Wacky Story Idea - Thoughts?

[SevenSquared]

I swore that when I finished my latest 70,000 word behemoth (last part submitted today) I would take a break for a while and concentrate on things other than writing for a while. Unfortunately I have just had this crazy idea for an original story that I feel I have to write. Looking for feedback as to whether it is viable, if anyone knows of any similar stories, and any tips as to how to write it.

The plot itself is nothing groundbreaking. Four college guys decide to have a competition who can sleep with the hottest girl(s) in their dorm before an agreed deadline. The thing that will make this story different is that it is not linear. There will be six parts to the story, an introduction, a conclusion and then four chapters that cover the same period of time from the point of view of each of the four guys. Obviously the introduction and conclusion should be read first and last respectively, but other than that, the chapters can be read in any order. Many of the chapters will contain the same events, or even the same conversation, shown from different perspectives.

The idea is that on several occasions the reader will read about an event in one chapter and subconsciously form an opinion/perspective on it, but then something they read in another chapter will flip their conception on its head. But the tricky thing is it will have to still make sense in either order.

Does that make sense? Do you think it could work? Would it be something that you, as a reader, would want to read?

 

[dale124]

One guy beds a girl that from his perspective is "the hottest girl", but from the perspective of the others in the next chapter, she's not all that. Another guy accidentally crawls into bed with the wrong girl, not the hot girl he was pursuing, but her shy roommate in glasses. And in spite of the perspective of everyone else, his perspective is changed as he realizes she's a diamond in the rough, a hot girl who hides herself under plain clothes and thick lenses. Is that what you were thinking?

 

[luvthedesserts]

Or there’s the opposite competition. They pick not-so-hot girls for each other and have a detailed sabotage game in the process. A lovely game of cock blocking. If you’re into humor, that is. You could get double points for scoring with your friend’s choice. And to add to Dale124’s comment, one of them finds love. And twist that poor guy by having her decide he wasn’t that good in bed.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

It sounds like a great idea, but I am a little concerned about the introduction chapter. If you don't make that interesting enough, you will never find out if the rest of the story works because no one will be reading it. I realize that's true with any story, but it seems to be more of a risk here where I get the impression that the action will all take place in the four character POV chapters. You might want to skip the intro and try to break up the information contained there and incorporate it into the four chapters.

I read a series of novels set up like that (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson), which I thoroughly enjoyed. The structure can work if you are able to pull it off. Good luck.

ed. oops, not the Mars trilogy after all. If I can remember the series, I'll post it here.

 

[dale124]

I can see what you mean, soflabbwlvr. Reading the introduction, the reader might decide it's the same old cliche college story. And they might not read the rest of the story on the assumption it will follow a standard formula. But if they have to figure out the plot by reading through the story, they're more likely to finish the story.

 

[RicoLouis]

The conculsion dosen't really have to be last. You could always do a how the hell did we get here story, show the aftermath first and then go back and tell each guys story but only reveal a little bit of what happened with each story.

 

[SevenSquared]

It sounds like a great idea, but I am a little concerned about the introduction chapter. If you don't make that interesting enough, you will never find out if the rest of the story works because no one will be reading it. I realize that's true with any story, but it seems to be more of a risk here where I get the impression that the action will all take place in the four character POV chapters. You might want to skip the intro and try to break up the information contained there and incorporate it into the four chapters.

Hmm you make a good point. This problem will likely be compounded by the fact that the introduction won't have any sex in it either. In the past I have had some success with putting a 'Reader Note' at the top of a story saying 'Not a lot happens in this part, but stay tuned...' kind of thing. I'll take your suggestion on board and see if it would be possible to somehow skip the introduction, but I'm not sure. Maybe I'll just try to keep it short (two pages or so)

The conculsion dosen't really have to be last. You could always do a how the hell did we get here story, show the aftermath first and then go back and tell each guys story but only reveal a little bit of what happened with each story.

Yeah that's a device I have used before and it can be a good one, but in the case of this story I don't think it would work. I have a couple of big twists planned for the conclusion, so obviously I don't want to reveal those, and without that there will be nothing much in there to draw the reader in more than the introduction could anyway.