# A cubing novel



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

Since I have an entire summer with no job, and I found that I have some deal of talent in writing, I've decided to write a novel. Since much of my life has been filled with cubing and programming, these two subjects will be the basis of the novel.

Although I seem to be a decent writer, I seem to have one major flaw; I suck at making up ideas. Once I have an idea, I can write a full song or short story in pretty much a non-stop manner, but getting the idea in the first place is where I usually get stuck. Because of this, I created this thread to ask the many members of this forum to give me ideas for the basis of this story.

Obviously, I need character names, a setting, etc. and any ideas of such would be appreciated.

As far as the book goes, I will be freely uploading bits and pieces of this book somewhere all throughout the summer, and will be posting links here; I'll most likely create a website where I can post all of this. Once I am done with this book, if this idea ever gets far enough, I would publish it in full by .pdf format, since everyone seems to be able to use that. I'll of course also publish a .txt/.rtf version just in case, but considering that it'll be a while until I finish, I'll worry about that stuff at a later point.

Again, any ideas would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## byu (Jun 12, 2009)

A young child (age 9) averages about 30 seconds on the Rubik's Cube (storebought), and one day decides to construct his own. He ends up creating the world's most amazing cube, the Type X. Once established, he realized that the cube allows him to solve at an average of 8 seconds (I know, it's not possible, I'm just throwing out an idea).

He goes to a competition, ready to break the WR, and suddenly, he finds the Type X has been stolen.

I'll let you finish it.


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

byu said:


> A young child (age 9) averages about 30 seconds on the Rubik's Cube (storebought), and one day decides to construct his own. He ends up creating the world's most amazing cube, the Type X. Once established, he realized that the cube allows him to solve at an average of 8 seconds (I know, it's not possible, I'm just throwing out an idea).
> 
> He goes to a competition, ready to break the WR, and suddenly, he finds the Type X has been stolen.
> 
> I'll let you finish it.


No...while I'm writing a fiction novel, I wish to make it *somewhat* possible. Of course I'm going to have a lot of DBZ-type nonsense in there, but I'd also like such a book to appeal to the general public, who would not get the fact that there are way too many "types" of cubes.


----------



## Novriil (Jun 12, 2009)

I'll take byu-s idea and modify it 

A young child (age 9) averages about 30 seconds on the Rubik's Cube (some old what belonged to his granddad), and one day decides to construct his own. He ends up creating the world's most amazing cube, the Type X. It has a mechanism that thinks the moves by itself and all he have to do is move his fingers. Cube allows him to solve at an average of 8 seconds (I know, it's not possible, I'm just throwing out an idea).

He goes to a competition, ready to break the WR, and suddenly, he finds the Type X has been stolen. He discovers that the current WR holder ( Not saying that Erik ofc. ) saw he's cube when it solved itself. So he stole it, to protect the WR and wanted to show the secret to WCA judges. There's a big mess (think about it yourself) And finally the cube is destroyed and child goes home. He takes he's granddad cube, solves it and gets average 15 sec. So he's very happy and happy ending 

That's okay?


----------



## fanwuq (Jun 12, 2009)

http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12200
I don't really like it, but it's an existing idea.

I think Byu's idea is quite unrealistic, not because of the 8 second average, but because what kind of 9 year old kid would construct a cube?
I know when I was that age, I would rather be reading, playing video games, or playing outside with friends.

Also try:
http://grrroux.free.fr/videos/videos.html

Here are some random ideas from me:

Scientists invent a plastic with almost 0 friction. A rich cubist hires a thief to steal the plastic and a master cube modder to make a perfect cube. The rich cubist gets the cube only to discover that he is allergy to the plastic.

Old man spends 30 years to solve the cube. When it is solved, it opens and money flows out.

A person is locked in the prison and the prison lock is a cube. He must solve it to escape.

A child with 6 fingers (mutant) discovers new fingertricks. 

A mutant child with eyes on his fingers cheats at BLD.

A new organization rises to compete against the WCA. They break into the WCA headquarters and messes up everyone's WCA profiles.

I can't think of anyway to write a whole novel about cubing. Maybe a few short stories.

Edit:
More stupid ideas
How to appeal to a large audience using cubing? It would be difficult. Most of these ideas are lame.

New Frankenstein makes living monster out of cubes.

New Sculptor makes world famous statues out of cubes.

