Camp Nano: Help me Plan!

[aldersprig]

Okay, so I've been tossing an idea around for ages and I've decided (it was @inventrix's fault ;-) to make a go at if for April CampNano.

Basic idea: Every Crime Procedural, every Medical Show, every Serious Detective Show (maybe not those; I don't watch those) seems to go through a series of episodes - there's The Bondage Episode, the Furry Episode (Bones combined those into the pony play episode), the little people episode, the wrestling episode (Bones, again, combined those into little people wrestling), the Hoarders episode... and so on.

What I need:

A list of episodes.

A cast, or ideas about a cast.

A hook. I'm thiiiinking it's urban fantasy, but not absolutely certain.

Ideas for takes on those types of episodes.

Help?

(Eta: looking at writing either 4-10,000-word episodes or 8-5,000-word orrr 6-6,667-word episodes, at least to begin with.)

(Eta2: @pritchmr - this is a cool webiste with tons of TV tropes http://designthroughstorytelling.net/periodic/ )

Episode Idea List
cult!
computer hacker
mild-mannered-academic-is-actually-a-killer
government conspiracy
non-government conspiracy (Illuminati)
crazy house party gone wrong
missing child
serial killer
Buried treasure
supernatural problem is actually a frame-up
[Supernatural] critters gone rabid/feral
- Something that started or happened a long time ago (e.g. something triggered by someone trying to retrieve the loot from a famous crime, or finding a dead body long after the death and having to figure out what happened)
- What looks like a murder turns out to be an accident in the end.
- LARP
cross-cultural misunderstanding gone horribly awry
operating in unfamiliar territory (possibly not useful for such a short run)
lying to protect the actual guilty/responsible party
being from some other world
Circus!

Urban Fantasy Episodes Idea List
The Werewolves
The Fae

Cast Ideas
the nerdy one,
the pretty one,
the sassy/snarky one,
the pragmatic/"brawn" one,
the smart but quiet one.
Kid genius (Shut up, Wesley!) - why not a girl kid genius for once? Need not be obnoxious.
unstable personality in some way
roll "the pretty one" and "the brawny one" togther into the rogue/acrobat/cat burgler; have the obvious combat heavy be a gunbunny or spellslinger.
the pet or mascot
the "pet" is the mentor.
the student/apprentice with common sense the teacher lacks.
the charismatic one (sometimes overlaps with the con man?).
the anti-bureaucrat (the one who can find records and cut red tape).
the nosy reporter.
the one who has a fling-of-the-week
the steady couple (trio, ...)

UF Cast Ideas
a witch/wizard,
a vampire,
a werewulf or an ordinary human who turns into a werewulf at some point,
an ordinary human,
someone in a mentor role

Comments

[inventrix]

List of "the ___ episode"s (which may or may not be as prevalent as you desire):
computer hacker
mild-mannered-academic-is-actually-a-killer
government conspiracy
crazy house party gone wrong
missing child
serial killer

Are you thinking more Crime Drama or Detective? Crime Dramas tend to have an ensemble cast while Detectives tend to have a lead or two with major supporting characters( think, oh, CSI versus Psych), which changes the potential cast structure significantly.

Also if you do UF, you should totally pull in some UF "episode" tropes. 8D Like how the second book in a series is always the werewolf book.

[aldersprig]

Crime Drama, I think. Hrrm. Yeah, I think I want to work in Ensemble cast.

Also, that's a great idea, using the UF tropes.

[inventrix]

Okay, so, cast ideas: the nerdy one, the pretty one, the sassy/snarky one, the pragmatic/"brawn" one, the smart but quiet one.

On the UF side: a witch/wizard, a vampire, a werewulf or an ordinary human who turns into a werewulf at some point, an ordinary human, someone in a mentor role

[aldersprig]

Mentoooor yes.

[thnidu]

(Normally spelled "werewOlf", if you care about that.)

Cast or guests:
•Kid genius (Shut up, Wesley!) - why not a girl kid genius for once? Need not be obnoxious.
• unstable personality in some way

N.b.: I'm not a regular fan of these shows, so these are spinning off the top of my head.

