can determine how interested they would be. That substance often comes in the form of writing.

TL;DR: As it stands, it sounds like you have less of a playground and more of an empty yard. Try building something first.
Click to expand...

Thanks! For me the idea is to see what people can put into that setting — I was thinking of a build your own adventure with a slight nudge. I've had several idea for threads. The stripper professor was a fun one, but I also had other threads in mind (kids in a study group, getting locked in the library). I think in my head I had more of the idea of a few threads to build a bit of a setting and then set them running on their own stories. That's why I was throwing the idea out there.

And yeah, I know what you mean about the co-ed dorm. I think part of the idea came from "what if it had been what I had hoped?"

Appreciate the feedback everyone!
 
insertnamehere said:
At the risk of being rude, I don't really see how "takes place on college campus" is an idea; it's more of a trope, really, and one that plenty of stories on this site already follow. The "stripper professor" thing is indeed an idea, and a fairly good one, but it's not yet a story - it could be amazing or terrible, depending on your writing skills. Your story needs to have engagement before other authors write to it. Ask yourself: why would people add to your story instead of simply writing their own?
Click to expand...
The problem with having ideas is that it is just that; it's just an idea. Everyone has ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen; it's really easy to say 'I have this idea! It'd be really cool if this happened in it!' It's not difficult to find other people with their own posts talking about their ideas- and then going nowhere with it. Coming up with an idea- that's the easy part.

The hard part is beginning to write it, fleshing it out, and making it interesting to read.

As insertnamehere says, it that all depends on how well you write it. But even still, if you search for 'dorm' you will get back over 40 stories; if you search for 'college' you will get over 400. Just saying "it has a spin" isn't really enough for anyone to take interest in it, because there are just so many other stories that also have 'spins'. If you really want to write a story set in this setting more power to you; in fact, you SHOULD go write it if it makes you happy or satisfied or whatever other reason. Writing for just oneself can be cathartic. I don't want to stop people from doing what they want, especially if they feel inspired about it. But again, insertnamehere put it quite well with the playground not being built analogy.

You also don't have to make a thread to inquire whether there is interest in it or not, since clearly there is interest in it (although, is that even important?), because otherwise there wouldn't be literal hundreds of these stories. If you REALLY wanted to write this adventure, you would be writing it already.

I apologise if this seems agressive, but I just wanted to give my criticism.
 
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To be fair, if you're somebody who really wants collaboration, it makes sense to ask the question: "anybody care about collaborating on this?" Of course, one problem you'll run into there is that this forum only represents a tiny fraction of CHYOA's users. Most collaborators you'll find are out there, not in here. So in the end, maybe you may throw it out in the wild and see if it has legs?

I don't think there is anything wrong with work -shopping an idea here, though.

On that note, I like to think of the premise this way: do you have enough unique material that you can make a story that wouldn't have been better slotted into somebody else's co-ed story? If you do, then you're golden; if you don't, it may mean either you need to keep fine-tuning a unique hook, or maybe you really would benefit from just adding to somebody else's.

Of course that's ignoring that some stories out there are as broad as "male x female" collections, ha ha...

If you do post it up and want feedback, feel free to throw it in feedback and I'll be glad to give it a spin. :)
 
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