Help with Writing

He's developed thinking is going to be the capture I would dare to argue in the senario, what's gonna capture the reader is the excitement of someone knowing or doing something that they wouldn't think of themselves, keep flexing those creative muscles and don't be afraid to take inspiration and just put your own twist on it, being too authentic and overthinking it will putcha in slums too, been writing for 3 years, am still shit.

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>>17982275
>>>/lit/

>>17982297
I figured you guys would be more helpful with this scenario.

>>17982301
You figured wrong bumfuck! Do your own homework.

>>17982275
beds are satellite dishes... where as an antenna is like a radio wire, a coil is like a sphere, and create a radio or electromagnetic prison for your cell nucleus

vaccines are little ufo and cause crime and cancer (prison rates have jumped 400%, cancer 150% also since the 1980s when the vaxx rate went up 400%)

My only advice for you would be to make this character not be a cliche based off of the common idea "wow this dude is fucking crazy". It should be just as simple as building any other character... Conspiracy Theorists are often either looking for something to do or are actually just people who like overthinking things very often. (Thats how they are often set up in books) they are often either interpreted as either smart and paranoid or naive and dumb. Sorry if you don't understand, it's very hard to describe creating a character based off of this.

I guess what I'm saying is try to make the characters personality revolve around the conspiracy theorist trope. Think about what emotions they have and how they will react to certain things. And keep in mind that being a conspiracy theorist doesn't mean you cannot react normally to situations. A perfect blend of emotions, personality, and etc will be able to make this character genuinely stick out without being a cringey autistic fuck.

what about you don't write about things you don't know about you fucking hack

>>17982275
Have him be right about something
>>17984542
He's doing research so he can do exactly that you moron, how else is he supposed to write?

>>17982275
Watch the X Files.

Have your guy use realistic scientific examples of conspiracies that have come ttrue, you'll need to do your research too. Having an openminded but skeptical character to create friendly or serious tension will help draw in readers too as there will be a sort of underlying conflict that begs the question, What is True Out There?

>>17984524
I don't know, he can be made to sound crazy only to turn out to be onto something no one else could seem to believe in or imagine.

The problem would be making him go from crazy sounding to legitimate sounding.

>>17982275
Have him come up with a theory similar to conspiracies that were found to be true like the CIA distributing crack in Los Angeles or MK Ultra. Have him just talk about something in the background and it turns out to be true but believable

Make him have a childhood experience with aliens, or demons, or alternatively he could have a drug problem.

Based on personal experiences with conspiracy theorists.

I know one greenpeace activist type whose a conspiracy theorist too.

>>17982427
>vaccines are little ufo and cause crime and cancer

I laughed reading this. Don't know if you read any Vonnegut, but I saw some in there. You've got potential man.

>>17982275
make him an aids denialist. one who has aids ofc. just like that woman who killed her 3 yo daughter from negligence,

>>17984524
>>17984558
>>17985717
Thanks for the help

I'd think that most paranormal stories have to have a skeptic voice of reason that the main character argues with. Two favorite examples are X-Files, obviously, or Stalker. In the movie, the Stalker leads two people into a paranormal area, but he's leading an artist and a scientist, and the two clash about the merits of philosophy versus science. You could use a similar premise to push some ideas you have about philosophy if you go with that method, but also keep the main character neutral.

Have the character struggle with emotional problems that come about from being conspiratorial. Everyone's suggesting X Files: Mulder is friends with the crazy far-out guys, but you could make your main character get disillusioned when he finds out that everyone who agrees with him is a nut. Alternatively, you could have him find out that the nuts and loons are mostly misinformation and paid to appear crazy and make the truth look like something silly to believe.

My personal favorite idea would be to have the main character be a child to a family of outdoorsy types, hippies in the sixties, or travelers. Along his childhood, he runs into something like a Shaman or medicine man, who opens his eyes in a way he can't really explain. But be careful when writing about cultural stuff because it's easy for people to get offended or for you to misinterpret it.

