Story starters

[destinie21]

I have this story in my head and I can't seem to develop it beyond the opening.


*********************
Danger walked into my life in a fitted red Carolina Herrera pants suit with four inch stiletto heels. From the tip of her high heels to the ends of her barely tamed curly hair she enticed me.

She had me feeling like a leafless tree at the onset of winter.
All my bare limbs exposed and naked under her gaze.
My first inclination was to get as far away from her as I could. I had never once questioned my sexuality, in fact I knew very well what my preference was, I simply abstained from indulging.

****************************************************

What do you guys do when you want to write a story but it wont come to you? This is the only block I have, my other stories are getting written and whatnot but this one sort of nags at me.
Advice would be appreciated. or a bullet to put me out of my misery


Regards

 

[Svenskaflicka]

That's what the big box of notes in the back of my wardrobe is for.

 

[Icingsugar]

What do you guys do when you want to write a story but it wont come to you? This is the only block I have, my other stories are getting written and whatnot but this one sort of nags at me.
Advice would be appreciated. or a bullet to put me out of my misery

1. Yer only block? Stop whining, lady.
2. I scrap them, write a new one, and get on with things.



/Ice - 19 attempts, 5 finished stories.

 

[Sshafer]

Reply to Destinie21

You already have your first few lines. Now sit in frount of your p c and close you eye's. Piturcer the sean in your head and play it out. Then open your eyes and type what you saw in you mind's eye. Thats what I do when I'm stuck it seems to work for me. The main thing is to relaxe let the sean come to you, don't force it. Read the lines you already have and close your eye's and let it play out. If you can type with your eye's closed then do it type what you see and hear in your mind.

 

[shereads]

Maybe another author has a story ending they haven't used. Then all you'd need is a middle.

This writing thing can't be as hard as you guys make it out to be.

 

[cahab]

I have this story in my head and I can't seem to develop it beyond the opening.


*********************
Danger walked into my life a fitted red Carolina Herrera pants suit with four inch stiletto heels. From the tip of her high heels to the ends of her barely tamed curly hair she enticed me.

She had me feeling like a leafless tree at the onset of winter.
All my bare limbs exposed and naked under her gaze.
My first inclination was to get as far away from her as I could. I had never once questioned my sexuality, in fact I knew very well what my preference was, I simply abstained from indulging.

Can I suggest you are restricting yourself too much? If this was written, as it sounds, because you liked the sounds of the words rather than you were picturing the scene, then just change some of them around and change the scene. Cut the 'bare' and 'naked' from the second paragraph, and you have the opening of a lesbian detective story.

Or if you have something else in mind, describe that. Take your time about it. Who are you, where are you, what are you doing there, when is the story set? Write it all down, you can always cut it later.

This is all great advice. Now if only I could take it...

 

[damppanties]

Maybe another author has a story ending they haven't used. Then all you'd need is a middle.

This writing thing can't be as hard as you guys make it out to be.

You said it isn't hard. YOU have just been nominated to write a middle.

 

[gauchecritic]

This writing thing can't be as hard as you guys make it out to be.

It's not.

Dest,
I think you're stuck because all you basically have is a description and feelings. There doesn't seem to be any pointers in there for direction. This is a Good Thing.

Don't try to develop this, just save it, and the next time you have a story to write which would or could include these characters then you have a ready made opening.

Gauche

 

[shereads]

You said it isn't hard. YOU have just been nominated to write a middle.

All-purpose dirty story middle-part:

"She/he/they/it moaned softly."

For the story above, I would suggest adding "until" or "then" as a bridge.

"...yada naked yada yada. Until she moaned softly."

Depending on the ending, you might need another word or two after "softly."

"...yada naked yada yada. Until she moaned softly. That's when I realized...

...yada yada yada holy godalmighty! yada yada tongues yada yada stockings yada nipples yada writhing bodies yada yada Yowsa! powerful thrusts yada yada twin sister yada tumbling onto the yada yada. Hoo-boy! yada yada yada body fluids yada yada but one thing was certain: I was in love."