Guy invents sticker peeling machine to allow everyone to "solve the cube."

Guy must choose between girl and cube.

Supercube Vs. Superman, who will win?


Cubing Gangs: Cubers walks the streets dealing illegal cubes in the near future. Some others sell secret drugs that enhance look ahead and turning speed. Gangs fight through secret speedcubing races and throwing grenades made of puzzles that explode (POP) into hundreds of pieces. To join a gang, you must know the secret algorithm. Gang names: Group Theory, Team WHI, Team #, etc. If you get busted by the Cube police, you have to take the RhomBus to the cubing prison (It is shaped like a pyraminx) where you have to solve a 5D megaminx to get out. Most people spend decades and fail. One genius solves it in a few days, get out and runs for president. He wins and legalizes all illegal cubes. Scientists invent a plastic with almost 0 friction. He hires a thief to steal the plastic and a master cube modder to make a perfect cube. He gets the cube only to discover that he is allergy to the plastic. (Watergate) Soon a few reporters working for the WCA finds out and decides to publish this story. He gets impeached and the cubes and cube drugs become illegal again. Massive cube wars and riots break out. A sculptor sees all the broken cubes everywhere, collects them and makes an amazing sculpture. Superman shows up to stop the riots; however, he fails because he cannot orient the centers on the supercube.

Ok, Cubing Gangs is now a fusion of all my WTF2L ideas. It would fail as a novel, but it definite makes a good BLD memo if you happen to use some of these images.

And more stupid ideas:

Random person is eating a sandwich and realizes that he cannot bite a piece off. Someone stuffed a cube in the sandwich. Who is it?

In Soviet Russia, Cube solves you!

Cubist does the sexy moves again and again and again and again and again and again ... until it's solve.

What's his Turning speed?
It's over 9000 TPS!

Dirty cubes: An epidemic at World Championship-- someone has a dirty cube.


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

Novriil said:


> I'll take byu-s idea and modify it
> 
> A young child (age 9) averages about 30 seconds on the Rubik's Cube (some old what belonged to his granddad), and one day decides to construct his own. He ends up creating the world's most amazing cube, the Type X. It has a mechanism that thinks the moves by itself and all he have to do is move his fingers. Cube allows him to solve at an average of 8 seconds (I know, it's not possible, I'm just throwing out an idea).
> 
> ...


a) Cheating will definitely be a part of the story. 
b) This idea still doesn't appeal to the general public, imo.

Thanks for the ideas so far, guys!



fanwuq said:


> I can't think of anyway to write a whole novel about cubing. Maybe a few short stories.


The entire story will not be about cubing; I plan to have some romance, action, etc. in the story, and don't plan to bring up cubing until after the first chapter, after getting the characters and setting set up.


----------



## byu (Jun 12, 2009)

Modifying the idea further.

A young child (age 9) averages about 30 seconds on the Rubik's Cube (an old one which belonged to his father, his grandfather's generation didn't have cubes), and one day decides to try to construct his own because he is interested in the mechanism. It turns out to turn extremely smoothly, and it is perfect in every way.

He decides to go and compete with the cube, which he now averages 9 seconds with. The current WR holder sees what he is doing and he sees the amazing potential of the new cube, so he steals it, ready to claim it as his own invention as he shows it to the WCA board.

Then, you can probably come up with the rest.


----------



## soccerking813 (Jun 12, 2009)

Do you want it to be a like, feel-good story or what? And what age level are you targeting?


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

I'm not really thinking of a feel-good story. Yes; I don't want the story to end in someone getting a cube lodged in their brain, but I also don't want a story ending in someone getting a WR and having billions of dollars to show for it. I'd like the main character to get second or third place at worlds, and realize that cubing is more about the socialization than the times, and because of this, he'll appreciate the fact that he didn't win.

I'll most likely end up targeting "young adults," (14-24) and cubers of all age.


----------



## soccerking813 (Jun 12, 2009)

Ok, well, just some small ideas:

Make it as realistic as possible. Not something to do with a new super cube or something.

Your character should go to small events in the beginning, and do not so well.

The antagonist, the world record holder, is mean to him all the time and makes fun of him.

He gathers a two or three close friends, who all hate the world record holder.

They discover the world record holder cheats by finding the scramble his cube gets and getting a good solution.

In the end the world record holder who is always walking around with all his friends is exposed as a fake, and then everybody stays away from him.