>>17982275
Do it bonsai style.

Xx: 'asksYy' so what did trouble Yy?
Yy: 'pauses a moment in retrospection before pressing closed the pruning shears through branch of cyprus. Without looking up says' Yy has no trouble'and discards cut branch of cyprus'

make his theory come true very subtely while the character is too preoccupied with the main story so he doesnt notice it (despite it being his life searching)

Thanks for all the help so far, guys. Now another question I have since >>17989425
sort of mentioned it is how old should the character be?

For example, would it make more sense for a 20 year old to believe in conspiracy theories or a 40 year old? Does it all just depend on the character's backstory and age doesn't matter?

I think I'm wording this poorly, but do guys understand what I'm trying to get at?

Make him an extremely happy person. The nice guy that everyone likes. Make him physically attractive, good with women and everything.

But make him vocal about "conspiracy theory x" and that's his whole reason for him being that way. Make sure he isn't oppressive about it. He should only mention it in passing.

"It was nice of you to help that old lady change her tire in the rain, Anon"

"It's no big deal really. You do what you can to keep your soul worm from devouring your colon from the inside out"

>>17990192
I mean I have some interesting sci-fi or /x/ ideas that could be used for the story if you'd want to write any of those out. I tried to write something and got to like 100 pages before scrapping it, I feel like I over-analyze everything.

Personally, I'd make him a Vietnam vet. So he can relate to his youth days with hippie spiritualism, but more importantly so you can explore the concept of age and what matters.

>You're sixty, you'll probably be dead in a short two decades and so far, you've lived a comfortable enough life. You're young at heart, why would you pursue a truth that would make your life worse, what do you have to gain?

He could be young at heart, still, making him quirky, like a young guy whose body is just breaking down a little and sore. But the question, "Is it worth it" could keep coming up during his search for the truth. So, you're exploring aging and inner truth as much as conspiracy-oriented stuff.

OP, what do you want to write about more:
>man in search of the truth, with the world against him
>man in search of truth with a team of people, like on a research team, but finds something nobody expected

>>17982275
Conspiracy theorists fall into two groups

1. Mentally Ill

2. and more common, Conspiracy theorists are losers who cannot cope with being losers , or they had bad things happen to them. Rather than accepting the world is an unfair place full of chaos, they prefer to think it is orderly and in control, instead of being chaos. Because even evil order is preferable to none to people like this.

Of course this only applies to larger conspiracy theories such as UFO coverups, Illuminati , Jews existing, etc

>>17990258
If you don't mind sharing your ideas, then I'd like to hear them.

And the second option sounds more like the story I envisioned, so I'll try to focus more on that one.

You guys have said the X-Files is a good inspiration, but would ale Gribble from King of the Hill be good too, or is he too much of a parody of conspiracy theorists?

Without knowing much about the character just have him come up with his own conspiracy's to explain why everything is out to get him.

Dale from king of the hill did this perfectly

>>17990384
I think it's cool to put the real world and history into conspiracy works because it seams more possible.

>'Radiohalos' are a real thing, forming in rocks from all geologic eras. These are pockets of decay caused by radioactive dust, but it decays in milliseconds. This suggests a cloud of dust materialized out of space to the point that it permeated rocks to the mantle; Not simply a cloud descending, but appearing both around and inside objects. A geologist from some minor uni is investigating some remote region for 'diamonds,' but finds he's looking for some mysterious energy capable of materializing radioactive particles. He doesn't understand nuclear physics, but in his isolated position on a research base, he begins to suspect that there are strange forces employing them: There is nothing of value to mine but they're still there.

>Alternatively, at an isolated mining prospect, a tribe of First Nations attacks. The communications expert is killed, radio burned, but for some reason there is no search party. Main character begins to suspect his employers knew of some artifact under the rocks that meant more than graves, something that natives would kill for and they don't want the outside world knowing.

