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04-25-24 12:30 PM |
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| Main - Writing - story brainstorming | New thread | New reply |
| jane_lane |
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 Paragoomba Level: 22 Posts: 22/75 EXP: 51444 Next: 6906 Since: 02-21-07 From: RI Last post: 6048 days Last view: 6048 days |
working on a novel length story. I've just been playing around with ideas in my head and i've typed one or two pages on the wordprocessor just for some self-inspiration. Here's what I got
Older man who falls in love with young girl (not jailbait or anything, she's college sophomore he's a college prof, in his early forties or late thirties) She is a young idealistic romantic who obsesses over the wish that her life was like a romance movie/novel and is looking for a very "cinematic" type of romance. This idea is semi-immature, of course, and that will play into the plot of the story. The irony is that she cannot find this kind of love in her own age group and assumes that she needs to appeal to an older more mature set of men. He has just gotten out of a 5-10 year marriage with a woman who was "too mature" for him. To explain that, let's just say that she was the boring older person type, you know, they were stuck in a boring routine and she was constantly chastising him for enjoying himself/living on the edge. The two by some circumstance (not fully developed yet) get together after knowing each other for a while. It starts off as a secretive affair. I'm hoping to end it along the lines of her growing up and finding out that no romance is like the movies and she matures and kind of moves on. He continues to obsess... not quite sure where to go from there. ...anyways those are some preliminary ideas-- any suggestions for storyline character or situational changes or additions, feel free to voice them! |
| Gideon Zhi |
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Paragoomba Level: 22 Posts: 17/78 EXP: 54570 Next: 3780 Since: 02-19-07 Last post: 3258 days Last view: 3255 days |
Having produced novel-length fiction myself, allow me to offer a bit of advice: before you start writing in earnest, know exactly where you want to end up. If your characters have to break as the climax of your story, it will need to be a memorable moment for the reader, even if it isn't for the characters (although it should be.) The best stories surprise both the reader and the writer, but the latter should always have a firm idea of where things need to be in the end for the reader to come away from it with that tingly feeling you get when you finish a really good book.
I'm not saying that you should artificially steer your characters one way or the other; some of the best twists come when they surprise you by doing something that comes natural to them but was completely unexpected. But you should be writing with a very specific end in mind, and you should be able to nudge your characters in the right direction if they get too far off track. "He continues to obsess... not quite sure where to go from there," is probably not good enough for a memorable ending, unless you attempt to paint this as a tragedy on the guy's part (or intend to turn it into a thriller/stalker piece from there...) If you aim for the tragedy bent, you'll probably have to tell it primarily from the older guy's perspective - stream of consciousness is a great way to show obsession. But just leaving him to flounder in the end is not good practice. The girl may be more interesting for the bulk of the plot, but if she's able to move on and the guy isn't, and it ends up destroying him or something, then it's really the guy's story. (This, incidentally, is my one gigantic gripe with The Secret Garden - it starts off being about Mary, but Colin steals the show part way through and never gives it back. Bastard.) |
| jane_lane |
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Paragoomba Level: 22 Posts: 51/75 EXP: 51444 Next: 6906 Since: 02-21-07 From: RI Last post: 6048 days Last view: 6048 days |
ha thanks, and good call on the secret garden. pissed me off too |
| Hiryuu |
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Done. Level: 79 Posts: 175/1471 EXP: 4469227 Next: 110240 Since: 02-19-07 From: ??? Last post: 6085 days Last view: 6078 days |
Posted by Gideon Zhi I can almost whole-heartedly agree with all of this. The only thing I would be iffy on would be how exactly something would end up. I write with ideas in mind but I don't write with the ending in mind. Obviously, I've got an idea but not a concrete one until it actually happens. I find it makes it look less forced that way when you get up to the very end of what you're trying to write since, a lot of the time, unless you have this outlined THOROUGHLY it's not going to end out the way you originally planned it and it may just end up even better than when you started off. |
| jane_lane |
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Paragoomba Level: 22 Posts: 56/75 EXP: 51444 Next: 6906 Since: 02-21-07 From: RI Last post: 6048 days Last view: 6048 days |
Posted by HiryuuPosted by Gideon Zhi Yeah, I'd have to say I agree on that front. I know what general direction I'm going in, but I won't know what ending is "right" until I've hit the nail on the head. |
| Gideon Zhi |
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Paragoomba Level: 22 Posts: 19/78 EXP: 54570 Next: 3780 Since: 02-19-07 Last post: 3258 days Last view: 3255 days |
Maybe this is just indicative of the kind of fiction I was writing. My book is very much a mystery, and there are a lot of things that happen which are out of the character's control. He does "grow up" as it were, and in the moment that it happens the action he takes is highly symbolic in that it's a rejection of a lot of the things that he'd been following throughout most of the story. I knew how it was going to end even before I started writing it :/ But the specific nature of the adventure and mystery necessitates that kind of structure. Everything that happens leads up to that one moment of rejection at the end of the second-to-last chapter, and everything that happens afterwards (the falling action and resolution) was put together partly as an explanation and partly as a coming-to-terms. |
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