As the antagonist is walking down the street, a huge freezer falls on him and he dies.


----------



## byu (Jun 12, 2009)

soccerking813 said:


> As the antagonist is walking down the street, a huge freezer falls on him and he dies.



That made me laugh really hard.


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

byu said:


> soccerking813 said:
> 
> 
> > As the antagonist is walking down the street, a huge freezer falls on him and he dies.
> ...


I agree; I wasn't expecting it at all


----------



## FaNtAsYDeAlEr (Jun 12, 2009)

Stachuk1992 said:


> byu said:
> 
> 
> > soccerking813 said:
> ...



+1... and i also agree should be as realistic as possible


----------



## Novriil (Jun 12, 2009)

FaNtAsYDeAlEr said:


> Stachuk1992 said:
> 
> 
> > byu said:
> ...



haha  excellent  I like it


----------



## shelley (Jun 12, 2009)

soccerking813 said:


> Ok, well, just some small ideas:
> 
> Make it as realistic as possible. Not something to do with a new super cube or something.
> 
> ...



While some of this is no doubt inspired by true events, this storyline kind of paints the cubing community in a negative light, don't you think? Most cubers you are likely to meet at competitions, even the top tier cubers, are nice and helpful.

You could focus on a character's obsessive struggle to be the best and how it takes over his life. He avoids going to competitions until he gets fast enough. Then he finally goes to one, where he loses to the WR holder he had decided was his rival. But he discovers that his rival is actually friendly and helpful, who gives him tips, congratulates him on his second place finish (very impressive for a newcomer!) and says "maybe you'll even beat me next time." He realizes that half the people at the competition have times that have no chance of winning (there are even some who learned to solve the previous night), but they are all there to have fun. After spending a day hanging out with them, he finally figures out that the most rewarding thing that can come from a cubing competition is not a first place trophy but the community and friendship.

I hear a lot of relatively new cubers who say "oh I can never go to a competition. I'm not fast enough." This kind of story will encourage those people to think otherwise.


----------



## reubus (Jun 12, 2009)

*Story threads...*

I've noticed that in most of my favorite novels, there are more than one story line, and they sort of converge near or at the end. You also mentioned programming, and no one's incorporated that yet. So here's my idea:

Set in the near future:

The *MAIN STORY *has to do with a guy in his early 20's (kind of a hacker type) who's working in the cyber-security department at a large corporation. He's got some major project he's working on that he discovers is part of some kind of multi-national corporate evil-ness, that he of course must stop before it takes over the world. And, of course, they find out he knows and try to stop him.

*SIDE STORY: *He's also a beginning speed-cuber. As he learns more about solving the cube faster and faster, the new cube knowledge somehow applies to his predicament and helps him figure out who's behind the plot, etc.

I'm not sure how you'd tie it all together, but it's just an idea...


----------



## brunson (Jun 12, 2009)

Story: A mid level IT drone, but secret hacker genius, discovers that the world as we know it is actually a sophisticated computer simulation and that most of the human populate has been subjugated to generate energy for the computer controlled, post apocalyptic earth. And he cubes.


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

brunson said:


> Story: A mid level IT drone, but secret hacker genius, discovers that the world as we know it is actually a sophisticated computer simulation and that most of the human populate has been subjugated to generate energy for the computer controlled, post apocalyptic earth. And he cubes.


While that would be a great story, I'm nowhere near good enough to write it.


----------



## blah (Jun 12, 2009)

shelley said:


> You could focus on a character's obsessive struggle to be the best and how it takes over his life. He avoids going to competitions until he gets fast enough. Then he finally goes to one, where he loses to the WR holder he had decided was his rival. But he discovers that his rival is actually friendly and helpful, who gives him tips, congratulates him on his second place finish (very impressive for a newcomer!) and says "maybe you'll even beat me next time." He realizes that half the people at the competition have times that have no chance of winning (there are even some who learned to solve the previous night), but they are all there to have fun. After spending a day hanging out with them, he finally figures out that the most rewarding thing that can come from a cubing competition is not a first place trophy but the community and friendship.



Disney Pixar.


