Anomalous housing developments that are perpetually 'under construction'. They pop up in business-park/strip-mall towns; gated communities with a single complete "show house". The rest are just tyvek and plywood, clearly unfinished, and yet, people come and go from these neighborhoods, swearing that they live there.
Ooh, I actually like this premise. The idea of random-ass housing developments suddenly appearing, not to mention unfinished, gives me a lot of different emotions. You can do a lot behind this premise. Ultimately it's up to you, but having this turn into a mystery plot, or trying to invoke a fear of the unknown could work really well. Of course, you'll also need to do some "worldbuilding" behind this (I guess it's more like "neighborhood-building" but you get the point.) But at the same time, I can see potential 2 pitfalls:
- The concept becomes too op, and basically acts like a "infection" or something
- The base concept is too bland, or doesnt invoke enough for the reader to continue reading.
You'll also need to be careful with "people swearing they've lived there before." If you generalize this too much, it may sound a bit compulsive. You'll need to ask specific details, maybe even having the housing-complexes effect a wide area or maybe even being percieved as something else by those people (that gets to be a bit much but it could be played off nicely.) Theres more I'd like to discuss about this particular idea in general but I'll wait until you cleared up my previous concerns from above.
A city council meeting is met with an anomalous housing developer. The developer is giving a presentation on a new housing proposal. The naming on each slide is inconsistent, but is all some variation of XYZ Acres/Creek/Gardens/Homes/etc. It details a fractal suburban sprawl plan, but details it in excess, giving example after example, McMansions et al. This meeting has been going on for 6 months, but nobody has noticed. (They're leaving to go to the bathroom, to get food, etc. but they come back.) They do not notice how long it's been going on. The Foundation has to cycle out agents to keep monitoring it for signs of ending or change. The presenter is non-stop, of course.
This one I could see working, it would just be a little "iffy" (but only in the terms of it being used alongside your first idea). Having a perpetual presentation happening that basically amounts to nothing sounds like something that could be super funny. I also like the added detail of all the slide names being inconsistent. The concept itself would likely work, but there are also a few issues I have with it as well.
- You can only talk for so long about a housing proposal. How will you prove that theres even enough content to continue talking? Will it be a temporal thing, or will the proposal go on just a bunch of tangents? Will excerpts be recorded for the reader?
- Theres sort of this "logical" pitfall that is: "Why would the Foundation want to contain this? What about this presentation should we want to read about?" My slight worry is that this premise will instantly deter readers initially. Housing proposals can be really boring to hear (and read!) How will you make this new and exciting?
I'm floating two ideas that may end up only being one idea, due to their semantic proximity to each other.
Remember what I said above? Heres the honest truth, I'm not quite sure how you could make these ideas work collectively and still be fun to read. That's my personal conclusion (take it as you will). My biggest concern, if you did try this, would be the simple overload of information, not to mention the fact that by doing so opens a lot of errors thematically (referring to the second idea, as I assumed that this presentation amounts to nothing, and the first idea would not parallel to that well at all). To me, it sounds like a sugary cookie cake that's so rich with sugar that it's hard to swallow after a few bites. Youd also be juggling with two distinct narrative paths that would be "competing" with themselves for reader retention. That, to me, sounds like it would make a small disaster for these very interesting concepts.
