Names, Ideas, Places, Themes and so on

Periodically people will post on here, for help with a story they are writing, they may wish to know more about a place, or where to find something out, ask about a good name for a character and so on....
Please post requests here!

And for people that like to help others out maybe you could keep an eye on this thread!

thankyou
S

 

i live in south africa and being pretty much a third world country finding a literary agent isn't easy. i've written a 140,000 word fantasy novel and need to get an agent to look at a few chapters. it'll make a good movie too. give me some ideas puleeeez!

 

Ok I want to write a short story just for the heck of it. It starts out with our protagonist walking in the dark and spots a man in a business suit sitting on a bench, looking at his watch. And something crazy is going to happen....either a door opens out of no where or something....help me get this thing rolling. Thanks for you minds

 

what do you mean?
Crazy like a mad axe murderer comes along and chops off his hear before feeding it to Minny his pet sheep, or crazy like willy wonka comes along and asks if anone has some string so he can tie his shoelaces so that he can run in the olympics and win a chocolate toothbrush that he'll give to Minny his nephews sheep,

i.e horror or wacky? unexpected? Silly?

 

I work in the hotel industry--actually the Inn industry haha. And we recently had an Inn Keeper who goes from hotel to hotel babysitting the hotel while the owners go away or whatever. Now....that inspired me to write a novel about an Inn Keeper...but I don't know what I want to happen to her...I started it based in Maine where she was watching an Inn for a family who has a very ill daughter who needs a lot of medical attention. What should I do with this novel? I never really have problems taking my novel places and I really like the plot of this.

Any ideas?

*Love & Peace*

 

perhaps his watch isn't a watch at all... it's a fucking calculator watch, and he's spelling out 8008135 (boobies) on it!

 

that sounds like a great idea, you could have the story of everyone she meets in her travels, individual tales and the last story could be about her
S

 

Try something original for your story line, like 'boy meets girl', or maybe 'girl exposes corrupt management, removes them and succeeds as top manager'. Flesh it out with your in-depth knowledge of your industry. What made Arthur Hailey a successful writer in works like Hotel, Airport and Overload, was his research which provided the reader with almost overwhelming detail about how the business in question works in the real world.

 

You might consider paying an agent to do this. Paid or not, he'll be more willing if you can write a meaningful synopsis, of length 500 words or less.

 

Ok...I have a problem.
I started writing when I was 15. I would write just about anything, I was pretty flexible with almost any genre. I was good at it, too. I'd be able to pump out 10 pages with ease, and be eager to go the rest of the night non-stop...just writing.
I'm 20, now. Almost 21...and I have had a severe case of writer's block for the past 2 years and 4 months. Does...ANYONE have any suggestions on how to get my mind ticking again?
I haven't been able to get even a paragraph started without losing ideas or motivation. I really need some help here...I've tried fixing it myself, and it doesn't seem to be working.
Thanks

--Gus

 

You might have run out of ideas. Maybe find some inspiration. Go outside in the woods (if you don't do that already), travel, volunteer, just go somewhere or do something that can inspire a story.

 

Here is a sneaky way that has worked for me. Pick up a book, any book and open it up. Write down the first sentence you read and start going from there and see where it takes you. I also keep a folder on my computer called Muse Docs and anything I come across that I "feel" whether that's part of a poem, something that crossed my mind while driving, something someone said, etc., I write it down and when I'm struggling for ideas I go back to it. I sometimes get ideas just from reading others works... maybe somebody said "heartsick kid" in a poem and it brings to mind something from when I was younger and heartsick. Another idea is to take a word such as "snow" or "ice" or anything and try to write down every memory you have associated with that word. Here is a "muse" from my folder for you... maybe you will like it... when we are sliced up… would we have rings like a tree to mark our transgressions as well as our progressions? Good luck!

 

I can write extremely well once I get started, but it takes some time to get started, my big problem is coming up with names. I don't know if anyone else has this problem or not, but it's really annoying. I'll be writing and then I stop to think of a new character's name, and then it's hard to get started again.

