How can this idea work?

[scottmcc]

I have the first part of the story worked out:
A person/guy wakes up in a hospital with amnesia.

How could this work? I mean the easy way out would be to have the guy not remember who exactly his family is and who isn't, very easy incest setup, but I don't want to write an incest story.

I could do a variation of a first time story where it would be his first time again.

I need help please.

 

[S-Des]

I have the first part of the story worked out:
A person/guy wakes up in a hospital with amnesia.

How could this work? I mean the easy way out would be to have the guy not remember who exactly his family is and who isn't, very easy incest setup, but I don't want to write an incest story.

I could do a variation of a first time story where it would be his first time again.

I need help please.

The ways are endless. Amnesia can be anywhere from partial to total (plus the cool factor of his memory coming back and him finding himself in a mess).

Romance - A woman who always liked him convinces him they were together (partially because she wants to make sure he's Ok, but deep down she loves him). When his memory comes back, he realizes he loves her.

LW - He falls for a new woman, only to find that he has a wife (More of a loving husband story, but I don't think it violates rules . . . maybe in EC instead).

Incest - As you cited, easy for him to fall for someone because they feel a "connection". Only to find out they're related somehow (obviously not too closely or she would have known).

Others may have better ideas, who can say. You might even go with him having a frustrating relationship with his wife (who he can't remember), then he discovers her having an affair due to her pain (so it's Voyeur or LW).

 

[NoRain]

Others may have better ideas, who can say. You might even go with him having a frustrating relationship with his wife (who he can't remember), then he discovers her having an affair due to her pain (so it's Voyeur or LW).

Or, as a variation on the wife theme, you can have the wife not tell him (for her own reasons or to protect him) about the marital problems they were having (or that they were seperated/divorced/mortal enemies); she can fall in love with him, all over again, and he with her. When his memory comes back it could all go to hell in a hand basket (erotic horror) or they could live happily ever after (romance).

Much luck in the writing.

Rainy

 

[Darla_Darling]

Thriller possibilities

Ooh! Amnesia. Classic filmic device.

Here's an idea for a thriller/comedy/farce:

1) He wakes up in the hospital. Woman A claims to be his wife, takes him home with her and they have wild, passionate sex even though he doesn't really remember that he's married to her.

2) Woman B shows up, says that Woman A is a crazy stalker who put him into hospital in the first place, and that she is his real wife. She 'rescues' him and he goes home with her. (They then proceed to have wild, passionate sex.)

3) Of course, Woman A asserts that Woman B is actually the crazy one. They all have a confrontation somehow (I'm fuzzy on the details here), and somehow in the tussle, the guy gets another bump on the noggin, which, as in classic amnesia-film style, gives him his memory back! (Yes, I know this is stupid and probably totally medically inaccurate, but that's the way it happens in the MOVIES, and who am I to argue?)

4) The guy realises that he is actually a bigamist, who has been two-timing both of these women for several years! He realises that he got the original bump on the head from trying to jump out the second storey window of his office building one day when he was afraid that both of his wives were about to burst into his office at once, causing an awkward confrontation. He decides to play it dumb for the rest of his life and pretend that he has never actually got his memory back, so that he can continue to see these women in secret.

 

[silverwhisper]

darla: interesting! you could even accentuate the holes in the women's respective stories for a nice rashomon-type vibe.

as s-des noted nothing about the situation lends itself to any particular category here. one idea that i'm kinda liking though is that pre-amnesia, he was a very repressed lover, had difficulty talking w/ women, etc, but the amnesia gives him the freedom from fear just to be himself.

ed

 

[3113]

Idea not a Story....

I have the first part of the story worked out:
A person/guy wakes up in a hospital with amnesia.

I hope you don't mind if I use this for a perfect example: Class, take note...rule #1 about writing....

An idea is not a story.

No, honestly, this post is great because it shows how many different stories can come out of one idea. But it does pose a problem for you and for us. We can keep generating stories from this idea--but none of them may be to your taste. So you need to help us out.

It's rather like you gave us a flour and sugar and eggs and butter and all kinds of flavors and said: "bakes something!" Well, there's tons of things we can bake...but you might not want to eat any of them. You have to give us a clue as to what you might like.

