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Joined 2 months ago
Cake day: July 15th, 2025
  • Iced Raktajino@startrek.websitetoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•Lemmings who write but never share your writings: How is it going?
    6·
    15 days ago

    Mostly short stories based on a single “what if” concept. Like, “What if everyone in the world had to have a unique name?” That may not be the premise of the story, but it factors into the characters and the world building and the story goes from there. Most of the stories don’t really “go” anywhere, but that’s not the point. The point is to spend a day in a world where the “what if” concept is true and see what society, people, and life is like.

    The setting is usually ambiguously Earth but it’s never stated nor that they’re even humans or what time period. That gives it a lot of leeway.

    It’s mostly just a creative outlet / thought exercises so I don’t even save half of them when I’m done.

    Examples From the Example "What If"

    For the “What if everyone in the world had to have a unique name?” example, the short story had the following elements:

    • Surnames / family names quickly became extinct since they were found to be redundant.
    • Different cultures in that world implemented the unique name requirement differently:
      • Some kept the family names but combined it with a unique name as a suffix. e.g. SmithFriendlyGame, SmithSoccerFan
      • Some went with just number designations. e.g. 12345
      • Most came up with brand new words when a child is born e.g. Fluginary
      • Other cultures did something similar to “What 3 Words” does for locations by combining 3 or 4 ordinary words. e.g. BashfulCarpetTree
      • Families could register specific naming conventions which could only be used by that family. Prestigious families could would add numbers to the family name with the patriarch/matriarch of the line being “0” or “first of their name”. If someone was Smith47, it meant they were directly descended from the Smith.
    • The uniqueness requirement included not reusing names of those who have died. e.g. There could only be one “John” ever, for example. All mentions of “John” would only refer to that individual.
      • Because of that requirement, heirloom jewelry became popular in this world to make up for not being able to honor a loved one by naming your child after them.