 

This may work for one character or two, short stories for example, but pick a name that you know is "code" for replace this name later when I'm done with the story. So for example your characters that come in could be 'Jack' or 'Jill' and later when you are done with your story you can use "replace all" to replace 'Jack' with 'Elvian' or 'Shuster' or something. Picking names then is something you do during the edit process after the initial story from start to finish is worked out. Hope this helps....

 

Thanks, that's a great idea. I usually know at least the main character's name before I start, it's just the side character's names I have trouble with.

 

Perhaps place the Inn in some shit splat town that has only two police officers let's say dilbert and delbert for now they're equally idiotic brothers and their disoriented crippled father is the sheriff and has been for just about as long as anyone can remember, so he keeps his job because the population of shitsplat maine is a peaceful one and everyone respects his decades of civil service. everyone knows everyone in this town and the inn has been passed down through 5 generations. it is on the registry of historical places,which draws in the kind of people who like to stay in old Inns(History buffs mostly. famous folks have stayed there such as Lincoln, Dillinger, and Dean Martin whose signed picture is on the wall behind the check in desk. it has a restaurant downstairs in the lobby and in a broom closet adjacent to the check in desk is an almost unnoticeable door opening to reveal a secret staircase leading to what used to be a speakeasy in the days of prohibition. There were once tropical scenes painted on the wall to compensate for it's dreary lack of windows. but the room had been derelict and besides a thick layer of dust and paint that had long since begun to chip off, the room seemed untouched by time. the liquor bottles were even still partially filled as if someone were expecting more business to pop in at any moment giving it an almost ghostly feeling. i would leave this room out of your story until things start to get wierd. The owners tell the Inn keeper to simply tell all of the locals that they are on vacation while they go and visit their daughter undergoing treatment in houston, because word spreads fast in a small town and they don't want their child to be the talk of the town. it seems plausible enough to the inn keeper so they show her around tell her what needs to be done and leave the inn keeper to mind the store.
let me know if that's up your alley.i think it leaves many options open for twists turns and suspense. if i'm way off base that's cool i had fun visualizing such a scenario. the main thing you would want to beware of is making the story too reminiscent of The Shining. A little is ok, but too much and no publisher will touch it.

 

Once your 21 if you're anything like me things will start to get more interesting and you'll find yourself in more and more ridiculous situations. pick up a hitchhiker, develop a drinking problem, get into a fight, fuck a stranger, jump on a train and see where it takes you. talk to bums they always have interesting stories to tell. most of them are complete bullshit, but like Mark Twain I think once said "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story". Hunter Thompson used to sit down and copy word for word the works of Hemingway and Fitzgerald just to see how it felt to write a masterpiece. that gave him inspiration when he was younger. i also like the idea of picking a random sentence and seeing what direction it takes you. One commonality you'll find among most exceptional writers is that they've lived exceptional lives.
experience is knowledge, all else is information- Albert Einstein

 

How do y'all keep motivated on longer projects? I'm working on a novel, I have all the plot and characters etc. fleshed out in my mind, but I'm having the worst time keeping motivated enought to actually write. (Maybe because school's got me exhausted body, mind and soul.)

...Help?

 

It took Brian Wilson almost half a century to create his masterpiece. be patient, and make time to live. One great work is better that a hundred mediocre attempts at greatness. You're just 17, but bear in mind your most creative idealistic years are between your mid early twenties and your early thirties. If i were you i'd spend my time now researching myself and the world, and maybe even blog a bit to keep your skills sharp. Then when that motivation returns you'll be full fresh of ideas and perspectives. it's counterproductive to sit idly behind a keyboard.

 

I don't know that this would help you too much, but I often find myself watching a show or a movie where I'd wished the ending, or certain characters were developed a little more.

It happens an awful lot, so I usually play in my mind various scenarios, where I might find a more creatively satisfying one.

I suggest trying something to that effect, or just writing about something you know you're passionate about.