• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

John Champaign Writes

Adventures in Self Publishing

Wacky Writing Idea #1: Authoritarian Hogwarts

September 27, 2021 by John Champaign Leave a Comment

For this, and any other Wacky Writing Ideas, I happily release them into the wild for anyone to use. If you like the idea and want to write it up, do so with my blessing! If you want to change it or use it for something else, have at it! If you really want to do something nice for me, feel free to acknowledge me and let me know if you’ve used one of them (I’ll link to your creative work from my blog). If you don’t feel like it, no worries. If there’re a few comments with enthusiasm for an idea, I may write it up, so please comment if it sounds like something you’d like to read.

The core idea of this story is that mages (people with magical potential) get sent off for training AGAINST THEIR WILL. The magical “school” is more concentration / internment / boot camp than a British boarding school. At first, the regime running the place is overwhelming and frightening: brutal demands, harsh punishments, failing students executed, etc. Hints at a Hunger Games / Maze Runner type of story.

Eventually, it starts to turn out that the teachers / jailers are just barely able to contain the students. Within wide parameters, it’s pretty easy for the student to break most rules. By breaking rules (e.g. using necromancy to get private tutoring from deceased, great mages) the protagonists become the top students / prisoners.

The civilization needs the mages that are being trained, so beyond a certain point, the school doesn’t want to lose students / prisoners. Capitalizing on this, the protagonist(s) are able to thumb their noses at the authorities and push back in small ways – think M*A*S*H.

Eventually, the protagonist(s) graduate and begin putting in motion plans to overthrow society and shut down the “school”. They’re contacted by a secret organization that took over society years ago and has been quietly running it from the shadows (while pretending to be subservient and controlled). The protagonist(s) are inducted into it, along with most of the graduating class from the school each year. The few who graduated but “played by the rules” and just got through get sent back to the school as faculty (which they, mistakenly, believe is a great honor).

This could be set in a magical version of our world or in a high fantasy world.

Related

Filed Under: Writing Ideas

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 104 other subscribers

RECENT BLOG POSTS

  • The Problem With Amazon Vella
  • Make ‘No’ Your Magic Word 
  • Marketing Your Indie Book Via Online Forums
  • Marketing With BookCrossing
  • Wacky Writing Idea #16: Monster Orphanage

Categories

  • Academic Advice
  • Board games
  • Business
  • Chickens
  • Game Development
  • Real Estate
  • Role Playing
  • Self Publishing
  • Writing Ideas

Archives

  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020

Recent Comments

  • Fighting the Great Developer Resignation on Many Software Developers Are Underpaid
  • John Champaign on The Economics of Keeping Chickens
  • Jim on The Economics of Keeping Chickens
  • John Champaign on Education Theater
  • Catherine Holloway on Education Theater

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in