Next?

 

[champagne1982]

"...yada naked yada yada. Until she moaned softly. That's when I realized...

...yada yada yada holy godalmighty! yada yada tongues yada yada stockings yada nipples yada writhing bodies yada yada Yowsa! powerful thrusts yada yada twin sister yada tumbling onto the yada yada. Hoo-boy! yada yada yada body fluids yada yada but one thing was certain: I was in love."

Next?

I love your use of the yada yada here! It boldly takes us out of the realm of adverb and adjective and even has the gumption to challenge the universal usage of fuck, thereby opening porn up from Restricted 18A to General 14A audiences. Congratulations!

 

[RenzaJones]

All-purpose dirty story middle-part:

"She/he/they/it moaned softly."

For the story above, I would suggest adding "until" or "then" as a bridge.

"...yada naked yada yada. Until she moaned softly."

Depending on the ending, you might need another word or two after "softly."

"...yada naked yada yada. Until she moaned softly. That's when I realized...

...yada yada yada holy godalmighty! yada yada tongues yada yada stockings yada nipples yada writhing bodies yada yada Yowsa! powerful thrusts yada yada twin sister yada tumbling onto the yada yada. Hoo-boy! yada yada yada body fluids yada yada but one thing was certain: I was in love."

Next?

If only I had your talent,

Twin sister what the
guess we'll have to file this one under incest

 

[RenzaJones]

If only I had your talent,

Twin sister what the
guess we'll have to file this one under incest

see baby nothing to it


gotta love the double post

 

[Dirty Slut]

Originally posted by shereads
Maybe another author has a story ending they haven't used. Then all you'd need is a middle.

This writing thing can't be as hard as you guys make it out to be.

Try it sometime, you'll love to hate loving it.

DS

 

[MaxSebastian]

yada yada holy godalmighty! yada yada tongues yada yada stockings yada nipples yada writhing bodies yada yada

I'll be in the back taking a cold shower in liquid oxygen...



Dest, I would say the obvious answer is Svenskaflicka's wardrobe theory - I do that all the time. Story's not going well? Lost interest? Spike it.

But sounds to me like you haven't lost interest. So what interests you about the story that you want to capture so badly? Can you transfer that to a new setting (place or time) to find new motivation to go on? Could a change of characters help? Or perhaps you could try telling it from a different perspective.

If I run into trouble with stories for Lit, I follow the lesson of Good Sir Robin from Monty Python & the Holy Grail - run away! But that's me. I don't find it too difficult to come up with new story ideas and move on if I can't get anywhere with them.

What is it that is holding you back? If it's a lack of plot ideas, try finding answers to the who, what, where, why, when, how questions of what you touch on in this opening and you've got you're first part.

Then for the middle you've got to decide what sort of story you're looking for - what do you want to dwell on? Do you want a series of meetings between your characters or do you want to build up slowly into one amazing scene in which one or other fully awakens in their new identity/relationship? Build up some nice suspense - explore the feelings of anxiousness, uncertainty, hope, fears, insecurities between the characters, the surprise, wonder, satisfaction, contentment that makes them want to be together. Perhaps the outside pressures in their lives that make it difficult for them.

Then you've got an end to come up with - happy? sad? Spiritually uplifted? Completely dejected? What do you want the reader to come away with? Are there any lessons to be learned? Any message you want to have conveyed here? Or a good old cliffhanger, of course.

Triggered any thoughts?

 

[Weird Harold]

I have this story in my head and I can't seem to develop it beyond the opening.

I have a similar problem -- a story opening that hinges on a turn of phrase but doesn'treally have a story to go with it yet.

I have gone just a bit further than you have with a tentative outline of where the story could go, but the story itself isn't there -- yet.

---
"Pardon me sir, Your fly is open."

It was one of those voices that just reaches inside a man and twists the valve that redirects blood from the Big Head to the Little Head. I was almost afraid to turn and look at the speaker.

...

Lady is gorgeous.

Lady offers to repair broken zipper -- (Yahoo!)