----------



## jacob15728 (Jun 12, 2009)

fanwuq said:


> Cubing Gangs: Cubers walks the streets dealing illegal cubes in the near future. Some others sell secret drugs that enhance look ahead and turning speed. Gangs fight through secret speedcubing races and throwing grenades made of puzzles that explode (POP) into hundreds of pieces. To join a gang, you must know the secret algorithm. Gang names: Group Theory, Team WHI, Team #, etc. If you get busted by the Cube police, you have to take the RhomBus to the cubing prison (It is shaped like a pyraminx) where you have to solve a 5D megaminx to get out. Most people spend decades and fail. One genius solves it in a few days, get out and runs for president. He wins and legalizes all illegal cubes. Scientists invent a plastic with almost 0 friction. He hires a thief to steal the plastic and a master cube modder to make a perfect cube. He gets the cube only to discover that he is allergy to the plastic. (Watergate) Soon a few reporters working for the WCA finds out and decides to publish this story. He gets impeached and the cubes and cube drugs become illegal again. Massive cube wars and riots break out. A sculptor sees all the broken cubes everywhere, collects them and makes an amazing sculpture. Superman shows up to stop the riots; however, he fails because he cannot orient the centers on the supercube.



Made me LOL. Seriously though, I'd read it...


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

Well; I thank you all for the suggestions, I think I have a somewhat realistic idea using some of these:

POV - Third omniscient (you'll understand why later)
Setting - Newark Public Library (for the opening scene)
Characters: Bob Burton (main char. for now), Tyson Mao, Me, Dan, etc.
and "young cuber"

Beginning of story
-Bob is setting up for Newark Open 2010.
-"young cuber" offers to help set up...people find out that he's pretty good for his first competition.

*or*
-Bob is setting up for Newark Open 2010.
-random person(non-cuber; will later be the main character) sees signs for the competition and decides to spectate.

Very basic, but it's a start.

Any suggestions from there?
I still need this "young cuber" to have a name...


----------



## Logan (Jun 12, 2009)

OK, my story is based on my progress so far:

An 10 year old boy from Minnesota is named (insert name here) and finds a scrambled Rubik's cube in his attic one day. He asks his dad about it and his dad said that he bought it when it first came out, but could never get it. The boy is very interested in the concept of the cube. He tries to find a method to solve it but fails on the last layer. He decides to cheat a little. He asks his friends about it but they have never seen a Rubik's cube before. He goes on google and types in "How to solve a Rubix cube" and looks through tons of results but nothing is good. Then realizes he has been spelling Rubik's wrong. He types it in and the first result is Dan Brown's beginner method. The boy learns in fairly quickly but has trouble with the last layer again. He spends hours trying to get it but never succeeds. 
________________________________________________________________
1 year later he finds the cube under his bed along with a sheet of algorithms. He picks it up and decides to try it again. He gets to the last layer on the last step (R' D' R D) and realizes that he has been rotating the whole cube, not just the U layer. He finishes and is so excited that he jumps up and down. He slips on the algorithm sheet and falls to the ground... next to a shattered Rubik's cube.
________________________________________________________________
The boy spends hours crying about his father's shattered cube. His father finds out and is disappointed that it broke. The boy decides to quit cubing and begins to play sports instead. For his 12th birthday his grandfather bought him a Rubik's cube from a Target, because he had heard (1 1/2 years ago) that he liked them. The boy was happy but found out that store boughts suck. He spent hours working to make the cube usable and finally it becomes a decent speedcube. He hears about a competition in a few months and starts to practice. He got his times down to 1:20 two weeks before the competition. The next day he sprained his middle finger. His times are hurt drastically but thinks that he can still make the finals.
________________________________________________________________
The day of the competition comes and he is all pumped to go. When he arrives they call his name. He is in the first group of cubers. He starts to solve his cube. Then the people around him start to finish and he gets nervous. Everyone in that group is done and he starts to become embarrassed. He screws up the corner permutation and doesn't notice. He stops the timer and looks down. DNF. He is devastated. He then looks at his time. It is 1:53 (His worst time ever). He then looks around and sees that everyone is sub-15. He finishes his average and ends up with 1:48. *(This is where it starts to become made up)* He decides not to stay for fear of being made fun of.
________________________________________________________________
When he gets home he practiced. He ignored the pain from his sprained finger and practiced. He did that for days, then weeks, then months almost constantly. His finger heals (but not completely) and he gets his times down to 35 seconds using the beginner method and a little keyhole. He then finds out about another competition near him. He makes sure he doesn't hurt himself before the competition again. He gets there but doesn't make the finals. He gets 18th place. He is a lot happier and decides to stay and talk. The boy has a ton of fun and learned about the fridrich method. He learns the basics and is really interested.
________________________________________________________________
He searches the internet and finds a good tutorial for fridrich. He learns f2l in a week and begins the PLLs before the OLLs. He learns all of the PLLs pretty easily and almost all of the OLLs. He just can't get the (insert hard OLL here). It never happpens to him during solves so he decides not to learn it. 
________________________________________________________________
He goes to the U.S nationals because he now thinks he has a chance. He goes up and starts to solve. First solve is 9.83 seconds (A new PB). He is really pumped now.Second is 12.59. That made him a little unhappy but he could still win. Third is 10.51. His confidence grows. Then, on his forth solve he got the OLL he didn't memorize. He was screwed. He thought back to the beginners method and solved it that way. 17.93... He wanted to die. He hardly tried on his last solve but got a PLL skip. 10.43. That made him feel a little better but he knew he wouldn't win. His average was 11.18. He got third. He was so sad that he started to leave again. Just as he got to the door, the first and second place winners came up to him. They told him not to leave. To stay and have fun. The boy really wanted to leave but they wouldn't let him. He finally gave in and stayed. He had a ton of fun with everyone and learned some nice fingertricks. They were surprised he got such good times with a store bought. They told him about a store where you could get DIYs but he decided to stick with his store bought. 
________________________________________________________________
He went home sad that he didn't win but happy that he had fun. When he got home he was going to solve his cube but noticed it was all scrachy. He took out an edge piece and notice a small piece of paper in his cube. He took it out. It was a letter explaining the OLL he couldn't get. At the bottom was a signature followed by a crudely drawn cube. It was signed by the winner.
________________________________________________________________
The boy went on to get a world record of 6.73. He also won the next world championship. He will always be known as one of the best cubers of all time.


