Young Writers Society

So I'm not sure this is even the right place to post this, but I've an idea for an SB and just wanted to gauge interest before posting another story that gets no replies xD

So a close friend of mine wrote a song about a small western town that is set upon by a revised Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The song really resonated with me and I can't get the idea out of my head of how cool a more fleshed out story would be. Unfortunately, and I'm hoping some of you might be able to help fill it out but so far all I really have is that instead of War, Famine, Pestilence and Death, I wanted to try out War, Greed, Fear and Ignorance as the main antagonists. I was thinking most participants would take roles of townspeople who rally together and fight (or die, idk xD) but the horsemen themselves I think would also make interesting villains for some people to play around with writing.

.....I know it's a pretty skeletal idea, but I hope some of you readers might be able to help me make it a reality

@Europa, @SkyeWalker, @XxXTheSwordsmanXxX, @Sage, @Basil, @reikann, @Wolfical

I'm definitely up for the idea! This looks really cool (and I find the Four Horsemen really interesting so)

What if the people that end up fighting the revised Horsemen have a connection to them. Like maybe Fear, the person is either afraid of everything or has a debilitating fear of something, or maybe they are scared of a lot but they show no fear and come across as reckless and arrogant? And so because they understand fear, they learn how they can take down Fear. And it can go with the others.

I had the idea that Greed would be in charge of the other horsemen, sortof the big bad boss, while the others sort of exuded their namesake, ie Fear inspires fear, War triggers unwarranted aggression (or something?) Ignorance I think would be the first horseman to encounter and deal with, where he might be in disguise and trying to play off the danger presented by the other horsemen. Open to ideas!

@Basil I like that idea, maybe a person who is known for being cowardly or maybe similar to Ichabod Crane in character who eventually overcomes their fear and helps in a big way?

I could see doing this. I have a half apache character that might be good for this.

@XxXTheSwordsmanXxX Similar to Mingan? That was a fun character to write beside

This piques my interest. I wouldn't mind joining if you do the SB c:

@Kanome We'd be very happy to have you! I hope we get that far lol, lmk if you have any ideas for what we could do with the story

Ooooh this sounds amazing!! I've told myself I can't sign up for any more SBs though, because it's been hard enough to keep up with the ones I'm already in. But! We'll see. I'll definitely at least keep an eye on this and I'm excited to see where it goes. Best of luck! Love me some Western SBs!

@Wolfical maybe you can sign on as a consultant!

Haha sure!

It might also be interesting if the story was [i]about[\i] the horsemen. It would be an interesting challenge to make these things that most people view as bad seem like compelling and relatable characters.

@Vellichor
Exactly like Mingan

@Europa I'm open to that idea with the exception of Greed. Perhaps the other Horsemen aren't truly villainous and can change their ways, but the way I imagined Greed was rather heinous and irredeemably evil.

Then maybe it would be an interesting dynamic to have a mix of different evil levels in the Horsemen ranks. Some inherently evil, some who had little choice but to join, some who have tough backstories that shaped them into who they are today.

My current novel project right now actually is a Western from the POV of a criminal. It's been really fun exploring his human side, juxtaposed against another character I'm satirizing as the cliche Hollywood hero!

Anyway, I've found that SBs with smaller, tighter casts are generally more successful and much less overwhelming. Opening up this SB to a whole bunch of townspeople characters miiiight not work as well as the smaller group of Horsemen. Just a thought!