Those are my top two sci-fi ideas. I'd try to make it minimalist, so you can focus on the character's thoughts and isolation, which could also play a role in cabin fever and mental breakdown. Psychological thrillers are interesting because you can explore much more, my favorite is Heart of Darkness but that's not sci-fi.

>>17990384
>>17990417
This could also be a really good idea. A movie called Take Shelter did something similar, it's really good. Basically, the main character starts as a perfectly normal dude, but starts to have dreams about a storm killing his family. He becomes paranoid and it tears his relationships apart.

You could make the main character a regular guy, then have him snap because his girlfriend dumps him. Have him become paranoid and start to blame everything on some shady government conspiracy. I like the idea that there's no dark forces behind the curtain, and 99% of conspiracies are just made up as a way to explain why the theorist's life sucks. "The Man is keeping me down because I know too much!"

Only leave hints that there really is a conspiracy out to get him, break him down for some sort of mind control program.

Op, i could just give you my notes. You would have some good material for a crazy conspiracist

>>17992048
Share them if you don't mind

Theres this guy and his mom starts to date a black man.
The guy starts freaking out about the black man being from the government and fears his mother now have some kind of sound recorder installed inside of her womb.
Plot twist: he was right.

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>>17992187
Is this "black man" a man in black or just a black man?

modern writers are such a bunch of hacks

>>17993371
I was thinking black as in Tyrone.
Now that youve asked though, make him a black man in black for maximum blackness

>>17993375
This guy gets it
My library is comprised of auto biographies only.

>>17993375
Why do you say that?

In the movie Slacker (1991) there's a conspiracy theorist in there, charismatic, to the point, he's more just a normal guy who mauls over that sorta stuff alot.

The movie moves from character to character with no real plot and just sort of talks about certain things or odd little scenes, the director went on to make stuff like Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly, Boyhood, Dazed And Confused, Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight

>>17993444
kek nice trips
tell us more, anon

>>17982275
my experience with legit conspiracy theorists is that it doesn't take much to get them spewing their beliefs out, give an inch take a mile

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>>17982275
Read Philip K. Dick.

>>17990488
>A movie called Take Shelter did something similar, it's really good
THIS
Such a great movie

Is it better for the character's theories to actually be/come true, or should it all just be in his head?

Some of you have said to do one and some have said to do the other, and now I can't decide.

>>17982275

Short version: he should be a real person first and a conspiracy theorist second, otherwise he's likely to be a cookie cutter character. How that comes together is up to you.

What I might do is start with a character who's a conspiracy theorist due to being a natural contrarian who doesn't like mundane answers to intriguing questions. He's the kind of guy who sees an event in the news, let's say a train derailment, and wants to believe it's more than a random tragedy. I'd also give him a particular scapegoat he always draws on, be it aliens or the military, that he always seeks to blame, so he's not just slinging shit randomly. So he digs into the info craftily, doung things like checking the train's route and cross-referencing it with UFO sightings or strategic missile bases or whatever. And hell, let's make him a little more interesting than the usual neckbeard; he's the kind of guy who actully GOES TO these sites whenever he can, much better scene-writing than a guy hunkered over a computer all day.

Ah, but WHY? This will be the critical question to uncover eventually. And the answer can't be "because he just IS a conspiracy theorist." That's dull and meaningless. And it's not a question to answer right away. This man is pursuing an irrational course that likely alienates himself (NPI) from others, and the question of why he does it is just as important (probably more so) than if he's right in his theories. You don't have to know the reason to start writing, just understand it will have to be addressed by the end.

>>17995449
It depends.
If it's for comedy value, making something absurd to be real in the end is definitely the way to go.

>>17995449

I'm a big fan of keeping stuff like this purposefully ambiguous so it can be read from both point of views at the same time. Ever see True Detective series one? That's a pretty masterful use of ambiguity in my opinion.

>>17995678
Or American Psycho.

Get back to working on hiveswap Cohen you faggot

>>17996029
?