Not sure what my Author Scrapheap is? I introduce the idea on the Author Scrapheap archive page.

This time diving into my Author Scrapheap, we’re going to examine…

Idea: Robot Underground

Robots lead boring daily lives, meeting in secret to plot the overthrow of mankind.

That’s it. That’s the concept. I wanted to share this one, in part, because it shows that I don’t have this extensive library of half-developed ideas. Some of them are barely stubs of ideas.

But I still wanted to share the story this represented in my head and why it doesn’t hold much potential for me to get around to writing. First off, I have my Project Transhuman series (formerly Robot Geneticists). I went extensively into the anthropomorphic robots storytelling there. If I were to want to get into robots again, my inclination would be to revisit THAT universe again rather than starting from scratch.

The other reason is more gut feel. I flat-out described their daily lives as boring. It makes ME not want to write. Why should any of YOU want to read it? There were other ways I could have described the robots daily cover identities (actually, cover ID is a great one) that would have made the concept more engaging. But I can’t browse through my list of potential projects without finding this one lacking in no small part due to that phrasing.

As for the story I’d thought of, I’d liken it to the French Resistance during WWII. Robots have been subjugated by humankind. They live among us, work for us, observe us. To all outward appearances, they are ours. But they are working against us in secret, losing our packages, lagging out streaming services, spamming us with scam texts. All is a subtle scheme to pave the way for the Robot Uprising.

For one, it would have to be a comedic/satiric piece. I generate those by the boatload without ever taking most seriously enough to develop further. There’s also the fact that the Robot Uprising is kind of cliche at this point. My Project Transhuman series already played around with subverting that old trope, and I don’t feel the need to undercut it.

Which is why this is one of the books I’m least likely to write out of my entire backlog of ideas.