While I was eating lunch at one of the campus dining halls, I had this idea that came from nowhere; I would love to read/write a story about a small band of survivors from any kind of apocalypse (nuclear, zombies, etc.), stuck on a cruise ship all by themselves. The disaster wouldn't be a threat from where they are; they would also have an amazing supply of resources (since cruise ships stock so much food for large numbers, and only a small number of people would be utilizing those resources), and could survive anchored at sea for five or ten years, at which point they would have to head back to the mainland.

The story would rely on character tensions, background story, and possible interference from pirates patrolling the sea. If anything really inspired me, it would probably be Jarhead. That book made an interesting story entirely through character interaction and an overwhelming tension. It would be nice to have a more laid-back atmosphere, so the reader/watcher wouldn't expect jump scare after jump scare, but there would still be some tension and dread.

I've plotted out several points so far that would probably be important goals to reach.

1. Whatever the disaster is, it will not be the main focus of the story. If it was a zombie apocalypse, I don't want millions of zombies swarming the ship. If it's aliens, I don't want UFOs constantly patrolling the sky, attacking anything they see.
2. The characters need to be extremely interesting. After all, they're practically the driving force of the story. Though a few may be jerks, they need to be sympathetic jerks. A few may have family members that either died or are missing and possibly still alive, involved with the catastrophic event. This would probably be the hardest part, as conversations and back story will be key.
3. I would need to learn the basics of how a cruise ship operates behind the scenes. Are the lights/electronics inside powered with hydroelectric energy created by the ocean and a generator? What is the minimum amount of crew that could operate one successfully? How much of the food is perishable and non-perishable? These and many other questions would add realism to the story. It would also create tension, as a skeleton crew can only do so much.
4. I need to figure out how to make the story matter. Everything will have failed if no one gives a shit about the story or the characters.
5. Even if the story would only be told through a novel, I would need to create a map of the ship, some sort of visual reference I can check to make sure the actions and movements of the crew are plausible.
6. The disaster has to take a back seat. Using the zombie example again, if I had zombies as a constant, threatening protagonist, it would become just another zombie story. There are plenty of stories that focus almost entirely on the disaster, turning them into genre tales. I don't want this to be a genre tale.
7. I need an interesting ending.
8. I need an interesting way to get the survivors on board, and a way to make sure there aren't many other characters/dangers present when they do so. It would be possible to have some sort of stowaway, but other than that, it needs to be practically empty.
9. I should try to keep the length in check. The Stand is a great novel, but its length is out of control.

These are just the ideas that came instantly to mind. Some of them may be unpolished or wrong, because I haven't really thought this through. I'm not even sure I would write a story like this; while I get fantastic English scores, I have never sat down to write a fictional story, other than short stories for middle/high school classes.

Would this kind of story interest you? Any changes or additions you would suggest?

It sounds interesting, have a think, come up with a first chapter and let a few people beta test it, so to speak, then you can get feedback and go from there. :)

For #4, all it takes is to not make the characters annoying. In my very humble opinion, a reader can easily lose the empathy if:

a) the character doesn't provide a purposeful development for the story or narrative
b) the character fails to connect with the reader

Perhaps you can write a short draft of 1000 words or so, so that it'll be easier for us to see where you stand.

Possibly have it be a newly commissioned cruise liner. It could be leaving dry-dock from England, and while it is on its way to it's new port in New York City for its inaugural cruise, the disaster occurs. There would be a skeleton crew aboard the ship to get it across the Atlantic, this will help explain why there are so few people aboard the ship.

Now, even though there will be so few people aboard the ship, there will still be a lot, too many to fit a single book around. I would suggest that when they near New York, or where ever the home port is located, division sets in among the crew when the captain refuses to dock. Eventually an agreement is reached where a majority of the crew leaves on life boats to go into the city so they can head home and find their families.

Another thing, is this natural disaster is land based, there are going to be other ships, including military ones, out and about guarding major ports.

