post-apocalyptic story ideas needed

[bibliophile birds]

i'm excited and terrified that tomorrow is the day i start writing this crazy story! just thought i'd bump the thread to see if anyone has any new ideas.

thanks for all your help guys!

 

[Wifezilla]

 

[kcsunshine]

Good luck bib bird. We'll all be waiting at our computers to hear how it went. BTW - if the story comes true, I've got access to a hand pump.

 

[i_am2bz]

I was just thinking about you, BB. The local paper has a little section called "New in Paperback" with the following blurb for "But Not For Long" by Michelle Wildgen: "Three members of a housing co-op in Madison, WI face a sort of apocolypse when gas stations run out of fuel, a prolonged blackout hits, & honeybees disappear. Evenutally people break out their bikes & begin foraging for mushrooms." Sounds interesting!

Have YOU come up with any new ideas for the story? You know we're all dying to read it!!

 

[patandchickens]

i'm excited and terrified that tomorrow is the day i start writing this crazy story! just thought i'd bump the thread to see if anyone has any new ideas.

Just write. Ideas will happen. Anyhow it's not about ideas so much as it is about *writing*

Go for it! Have fun! See whatcha can do! Bon voyage, so to speak!

Pat

 

[kcsunshine]

Just don't get too far out there or you'll never contain it to 50,000 words - or just let it flow, get it published, and sell it on Amazon.

 

[murphysranch]

I was thinking about this thread a couple of weeks ago, and didn't post cus got distracted. I may be off base, but I would want my subjects to have a couple of SS books. sorta like those Readers Digest books you can order or find at the thrift store - how to make a shelter, how to filter water, etc. Those tired old books could be a lifesaver. Oh and glasses too. The Dollar store ones, for reading, for looking closely at something, for setting aside for later when the eyes start failing.

 

[bibliophile birds]

Just write. Ideas will happen. Anyhow it's not about ideas so much as it is about *writing*

Go for it! Have fun! See whatcha can do! Bon voyage, so to speak!

Pat

excellent advice Pat! i've got TONS of ideas, but i like finding out what ideas others have about the subject mostly to see if i'm on the right track.

but you're right, this project is really about the writing, tapping into that free-flow of information our brains tries to spit out constantly.

Oh and glasses too. The Dollar store ones, for reading, for looking closely at something, for setting aside for later when the eyes start failing.

another friend brought up glasses. it's something i was thinking about since I wear glasses. i have no idea what i'd actually do in a SHTF scenario in that regard. i mean, they'd be tons of places to raid for lens, but how do you figure out which ones are right without an optometrist?

 

[FarmerDenise]

To find out which glasses work, you try them on. Devise an eye chart, just as the eye doctor does. On Lost, one of the characters was getting a lot of headaches and someone finally figured out he was loosing his eye ight and needed glasses. So they raided the available glasses and took two pair, broke them in half to make him a pair that wprled fpr him.

I also like the idea of having some old person living in the woods somewhere. We actually had an old man living in the woods totally off the grid, when I was growing up. He had a handpump and a wood stove. He also had goats. He grew lots of his own food and foraged the woods for stuff. He also traded with the neighbors. We used to go and check on him after bad snowstorms and bring him homemade donuts. He used to make us hot cocoa with cocoa, sugar and water.

I would stock up on:
sugar and salts for preserving food.
Bleach for cleaning in a medical setting, not for every day cleaning
Medical supplies of all kinds, anything I could get my hands on
SS books, herbal books, medicine books, how to books, old time cummunication books on signals, animal husbandry books, maybe there is a library in the town

seeds for planting

pots and pans, especially a dutch oven
pressure canners and glass jars and lids
knives
can opener
beercan/bottle opener
serving utensils, spatula, measuring spoons & cups, rolling pin
hand operated grinders for meat, grain, coffee
large bowls

ammunition and weapons
fishing gear

propane and any other available fuel
candles & matches and lighters or alternatives
Bicycles
portable camp stoves
metal garbage cans with lids (for storing stuff away from rodents)
woolen blankets
sturdy clothing and shoes, underwear and sock

salts for livestock
chains
medical supplies for livestock
I would totally raid the medical supply cabinet of our farm store, especially for vaccines
wire on a spool (for making fences)
bug powders and sprays (even though I don't usually like to use them, in case of a severe outbreak, it is nice to know you have them, after all you dogs are very important now, since they provide protection and you need to keep them in the best of health, and cats need to catch mice!!!)
I would also raid any anti biotic I could get my hands on
hypodermic needles and syringes
vitamins

tools
the basics and anything else I could get my hands on, I would focus on hand tools.
rope
tape, especially duc tape

 

[patandchickens]

Yup, you'd just try whatever glasses are available and then wear the pair that your eyes like best. No big deal, same as buying nonprescription reading glasses. The hard part would be FINDING a whole buncha corrective lenses to choose from, and frankly, most people (unless distracted by other issues) would just scoop 'em ALL and put 'em somewhere safe for future use (personal or barter)

There is a really famous SF short-short story, the author's name escapes me, but basically it's the end of the world and he's the last surviving person, an avid reader, and he is all excited about just going and reading his life away in the (miraculously still extant) library... and then he drops his glasses and they shatter

In reality, you can achieve a decent amount of lenslike correction, albeit only for brief use and with a limited field of vision, by using a pinhole to look through. Those of you with glasses can try this now - remove glasses, make a wee tiny hole maybe 1-2 mm in a piece of paper or between your fingers and thumb all scrunched up, then hold it maybe 5" from your eye and adjust ("focus" forward and back) til a previously-blurry object comes into clearer view thru the pinhole. It is not elegant or easy, and certainly not a total substitute for glasses, but GREATLY better than nuffin'. (I do this myself on a fairly regular basis when I have misplaced my glasses and just want to see if that's a coyote in the back field or what, type thing)

Pat