Fantasy Writing Fodder: Conspiracy Theories

By Charles Moffat, Fantasy Writer - March 2019.

So I come up with new ideas for fantasy novels and short stories daily. It is one of the reasons why I write down my ideas in a journal or memo pad on my phone. I get so many ideas that I don't know what to do with them all.

Some of them are ideas for movies that will never be made.

Some of them are ideas for short stories I will never write, often because they are outside of the genre that I usually write it.

So for example I recently started a dark fantasy/mystery novella, which I had originally hoped to co-write with someone else, but now I will either never finish it or I will have to finish it solo. Just one of many ideas waiting to be made into something finished.

One of my sources of writing inspiration is, oddly enough, conspiracy theories. I find they make for great fodder for writing fantasy, science fiction, mysteries and all sorts of topics.

Now you don't have to believe in the conspiracy theory to make use of it in a fictional story. Believing in it is not a necessity. Making use of it and researching the theory, even if you know it to be false, that is where the fun part comes in. Especially if you combine multiple theories for the heck of it.

Lets use some examples:

• The moon landing was faked.
• JFK was assassinated by aliens.
• The earth is really flat, but the aliens don't want us to know that.

So yes, that is three separate conspiracy theories, but together you can now have fun with it. You can say JFK was assassinate by aliens because he wanted to reveal that the earth was really flat. The moon landing was faked by the government, because they knew of the existence of aliens (and that the earth is secretly flat).

There you go, three conspiracy theories smacked together to form one central theme of the book. It doesn't matter that is complete nonsense, you could sell this book at flat earth conventions and people there would gobble it up because it feeds into their belief structure.

Lets do another example, but this time lets up the weirdness:

• 9/11 was faked by the Bush Administration as an excuse to invade countries for their oil.
• The leaders of various religions knows aliens/demons are real, thanks to ancient texts.
• Tin foil hats really do prevent aliens from reading your thoughts.

Okay, so that was fun. But what happens when we combine all 3 conspiracy theories?

Well, that means various governments and religions knows about the existence of aliens/demons. 9/11 was faked to get oil, but it is ultimately because the USA needs the oil to fight the aliens/demons. Every American president has surgery to add tinfoil around their skull to prevent the aliens from reading their minds, but with Donald Trump they botched the job, making his hair look funny and he suffered brain damage (because brain damage would explain everything Trump does). Also military submarines, airplanes, aircraft carriers, and even the helmets of combat troops all contain a layer of tin foil to prevent the aliens from reading the minds of the military.

Also if you combine this book 1 from further above, you now have a sequel.

Lets kick it up a notch for book 3.

• Every American president during the past 70 years has been a descendant of King Charlemagne, and every monarch / president globally is also a descendant of Charlemagne.
• The Queen of England is a descendant of Muhammad.
• All of the monarchs in Europe are secretly descendants of Jesus Christ.
• Jesus Christ, Muhammad and Charlemagne all knew about the existence of aliens/demons.

There you go. Book 3, ready to ship to millions of flat earthers who will believe this nonsense.

You can even push the idea that actually all the leaders are descendant from Jesus Christ, Muhammad and Charlemagne. That they all belong to a secret order of people who know about the existence of aliens/demons, that the earth is flat, etc. This forms the basis of the deep dive into the history of this fictional flat earth.

Now just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you have a plot. Twenty different writers using this would have completely different plots, different characters, different villains, etc. Everything would be different, despite the core principles of the fictional world being the same.

What we just did was effectively an exercise in World Building, but also a narrative exercise with respect to drip feeding the plot to the readers. To keep it interesting, you don't give them all that information in the first book. No, have to give it to them slowly over a period of 3 books.

Think of the John Carter of Mars series (Edgar Rice Burroughs). ERB drip feeds parts of the planet one section at a time, revealing only part of it to the readers in each book (and sadly repeating the old save-the-princess plot in every book). ERB would have love playing Super Mario Bros.

But as I already pointed out, I already have other projects I am working on. And too many ideas for books. I have seven novels I am already currently working on. I don't need more.

Also, writing a series of aliens/flat earther books just isn't my thing, even if I did come up with the idea. So feel free to take this idea and run with it.

Or find a different conspiracy theory and then run with it. No shortage of them out there.

Or send me an email or tweet, and I will give you 3 story ideas fresh off the press.

I never get writers block. My only problem is lack of time to write everything.