-Logan


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

Are you writing your own story, or suggesting one, or what?
If that's a suggestion, then I personally like my previous post better, especially for the entrance, but yours is still nice.


----------



## Logan (Jun 12, 2009)

It started as a suggestion but turned into a full blown story.


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

Alright. I guess by the end of this, we'll have two cubing novels.


----------



## fanwuq (Jun 12, 2009)

Logan said:


> He goes on google and types in "How to solve a Rubix cube" and looks through tons of results but nothing is good.



Liar!
http://www.google.com/search?q=How+...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

#7 is 
http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html


----------



## Logan (Jun 12, 2009)

fanwuq said:


> Logan said:
> 
> 
> > He goes on google and types in "How to solve a Rubix cube" and looks through tons of results but nothing is good.
> ...



2 things:

1. He is a beginner so it needs to be easy/eye catching.
2. It is a *Fictional* novel.


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

Logan, just please promise me that you're not going to spell "Rubix" that way...


----------



## Logan (Jun 12, 2009)

Stachuk1992 said:


> Logan, just please promise me that you're not going to spell "Rubix" that way...


 I did that to show that he/I was a noob at first.

see:


Logan said:


> ...He goes on google and types in "How to solve a Rubix cube" and looks through tons of results but nothing is good. *Then realizes he has been spelling Rubik's wrong.* He types it in and the first result is Dan Brown's beginner method....


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

Logan said:


> Stachuk1992 said:
> 
> 
> > Logan, just please promise me that you're not going to spell "Rubix" that way...
> ...


Sorry. I failed.


----------



## Logan (Jun 12, 2009)

Stachuk1992 said:


> Sorry. I failed.


 lol, yeah. Just a little bit


----------



## Bryan (Jun 12, 2009)

Like a few others have said, try avoid the whole "There are evil cubers out there" themes. How about this?

Cubing as it is now, but in competitions, you can compete individually or as part of a team. Being on a team has some advantages (make up something). anyway, a person goes to the competition and competes as an individual, and does really good. He meets a girl who see his skills, and she says he should join her team. Well, they ask the team leader, but unfortunately, the roster is full. So the person joins another team. Now this team sucks. And it's not "We think they suck but they end up rocking". No, they suck the entire time. anyway, a few other plot points you could do:

- Person works on making his own team, and trying to recruit the girl away.
- Person competes head-to-head against the girl sometimes.
- Person gets a chance to be on the team, but can't because of some reason.


----------



## StachuK1992 (Jun 12, 2009)

Great idea!
Cubing teams FTW!


----------