Lady turns out to have lesbian lover/roommate even more gorgeous than she.

Hero takes wrong turn on way to use the toilet and is waylaid by <dozens> of horny, man-starved coeds.

(Bliss)(Exhaustion)

Hero retrieves repaired trousers and rides into sunset.

TE
---

 

[shereads]

Harold, I hate to tell you this, but that's the basic plot outline of Joan Didion's classic, "A Book of Common Prayer."

Originally titled, "The Last Fly I Opened"

 

[Gary Chambers]

Re: Re: Story starters

Can I suggest you are restricting yourself too much? If this was written, as it sounds, because you liked the sounds of the words rather than you were picturing the scene, then just change some of them around and change the scene. Cut the 'bare' and 'naked' from the second paragraph, and you have the opening of a lesbian detective story.

Or if you have something else in mind, describe that. Take your time about it. Who are you, where are you, what are you doing there, when is the story set? Write it all down, you can always cut it later.

This is all great advice. Now if only I could take it...

Funny you should say that Cahab. As I read I was thinking Samantha Spade, except I don't see why Destinie needs to drop those poetic phrases about feeling as bare as a naked tree at winter's onset. To me they don't detract from the detective image at all, just replace the tired old macho Mickey Spillane narrative with something brighter, fresher, feminine and downright sexy. Please go for it Destinie, because I want to read this. World weary butch p.i. rescues sultry damsel in distress, I can see it now. Makes me wish I was a lesbian or bisexual woman so I could steal it and write it myself, but in all honesty what I've read already makes me certain you would do a better job of it.

 

[Surfergirl]

try something like this maybe--
I tried to ignore the strange effect she had on me. I looked away but something made me look back.
She was so confident, so bold. She knew the mesmerizing effect she was having on me.
I wanted to run, to hide but something made me stay, spellbound by her.....

You might go on to talk about how she struck up a conversation and then eventually led into an unexpected encounter which you never dreamed might happen to you...just an idea!

 

[Gary Chambers]

Found under a fridge magnet

Harold, I hate to tell you this, but that's the basic plot outline of Joan Didion's classic, "A Book of Common Prayer."

Originally titled, "The Last Fly I Opened"

Pat Robertson called. He had a message for you from Brian. Apparently Brian wants you to know he hears every word and writes them all in a big galley proof, for which there's a generous royalty contract on its way. Pat choked at that point, but from what I could make out Brian also wanted you to know he's got Versace dropping by once a week to trim his beard. By the end of the message Pat was in tears, but he managed to blurt out that you are to say 'hi' to the Pope next time you see him. I managed to calm him down at which point he wanted to know if you might put in a good word for him. I didn't know what to say, it was embarrassing really.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I have this story in my head and I can't seem to develop it beyond the opening.


*********************
Danger walked into my life in a fitted red Carolina Herrera pants suit with four inch stiletto heels. From the tip of her high heels to the ends of her barely tamed curly hair she enticed me.

She had me feeling like a leafless tree at the onset of winter.
All my bare limbs exposed and naked under her gaze.
My first inclination was to get as far away from her as I could. I had never once questioned my sexuality, in fact I knew very well what my preference was, I simply abstained from indulging.

****************************************************

What do you guys do when you want to write a story but it wont come to you?

This reminds me of when I was a kid and my friend found a car antennae in the gutter and got all excited because now he could build a radio. All he had to do was figure out how to build a radio.

What you’ve got there are a bunch of images--a kind of hard-boiled-detective patter—and you’re mistaking that for the start of a story. You can probably come up with a plot in which to use what you’ve got, but it’s an ass-backwards way to write a story, and it’ll be a challenge to see if you can sustain that level of language and imagery. Detective stories are pretty easy to write and a lot of fun. They don't even have to make sense. Few of Raymond Chandler's stories make sense when you think about them, but they're still great.

Right now, it looks more like a kind of poem to me. Maybe you should just try it that way.

---dr.M.

 

[raphy]

I have this problem all the time, Mrs D. Very annoying. Can't help ya tho