After reading a chapter about the three act story structure, I was laying in my bed and I thought of this: 1. Everybody is having a nice day at the park. 2. Some kid shows up to the park and says that creepy stuff is happening in the park. 3. He plants evidence of stuff in the park that is creepy. 4. Some people get freaked out by the fake things happening and thinks the park is haunted. 5. Little by little, as news spreads, everybody starts freaking out. 6. One person tries to figure out what is going on, and witnesses the kid planting evidence. 7. He tries to convince everyone else that the park is not haunted but the kid is doing stuff to make it look like that. 8. He convinces enough people to go catch the kid red hanted. 9. When they catch the kid, he is doing another trick, but he doesn't look like himself. He looks like he is in a trance. 10. They confront him about planting evidence in the park and doing tricks.. 11. He realizes that he is being controlled by a ghost. As soon as he finds out, he forces the ghost out by sheer will power. 12. The ghost starts messing around with the park so that it really is haunted. 13. The ghost resembles the kids imaginary friend from long ago, and the kid realizes this. 14. Everyone else tries to tell the kid to stop believing in the ghost, so that maybe it will go away. 15. The kid tries real hard, and suddenly the haunting stops. 16. Everything is back to normal. No one hates the kid, and every body gets along in the park. Is this a legitimate plot for a story or is it dumb?
It's legit enough to start writing and see where it goes. Just don't marry the outline so you can change it as the story takes on its own life.
Dude you can make anything a good plot if done right ^^ follow the heart, let it build, let your imagination take in. Or if what i just said had no relevance, then yea the plots good xD
Okay, let me help you out with this. Step one. We need a hero, with goals and flaws, and maybe a thing they have to over come, like scared to swim. How bout that some kid who shows up, is our hero, and he arrived there with his friends because they're young and like to play baseball. His friends like to pick on him for being scared of ghosts, and they don't believe ghosts are real. We can add some back story where he experienced a ghost encounter and almost died, so you root for him. Now while our hero and friends are playing, they spot a boy off in the distance talking to himself, and making blood appear out of trees, and the swings, and etc. His friends think it's bull crap, but our hero doesn't. So his friends go off to mess with the boy, and the boy shows his true hauntedness by snapping both of their necks. And of course it's your job to add detail and writing to make this scary and enjoyable. We have creepy, scary, conflict, and fun. Our hero runs the hell out of there screaming for his life because he's scared shitless of ghosts, but before running all the way home, he stops and turns around because he knows he's the only one who can find out what's wrong and fix this problem. So he returns to the haunted boy, and eventually finds out he's possessed, and our hero almost dies in the process. Let's say our hero has remedies from his house from his last encounter, and he always carries a cross on him that a priest said will get rid of any ghosts. So while fighting the ghost in the boy, by getting thrown and hissed and breaking a finger, our hero finally manages to put the cross on the demonic boy, and curse the ghost out of him. The cursed boy looks dead, then our hero recognizes it's a imaginary friend he had when he was younger to help cope with ghosts. This means that ghost's are all in a person's head.. Then the imaginary friend disappears, his friends come back to life since the ghost was cursed. And so now our hero isn't scared of ghosts anymore, and his friends don't make fun of him. We can also mention that our hero wants to not be afraid anymore so that adds another rooting prospect. SO that's that! Another thing to worry about, is not having things happen without a reason. You can't just say, he forces the ghost out by sheer will power, that's lazy writing and not interesting. GIVE a reason to everything. It makes the readers happy. Say he kicked that ghost's ass! The ending always resolves in our hero concurring his goals and fears, and having the worse possibly thing that can happen to him, happen. That is what plot is. I hoped that I helped, and if you feel like im wrong in something, I would like to discuss about it. And yes, even the story I just made can be better. Thanks for the read!
I would not trust the word/machinations of a child when it comes to my belief in either the supernatural, or anything else. Unless this kid actually has magic powers I'm calling bullshit a quarter of the way through the text. Edited for directional reply therapy.
@waitingforzion What is a "legitimate" plot? I'm not sure really sure what you are looking forward to--are you wondering if its plausible, or interesting, or unique? Because the answer in the context of each would be different. Plausible, well I'm not a fan of fantasy, but it's nothing that strikes to me as invariably impossible, no. Minus the fact that I wouldn't care for a child's forebodings in one way or the other, unless it's sort of like the Shining or Insidious. Interesting, well this is my personal opinion and is just from reading this list--no. But, keep in mind, a story doesn't have to be extremely complex or exceedingly superior to make it interesting--much interest is generated in the way it is told. Observe: My friend was lying in front of me, dead. I felt remorseful for being a disloyal husband, and began to cry. Oh god. No, I can't...Tracy can't be dead. She just can't! God, what I am going to do? It's all my fault, isn't it? I should've...I should've turned back. I should've stayed like a loyal husband! This can't be...I can't breathe. I was choking on my own tears, and brain pounded again, and again. She was dead. And no, it's not particularly unique, either. The phenomenon is quite common--mass hysteria, I believe--and the idea that mass hysteria is not unwarranted, is just as common. However, that in itself should not stop you from working on this. At surface, most superhero stories are about guys who have a tragic past which played an instrumental role in making them who they are, they have idealistic morals and they tend to have some reservations with regards to their role as a hero. A villain, most of the time, is this guy who also went through similar or even same tragic events as the hero, but then instead of dealing with it got all messed up. But it's how the story is told each time that makes it unique or interesting. Still, I wouldn't care for such a story, if it's just this. Firstly, it's too predictable, and from this it's seems too comical. You need to make the reader care for your character. Why are we concerned about what this boy thinks? Yeah, childhood trauma is cool and all but someone as callous as me doesn't give two shites about it. For me, I need to be able to feel what the person is feeling and genuinely comment, "Oh damn, this is actually possible and totally sucks." Like when I was reading the book Before I Go to Sleep, halfway through I was nearly in tears. The author didn't plod on the person's misery but they had developed her so fine, that when she commented about her amnesia, "Everyday I wake up thinking I have my whole life ahead of me, when the truth is that half of my life is over." I was moved to tears. Now, I'm not saying your kid should make everyone sobs buckets, but we must care. From this, I can't see myself caring. Also, is this a children's tale? I mean, ideas that sheer will power and if you stop believing it stops existing is so not...I don't know. I'd tell this to my niece, right? Anyhow. Go over this in your head once more and see how you feel about it
@Shadowfax I can show me kicking the ghosts ass. Forces something out of sheer will sounds not credible. What does forcing something out of sheer will even mean?
The premise sounds interesting to me, however the ending sounds a little lame. The kid tries real hard to stop believing in the ghost and then the ghost just goes away? And on top of this, there's no aftermath, no consequences or repercussions of the whole thing? That sounds unbelievable, as well as deeply unsatisfying. A little similar to the "And it was all a dream!" ending to me.
