I have an extremely BASIC "idea" for a story...

[NebraskaFetish]

I did post this in Story Ideas, too, in case someone there has ideas that may help, but I also wanted opinions from current authors here! I'm trying my hand at my first story! I was wondering if it's trite to use the premise of "struggling author moves into an old, dilapidated mansion to inspire his/her writing"? Honestly, I don't even know, yet, if I'll be writing a "ghost" story or not. I don't know where I want to take it!! I'm just trying to set a scene and mood. (It may be Sinister's fault since I watched it last night! lol)

What do ya'll think? Am I biting off more than I can chew since I don't have a plot in mind?

 

[sr71plt]

You aren't biting much of anything until you have a plotline, but this seems fine as a setting.

 

[NebraskaFetish]

Good to know. I wasn't sure how others do it...like if you/they have a plot all mapped out and then start writing or if sometimes ya start with something basic and fill in the blanks as ya go.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Did someone say "ghosts"?

 

[NebraskaFetish]

Did someone say "ghosts"?

Well, maybe. Like I said, Sinister is still in my head... I just don't know where I want to take it!

 

[TxRad]

Good to know. I wasn't sure how others do it...like if you/they have a plot all mapped out and then start writing or if sometimes ya start with something basic and fill in the blanks as ya go.

Where you start is entirely up to you. I've started with nothing but a title or a single character, or a setting. Sometimes I have an idea where i want the story to go and sometimes I just throw the characters in deep water and see if they sink or swim. If they sink then scuba gear is required.

So I guess the best answer is just write it and they will cum... uh... come.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Where you start is entirely up to you. I've started with nothing but a title or a single character, or a setting. Sometimes I have an idea where i want the story to go and sometimes I just throw the characters in deep water and see if they sink or swim. If they sink then scuba gear is required.

So I guess the best answer is just write it and they will cum... uh... come.

Oh.....yeah, I start sometimes with but a plot bunny, and boy does that bunny like to breed.....

 

[NebraskaFetish]

Thanks guys.

 

[robertreams]

I almost never start with a plot all mapped out. Usually I begin with a single character, try to make him or her as real a person as possible, then let him or her interact with other characters I invent and they eventually create a tension, leading to a climax, voila! A Story! Sounds to me as if your lonely writer in teh spooky old mansion should meet a sexy female ghost, perhaps in his sleep the first time. This will be extremely trite if you don't write characters with full, well defined personalities, but if we grow to love or hate your characters, we will like your story.

 

[NebraskaFetish]

I almost never start with a plot all mapped out. Usually I begin with a single character, try to make him or her as real a person as possible, then let him or her interact with other characters I invent and they eventually create a tension, leading to a climax, voila! A Story! Sounds to me as if your lonely writer in teh spooky old mansion should meet a sexy female ghost, perhaps in his sleep the first time. This will be extremely trite if you don't write characters with full, well defined personalities, but if we grow to love or hate your characters, we will like your story.

Thank you for this insight. I think it will help me since I didn't have a plot yet. I see the author as struggling to get the next bit of genius out and onto paper, perhaps with some pressure from the publisher to cause an inner stress, etc.

 

[sr71plt]

My Muse usually delivers enough of a plotline to get started. Quite a bit more will drop into place as I write. If I just have what the OP has, though (and I have a case of that on a story in my mind now), I have to wait for my Muse to drop more before I'll start writing.

 

[NebraskaFetish]

My Muse usually delivers enough of a plotline to get started. Quite a bit more will drop into place as I write. If I just have what the OP has, though (and I have a case of that on a story in my mind now), I have to wait for my Muse to drop more before I'll start writing.

I sort of tried that, too. I've been day dreaming, or when I lay down to sleep and can "control" my dream(s) for a while, I've been watching that lil' movie play in my mind to see where it takes me.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Hypoxia]

Are many possible approaches. Start with your choice of:
1) nothing; or
2) a plot bunny; and/or
3) character(s); and/or
4) a beginning; and/or
5) an ending; and/or
6) the whole shebang.

I usually proceed with (2,3,4) when I should start with (5), an ending. "If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else." Starting is easy. Ending is hard -- if not pre-planned. I really need to concentrate of final punchlines and work back from there. Yeah, that's what I should do. Right.