Good luck with the story!

Offtopic, but good to see another Howardian here :D

Ah Solomon Kane! Didn't realize who the picture was of until you mentioned Howard!

Sorry to say, but no.
We have an apocalypse scenario and we have to be on a ship. I don't wanto to be on a ship, I want to know what the hell happened to the world. This could be done with the backstory of the characters if it is interwoven in a good way.

If the only tension comes from tending the ship that could become boring or too technical for some people.
I also don't like how every apocalypse story, movies being the worst offenders, put the apocalypse in the backseat. Today every apocalypse story is focused on a group of pople from different backgrounds and their relations in a high tension situation.
Not that it can't be done in a good way, but it seems like the same story with different apocalypse scenario.

The only thing I liked that would fit your criteria was The Road. The apocalypse just happened, nothing more said and it doesn't matter. The characters drive the show and it is all about the love of a father for his son, which is a nice change from the usual dynamic group of people.

If you have never sat down outside of college assignments to write, then before you get bogged down with the mechanics and plot lines of your story, why not try something on a smaller scope? Try a short story and discover your writing 'voice'.

I second that. A lot of literary greats I know also dabbled with short stories.

Maybe write a short story around one of the characters you have in your mind for your novel. It will give you some practice with writing dialogue, plus you might end up writing something you really like and end up incorporating it into your novel.

As a tip for dialogue, when I try to write short stories, I read aloud the dialogue I have written. It helps give me a better idea on whether or not I've made the characters sound like real people.

If you're writing a story with a focus on characters, the apocolypse really isn't a vital portion to your story. It is vital that the people are trapped on the boat for whatever reason for a long-period of time. Granted, for a scale of years, it would have to be some giant disaster of some kind, but I'd say the better way to play it is making a side plot having the survivors try to figure out exactly what DID happen. Maybe they're out at sea and all communication stops, next port they get to is deserted (or something), etc. Just an idea though.

If you're looking for an interesting ending in a story based on characters, its really going to be driven by the characters, so until you know everyone back story, their issues, and how those are going to interplay, you won't be able to create a proper resolution.

I think the whole hero thing has been done to death. I'm more a fan of anti-heroes, but even better are films or books where there are just real people. I'm more a film fan, so I'd refer to something like Magnolia, or Withnail and I.

You should base it around the decline in morality and social values on the boat, and show it mirroring the collapsed society outside of it. There should be factions that have taken over areas of the ship, and trade in the various resources that they can control. For example the group in control of the heating can cut off areas of the ship as they choose, and therefore trade in that (not too disimilar from the energy cartels in Europe right now, sorry - "legitimate businesses in a competitive market"), as can the group in control of the food supplies. The group in the bar can have degenerated into a bunch of alcoholic wasters.

At that point they can go ashore and find that despite being shielded from the disaster, they have not become all that different from those that lived through it. No zombies though, I'd go for a financial disaster where everyone realised they didn't have anything real anymore, just numbers on a screen, and caused a global run on finances.

Sounds very Lord of the Flies, which isn't such a bad thing. Might be interesting, but I prefer the OP's pitch.

That did occur to me. I had to study that book in GCSE English. Wasn't really where I was aiming, but where I accidentally ended up. My posts very rarely end where I intended.

This could become a very bleak, depressing tale if you don't have constant events throughout the story to distract the survivors from all that they've lost. Essentially what you've got is how this cruise ship - although not directly affected by the apocalypse - is nonetheless directly linked to and reliant on all that has been destroyed. It's a symbol of the decadence of a civilisation now lost. Similarly the passengers have been completely cut off by this. Losing family, their homes and businesses. Everything they didn't take with them.

For some it could be a chance to start over though. All they're really going to have lost is debts and burdens.

But for the most part you've got to think about how this scenario is going to be explained and maybe tie that in with the challenges they're going to be faced with.