[aldersprig]

oh, the kid genius, yes.

[inventrix]

Yes, I used werewulf because I am linguistically pretentious and werewulf is manbeast as opposed to werewolf which is specifically man-wolf.

:D

[thnidu]

(A tall, lean, pedantic chap -- with unruly light-colored hair, a great many pockets overflowing with markers, pens, and slips of paper, and a striped scarf that brushes the floor at both ends -- approaches thnidu and asks to take over the keyboard for a few moments.)

Oh, how delightful: another linguivore!

(He bows and departs, leaving a card inscribed
Dr. Whom
Consulting Linguist, Grammarian,
Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody
)

[inventrix]

the pet or mascot
the "pet" is the mentor.

Magical Girl Crime Drama? 8D xD

[clare_dragonfly]

Hrm. Neither NCIS nor Criminal Minds have those episodes :-P But I guess you're not looking for actual-TV-show commentary...

I don't know, anything that combines urban fantasy with a procedural sounds amazing to me! Just don't steal anything from Extranormal Crimes ;) That is... I guess the reason I'm having trouble giving you ideas is that every idea I come up with, I want to do with EC. I'm sure we would do them differently! But they don't want to leave my brain.

There should be cannibalism! You don't see a lot of cannibalism. XD

[aldersprig]

Oooh did I steal an idea from you? :-(

Oh, ick. Okay, Cannibalism.

Hrrm. I know a couple of my longer list twigged Criminal Minds episodes, but I haven't gone through their episode list (CSI took long enough!) yet.

[clare_dragonfly]

No, not at all! I just have my own supernatural procedural-type story in the works--and I hardly have a monopoly on that. I have ideas, I just want to use them myself! And maybe they wouldn't fit your series because they're not really trope-focused.

Which reminds me, if you're specifically looking for tropes to play with, have you looked at the TVTropes pages for the various shows?

[aldersprig]

I've been thinking about it but oh gods I'll never find my way out.

[clare_dragonfly]

Excellent point XD

I was thinking your first list of "every procedural has this": neither NCIS nor Criminal Minds has a bondage episode (NCIS has an episode where bondage is a red herring*, but the main characters never have to navigate the BDSM world like on CSI and Bones); neither has furries at all; NCIS has a couple of minor characters who are little people but they're not connected to cases; neither has wrestling (though both have boxing); neither has hoarders.

I did come up with an idea for you! Stalker episode! On NCIS Abby is stalked, on Criminal Minds they try to hunt down a stalker before he kills the person he's stalking.

*NCIS has TWO episodes in which someone ties someone else to a bed (consensually), leaves, and is killed where they're out.

[aldersprig]

Okay, I blanketed a little much. I just kept noticing, watching Bones and Cold case, that it was like "Didn't I see this on CSI?"

Criminal Minds... is a bit different, I think. And I haven't watched much NCIS.

Although "the team member is in danger.."

[clare_dragonfly]

I know XD I was just reading your list going "...not my shows!"

Yeah, CM is different. It almost never has just one victim, so I think the episodes have to be structured differently.

That's a good one!

[meridian_rose]

Tropes I immediately think of:
Fight Club episode
Sniper episode (personal favourite, these tend to change up the rules of the show for one episode)
Family reunion (from long lost grandparent, presumed dead parent, unknown twin, new step-brother, etc)

[thnidu]

Unknown clone! <evil grin>

(Come to think of it: Lois Bujold's Brothers in Arms.)

[natf]

Hubby and I watch a lot of these shows. I can more easily list the shows than the tropes;
CSI, CSI:NY and CSI:M.
NCIS and NCIS:LA (I love Hetty/Shadout Mapes in that!).
Body of Proof.
Leverage - more criminals that do good with crime than police procedural).
L&O, L&O:CI and L&O:SVU especially anything with Munch in it! Also L&O:UK.
Homicide.
Cold Case.
Shetland (UK).
Vera (UK).
Castle.
Prime Suspect (UK).

And loads of other UK based series that I cannot remember off the top of my head right now. We only get the US series that show on the 'Channel 5' freeview channels in the UK, these days.