So a lot of times I come up with skeleton story ideas and they fall to the wayside; I usually don't give them any attention because they're so fleeting and, well, I have a million (3) other stories I'm developing at the moment.
Nevertheless, there is probably some value in cataloging these story ideas. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? Even if someone stole the idea, it would be getting more light than I ever intend to shed on it.
Enough with exposition: on with the show.
So a character encounters a meteorite, but it doesn't give him any special powers or anything--he just takes it as a sign that something fantastic is happening in his life and he begins looking for signs everywhere, thinking that his state in life will improve, his relationships with women, whatever.
And basically, it doesn't. The people close to him think he's being crazy and unreasonable, and in the end the message is that you have to do things for yourself, and no meteorite, mystically empowered or otherwise, can change that.
I told you it was skeletal.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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Work on it; make a short story out of it.
ReplyDeleteThink about the main character: what kind of person does he have to be in order to get that kind of thought?--that a meteorite is significant in some fantastical way? Is he the type of person that just dawdles around, not taking grasp of his own life, and just sits on his ass waiting for his life?
Or, more specifically, is he at a phase in life where he's stagnating, and knows he's stagnating, and wants desperately to get out of this cyclical monotonous routine he's in? And furthermore, what is this routine: what is it that he doesn't like about his life? And what would he rather be?
So then the question comes: what does the meteorite do? What's the before and after? What changes in the character's daily perspective? Does he become more optimistic? Does that optimism allow him to take more chances? And do those chances result in something good or bad?
And is it a good or bad ending? A flipside of seeing things is that maybe the meteorite DOES change his life, but not in the way he thought it would, that being, doesn't give him any hokey magical good luck. The change could be more indirect: it might be the inspiration he was looking for--that inspiration to get up off his ass and do something with his life.
So if we go with this route: does he succeed in doing something? Or does he try do too much, and so fails, because he's trying to be too dramatic with his life, taking leaps and bounds when he should be building himself up to a goal with steps?
This swings back to his character: is a perfectly capable person (who could conceivably take grasp of this situation), or is he an incapable person who wants to be capable (who might just wind up crashing and burning)?
I look forward to seeing progress.