For the first story, I have it start with a woman who is the mayor's forlorn mistress. He keeps leading her on, and she finally realizes he'll never leave his wife. She runs away in anger and sadness and finds herself on this bridge, and suddenly, this odd bird startles her and she falls over to her death. The bird steals away her soul and transfers it to the mayor who tortured her for so long. So, in present day, a woman (the MC) is stuck at some party she doesn't want to be at, where her fiance dragged her, and he ignored her all night. She spots another man there she met briefly who is married to the boss' daughter and is her fiance's main competitor / rival at work. The man who is married to the boss' daughter cannot stand his wife for various reasons (she's spoiled and selfish and a drunk and embarrasses him every chance she gets) and so both the main character and the boss' daughter's husband leave the party at teh same time. It's a very snowy night and very dark, and so she loses control of the car and the man's car hits hers, causing her to go off the side right after that same bridge. He drives home, partly drunk from all the drinks at the party. Anyway, she's saved by a rookie cop and a med student (other characters) and is paralyzed from the neck down. The same type of strange bird who caused the accident transfers part of her soul into the man, and so when she awakes, she cannot move or speak, but she is somehow in the man's head. He starts to hate his wife more and more, especially when he finds out she's slept with half the town, including the main character's fiance (his rival at work). It goes from there, but I'm pretty stuck at this point... I'm working on the third one right now, and it's looking promising.
The second one involves triplets (two guys, one girl) and the girl goes on a reality show but is duped into thinking she was responsible for her friend dying (it's all a setup, but she doesn't realize it). She eventually kills herself from the guilt. The one brother who was very close to her is devastated, and he discovers the whole thing was a setup. He convinced the other one through guilt and threats to help him set up a new reality show. The contestants are related to those from the show that killed his sister, only they don't know it. He wants to punish those he feels are responsible for his sister's death. That's the second story - or what I have so far.
A story concept means nothing. What matters is how you write it, the characterization, the flow, the imagery, all of it. There's no benefit in asking what other people think of the concept! They'll either say,"Sounds great," or, "it sounds like a ripoff of..." If the idea stirs you, write it. Then ask people what they think of the final story. After they tell you what they don't like about it, revise it, usually several times, until you're happy with it or until you throw up your hands and say the hell with it.
Honestly I think your problems with sticking to a story and finishing it is a bigger issue than which of these stories you'll choose to write. Why not write all three of them, one after another? You don't HAVE to pick one... Just make sure you finish one before you start with the next. You need discipline if you want to write (and finish) a novel.
Tesoro, you're probably right. I think it's more about confidence than anything. I'm my own worst critic. I will start with the third one, which is exciting me the most right now, and finish it and then see which other beckons me next. I guess I always am waiting for the big idea to dawn on me, and that's really an excuse to not write from fear of failure - or something.
Thanks, Cogito. That really makes sense. It is all in the implementation. I just have to stay away from word packages and cliches.
It's quite possible that the 'big idea' might come to you while you're writing that third one, (or someone else too for that matter) because being in 'writing mode' have a tendency to activate the creative part of the brain and make you more perceptive to new ideas.. So just write the one you feel most about, like you said, you will recognize it when it comes along.
Both concepts sound like a good basis for a story and I don't know if this is possible or helpful, but when I love two stories equally, I find the way to combine them. One becomes the main plot and the other - subplot.. But actually writing the story, it takes a very long time. To make it the best it can be, that is. I find that my worst procrastination trigger is thinking of this awesome idea which sounds so great in my head, and then doing a brief outline and thinking how the hell am I going to drag this out for 80 000 words?! Then I get obsessed with the idea and start developing it and at one point, when I developed the outline beautifully - cool ending, twists and turns, a romance subplot, other subplots, then I get all bummed out thinking, how the hell am I ever going to write something this epic?! Is this even one book or two or three? Should I be writing a serial?? And so my neurosis reaches new heights. Until I can not stand it any longer, and until I start yearning to get to know my characters better, and that I can do only through writing. And so it starts. One thing in all this is true though - in absolutely every stage of writing, you are on your own. Alone, to do the whole job by yourself. Discussing things with others can help but in my experience, they more than anything relieve the anxiety, but ultimately, we decide what we want to write about. It is the beta-readers, people who read our chapters and give critique on it, that come in handy, but for them to have something to do, we have to write the chapters first. So it is a very difficult and challenging process, especially if you are ambitious with your plot, and from what I read here, you are quite ambitious. Which is a great thing because that's what good books are made of - interesting stuff and lots of it