Okay, so I usually create characters and an environment for them to play in, and set some plot points for them to hit, and then set the players loose and transcribe and edit their thoughts and deeds. That's fun. It also leaves me with a dozen unfinished pieces and series. It's much more satisfying to FINISH the fuckers and move on. My favorite stories (to write) were those where I had the endings clearly in sight and built the narratives to get there.

 

[MIKEYLICKEY]

Try Wisconsin?

In northern Wisconsin there is an island called Washington Island. It is at the northern tip of Door County, a needle shaped peninsula jutting into Lake Michigan north of Green Bay. You can only get there by ferry boat, and it is pretty dead there after November.

There are one or two places open in the winter that cater to snowmobilers and hunters, but I thought that might be a great place to get away and write.

Heeere's JOHNNY!

 

[SamScribble]

Some people plot. A friend of mine writes a 2,000-word outline for a 5,000-word story.

Other people start with a character or two and see what happens.

Apparently, JRR Tolkien started with 'In a hole in the ground live a hobbit.' From there, it was a matter of Who/What/Where/and Why.

Personally. I'm of the Tolkien school. I may have a vague plot in mind when I begin, but it's the characters who move the story forward. If my characters turn left, that's the way the story goes. If the characters turn right, we may have a totally different story. Hang onto your hats, people.

 

[NebraskaFetish]

In northern Wisconsin there is an island called Washington Island. It is at the northern tip of Door County, a needle shaped peninsula jutting into Lake Michigan north of Green Bay. You can only get there by ferry boat, and it is pretty dead there after November.

There are one or two places open in the winter that cater to snowmobilers and hunters, but I thought that might be a great place to get away and write.

Heeere's JOHNNY!

It sure sounds great!

 

[NebraskaFetish]

Some people plot. A friend of mine writes a 2,000-word outline for a 5,000-word story.

Other people start with a character or two and see what happens.

Apparently, JRR Tolkien started with 'In a hole in the ground live a hobbit.' From there, it was a matter of Who/What/Where/and Why.

Personally. I'm of the Tolkien school. I may have a vague plot in mind when I begin, but it's the characters who move the story forward. If my characters turn left, that's the way the story goes. If the characters turn right, we may have a totally different story. Hang onto your hats, people.

I think I may be finding my voice. I've been running with my basic idea and am watching it grow.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Awesome, Nebraska. Very good to hear.

 

[jehoram]

I thought that a BASIC idea of a story would be:

10 People meet
20 They fuck
30 GOTO 20
40 End

 

[Athalia]

I thought that a BASIC idea of a story would be:

10 People meet
20 They fuck
30 GOTO 20
40 End

<snort>

Except that the way you've written it,it's an endless loop. But that's what you intended, right?

 

[Hypoxia]

Here's my kluge patch:

10 People meet
20 They fuck
30 IF Angry_Mate=False THEN GOTO 20
35 IF Divorce_Done=True THEN GOTO 20
40 END

 

[Athalia]

Here's my kluge patch:

10 People meet
20 They fuck
30 IF Angry_Mate=False THEN GOTO 20
35 IF Divorce_Done=True THEN GOTO 20
40 END

Yup, that would work.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I actually asked myself this same question a while ago - 'why DO writers/authors move into old/dilapidated mansions...?!'

Just you and your thoughts, without interruption, except for the whistling wind, maybe?

Would it work just as well going to some expensive penthouse blocked off by a floor or two and high security, from the rest of the world below?

Or an isolated lighthouse somewhere...

I think these kinds of places are bridges and at minimum a process of stepping away from the mundane that you - and others - are already used to, in order to get some perspective on a different set of possibilities.

It isn't trite. Because it leads the way to whatever the creative mind, and destiny or fateful circumstances and events, will bring.

It's the opening door through which something new can wander towards YOUR keyboard. And you are the official chronicle-writer of it.

 

[sr71plt]

To capture the more romantic atmosphere perhaps. (My muse was helped by renting an old villa where Lawrence Durrell wrote much of The Alexandria Quartet, and seeking out hotel rooms where the likes of Daphne Du Maurnier and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote.)

This may fold back onto the "Do you need a muse" thread.