Here's what you need to tell us to get a story out of this idea that YOU will enjoy writing:

1) What you don't want to write (ex: you said Incest was off the list...okay, what other categories are on or off that list?)

2) What this character is like? Do you see him as a guy's-guy? As a shy nerd? Do you have any sense at all as to what he was before the amnesia? A bully? A philanthorpist? Rich? Poor? Competitive?

If you just answer those two questions, then you shink the pool of ideas and the ones that YOU can and might want to write will come bobbing to the surface. As it is, you've an idea that's rather like a big lake--and there are too many story ideas swimming around in it for you to catch the one you might really want.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Bisexual twist might be if he has repressed interest in men, but his amnesiac memory no longer has the baggage from his youth, so he is no longer emotionally invested in homophobia. So he becomes involved with a male doctor or nurse, only then to find out that he has both a wife and a mistress. Not wanting to give up any of them, he finds out that he doesn't have to, when the wife and mistress meet at the hospital and decide that they don't want to even come close to losing him again. The doctor is gay, but he can't help his attraction to the bisexual neophyte. However, the wife insists that the husband agree to a 2nd honeymoon as the price for their renewed romance. Once that is over, he can resume his other relationships. Too complicated? I think not, but I am curious as to what you guys think. Of course, Mr. Amnesiac is a bit busy all of the sudden.

Another twist would be with the John Doe show, to have fan fiction about it. In other words, he continues to stay amnesiac for life, with the readers still wondering about his past.

 

[LordRunes]

Now you could take this many places. Flashbacks of memory, of people he was with. Any where you wish to go with it.

LR

I have the first part of the story worked out:
A person/guy wakes up in a hospital with amnesia.

How could this work? I mean the easy way out would be to have the guy not remember who exactly his family is and who isn't, very easy incest setup, but I don't want to write an incest story.

I could do a variation of a first time story where it would be his first time again.

I need help please.

 

[Texguy84]

For a LW story, the guy gets knocked in the head, and doesn't remember that he is married. His wife is cheating on him with his business partner, and they decide to have some fun by not reminding him of their marriage. So the partner and the wife openly show affection, make out around him, etc., maybe the partner convinces the husband to join him in double-fucking the wife (who could be faking being sloshed drunk in order to draw him in).

Eventually of course the guy begins to figure it out (maybe he, I dunno, finds the wedding photos or gets knocked in the head by a foul ball while walking past a pickup game of baseball in the park, miraculously returning his memory), and he can either have a crisis, or decide to run with it, going along with it while they think he's still amnesiac. Perhaps on the way he gets revenge by seducing his business partner's innocent little (voting age) sister, or openly starts having a sexual relationship in front of the wife to stir up some jealousy.

In any case, this could be a lot of fun, even figuring out how he went amnesiac to begin with (maybe he had a fight with the missus who clubbed him stupid with a frying pan, maybe he got knocked in the head by a car bumper while saving a puppy, maybe he was going at it with his mistress and accidentally banged his head on the headboard.).

 

[Oblimo]

Although it's not about amnesia (it's about the exact opposite, in fact), watch the amazing movie Momento and consider the possibilities.

 

[snooper]

... (maybe he had a fight with the missus who clubbed him stupid with a frying pan, maybe he got knocked in the head by a car bumper while saving a puppy, maybe he was going at it with his mistress and accidentally banged his head on the headboard.).

Or maybe the CIA kidnapped him and wiped his memory, but with their usual inefficiency.

 

[Texguy84]

Or maybe the CIA kidnapped him and wiped his memory, but with their usual inefficiency.

Or maybe it was the Communists! You see, his mistress, she was a KGB agent, who wiped his mind by hitting him in the head with a frying pan, while he tried to save a box full of puppies from a runaway bus driven by his wife, who works for the CIA!

 

[Darla_Darling]

Or maybe it was the Communists! You see, his mistress, she was a KGB agent, who wiped his mind by hitting him in the head with a frying pan, while he tried to save a box full of puppies from a runaway bus driven by his wife, who works for the CIA!

I like the way you think, Texguy!

Also, if it involves the KGB, it will have to take place in the 1960s-1980s. Lots of potential for corsetry and big hair, which I really don't think you see enough of these days.