Short Story idea

[SeeJ]

hello I am writing a Scifi short story for the Writers Digest competition. This is for a bet between me and my dad to see who could place higher in the compeition and find out who can write the better story. My dads man thing when he retires is to write scifi books, well I bet him I could write a better story than him. He has a bunch of his buddies at work helping him out with his short story, but my friends only go yeah thats cool man you should win.

So looking for some people that actual write stories and stuff this is sort of my idea that I was hoping to capitalize on.

The book is set in a time period after Earth was destroyed by whatever cause I see fit. The yeah will be 49 AD. The AD no longer stands for that latin term lol. It now stands for After Domination. My story follows a group of soldiers named Scholans. Schola is the latin word for School/elite troops. The Scholan is a sect of humans that made their homeworld on a large planet that could sustain life. After being almost conquerored and destroyed by a neighboring human sect the Scholans become a militaristic state (like the spartans) training all men and women into becoming perfect soldiers from childhood and up. Their economy is run strictly by foreigners who are under their immediate control. One day the Scholans attacked one planet after another reducing all of them to almost nothing, but never completely destroying them all allowing them to rise again. This happened until almost ever military known to man was demolished alien and human alike. Instead of ruling these cities that they conquered though, they got up and left and issued challenges for the foreign planets to raise even stronger armies than before. Thats when After Domination 1 began.

that sorta being the history the story so the story follows a certain Scholan fighter and you go even further into a personality of one of these warriors. It starts off with a nice battle seen lulls so you learn a little more about the existing surrounding and finishes with hopefully another turning point battle.

I will later post my first draft in the forums, but atm I am just looking for some people to go yeah thats cool but I'd change etc etc or yeah but what about this etc etc. All suggestions are helpful.

The title I want to call it is Imperial Hubri

[drunkclam]

Questions on the contest, what are the rules? How long, format, and style wise. Also I would say come up with one big inciting incident that sets the pace for your story. Something to give the protagonists decisions meaning. Also come up with comparisons of your main protagonists. Try to find someone real to base them off of. Go down the list of the big names in history.

[SeeJ]

I need to get all the details but I know it has to be 4000 words in total no more than that. and I will have to decide a big conflict. What I planned on doing was taking the thought of Imperial hubri and also incorporating that into a personal hubri between my main characters almost between each other. IDK how that would work out still thinkin on that one.

also plz explain the last part about basing my character off of something I dont think I quite understand.

[drunkclam]

Have a model to use that makes it easier to describe your characters and how the act. Say if its a General you might use Patton and make him loud, impulsive, and aggressive. Or you might have a bueracrat having an affair with an intern like Clinton.

[SeeJ]

Oh that, I was gona make the main character have some of the arragant prideful qualities of those of Achilles and Odisseus from Illiad/Odyssey. Cause the whole theme was gona be about hubri. A spartan like race seems perfect for the role of an hubri race that feels immortal.

[drunkclam]

Could be good. Also you might look at Alicibiades he was an Athenian who switched sides multiple times during the Pelopennesian war. Someone like that could be a good antagonist for the kind of character you are creating. Possibly they could compete over power within the Sholan.

[SeeJ]

Yeah that was gona be for th epersonal hubri where the main character and a others compete to be the best and so forth, the imperial hubri is gona be like a race that rivals their own, not in military might but in genious. So like a hero Scholan would be the greatest honor something like that. Yeah the guy who switches sides would be cool, but I would need to think how that would affect the main character. Also I am still working and putting in your suggestions must say thank you.

[RedEye]

4000 words isn't really enough to set up a complicated backstory and tell a story. I'm thinking of some short stories I consider classics the premise of each can be put forth in a single sentence.

[SeeJ]

Yeah I know I gotta get the main points and plot stuff right at the beginning no room for real flashy stuff.