@Kazamas-Keyblade:

Yeah! It sounds like a great story! I'm always up for helping people with their ideas :)
As far as titles go, the best advice I can give you is make it something unique to the story. Commonplace titles like 'Blood and Iron' or stuff like that will never catch a readers eye cause it tells them nothing about the story. But I suck at naming stuff so that's the best I can do to help sorry

@HiddenMage:

We should definitely work on this some more in the future.
But one thing that I would need is a title, because I don't even have a title for it yet.

@Kazamas-Keyblade:

I know what you mean. For how good the idea could be, HG doesn't pull it off very will and it's kind of disappointing. But I think your story will be different enough if you give it the right voice.

@HiddenMage:

Ha, and that's the funniest thing about it, I actually don't like The Hunger Games like that, but this story is very Hunger Games--esque.

@Kazamas-Keyblade:

That makes sense since competition to get an education is so fierce. If you didn't have a plan then it would be pointless.

And yeah that makes sense. It'll also make it more animalistic than the hunger games which is good.

@HiddenMage:

And not just a doctor, I'm going to make every character already know what career field they want, and that will determine some small character-tropes that they will exhibit...However, I don't want to make characters solely based on that one concept because that seems rather lackluster.

Exactly, it will be on the more primal side of things, so it hypercharges the fights. It will naturally put the elements of the story into perspective.

@Kazamas-Keyblade:

a doctor type would be very cool! it would add nice variety to the fights.

And yeah highschool makes all the characters super charged with hormones which is always good for drama lol

@HiddenMage:

Right. And just a thought, there might be one guy who wants to be a doctor or something--and he fights in a way that neutralizes his opponent's limbs or muscles or something, food for thought.

That's true. There's also the element of being in high-school that makes character tropes hyper-exaggerated. Even though its a dark story, since the charade is that this type of idea is normal, I think that idea makes everything more impactful.

@Kazamas-Keyblade:

I see what you mean. I don't think weapons like that actually exist. But i like the whole primal feel to it without weapons as you said. Maybe people come in just before the loser dies? I'm not sure how that would work. You might just have to pick one.

I find characters with strong personalities are often the most easy to engage with in a fictional way. online quirk generators are often useful for compiling a quick personality to build a character around. Or combining three or four people you know so you can write them more realistically.

@HiddenMage:

Do weapons like that actually exist? If so, that'd be awesome.
I mean, I am going for a more realistic commentary on the view of education, so I initially thought "No weapons at all" with the exception of a "live killing" when someone is either executed or killed on the spot...I felt as if there weren't any weapons at all, the story would have more of a primal vibe, like the people fighting truly are animals or something like that.

Right, I had the idea of basing the main character after myself (how original) but with other characters in their interactions I would draw from personal experiences, but not for other characters themselves because I want it to be abstract enough for it to not seem as personal or developed so the audience can be equally engaged and disengaged at the same time.

@Kazamas-Keyblade:

hmmm maybe if the weapons they fought with were special or so instead of killing it knocks them into a chemical induced coma and then the bodies get dragged off and brought out of the coma for the whole off screen judgement thing? idk just spouting nonsense at the moment.

I'm not too great with narrative myself so I can't help with that too well.
But for characters, maybe base them around the main character, create them to having interesting conflicts or conversations, interesting fight scenes, stuff like that. Or drag in random characters that you've created for other things but decided not to use and repurpose them for the story?
Sorry if that's not much help :

@HiddenMage:

That's one of the things I am trying to work out.

On one hand, I wanted to have it where the loser gets executed after the fight.

On second hand, I wanted it to be like actual gladiator combat where the monitor does the Thumbs-Up/Thumbs-Down thing to signify whether or not they will be killed on the spot.

On the third hand that comes from the invisible dimension I wanted it to be where it is decided "off-screen" if a loser has a chance to come back and fight later--while still being in school.

The biggest problem I have is balancing the narratives with this idea.
That and I don't really have any characters developed outside of the main character.

@moonlit dream:

4-5 characters that are buff fighter types. and 1 calm mundane character. it's a medieval setting. But that's a good point trying to figure out their motivations and such. mostly they're just kind of idle at the moment.

And thank you for explaining guest posters i hadn't figured that out yet. lol and now I know!

@Kazamas-Keyblade:

OK that sounds SUPER AWESOME!!! In the gladiator arena, do the potential students die if they loose?

What kind of characters are you working with at the moment? :o It might be a good idea to consider how their motivations and ideologies conflict with one another's, even if they're all nice people.

Btw you add guest posters by going to your backroom, hovering over "worlds," and clicking on "edit guest posters" from the dropdown box. Not sure if you figured it out on your own already, but your intro says you're still figuring it out so I thought I'd let you know. *U*b

@HiddenMage:

Well, this comes from the mind of a very stressed-out student, and many of us can attest to having these feelings:

We value education to a high degree, but what if we had to fight in a gladiator-style arena just for the opportunity to go to school?
The story is just that, told from the perspective of an aspiring student who questions the value of friendship and the confusing concept of high-school social constructs in a society where he would have to nearly kill/die for the chance to stay in school.

@Kazamas-Keyblade:

sure thing! go ahead

@HiddenMage:

I'd prefer to keep it in the comments because its very brief.

@HiddenMage:

Woo!!!!!!!!!!

@DarlingV:

WOAH THAT WOULD ACTUALLY WORK OUT PERFECTLY! thanks so much!
(lol lightbulb moment)

@HiddenMage:

Maybe make a character WAAAAY too nice, then a guy finds his or her secret?... I dunno.

@DarlingV:

No that's a good idea, unfortunately all the characters are too nice for that : maybe i need to change some of their personalities so that it works. they're just too boring at the moment

@Kazamas-Keyblade:

Cool! you wanna become a guest poster and put up a post so we can get more people on this or just keep it in the comments?
I'm all ears

While it's still up, what if 1 character was actually pretending to be nice, but in reality, he/she was against them? IDK my idea isn't very orignal...

@HiddenMage:

That's great, then.

While we're on the subject, I actually would like some help with crafting a new work that's been conceptualized in the back of my mind so that could be a point of future work.

@Kazamas-Keyblade:

I know what you mean. I thought that such a danger would be obvious to everyone, but since you pointed it out I made sure to put a warning in the introduction discussing this matter.
Thank you so much for showing an interest! Hopefully people can work together and be smart and respectful and this idea will work out the way it should XD

Not that I don't admire and support the idea, but I am concerned with posting things of this nature.
I had a whole world dedicated to tons of stuff like this, but then I thought--what if people steal ideas and then copyright/trademark it as their own...Kinda like that movie "Big Fat Liar" except in reality.

That's why I try to urge people not to do this, but I would like to at least help with the idea if I can.