I thought this might be an interactive way to write a story. I have a few plot ideas. I'll write a one/two sentence synopsis for each. Let me know if you like any of them. Or none of them! Or are confused by any of them. Thanks! 1. A failed painter meets a spontaneous young woman whose inspiration improves the quality of his work. Yet when her behaviour becomes more dangerous, he is forced to cut her out of his life, perhaps saving his sanity but also diminishing his creative power. 2. A filmmaker is spurred on by his wife to direct his first feature and - beginning to believe himself a genius - has an affair with the starring actress with disastrous consequences for both his marriage and work. 3. A procrastinating aspiring stand up comedian keeps creating conditions to delay his move to New York, first saying he needs to study more craft, then read more, then travel more until finally real life events from the covid19 crisis make it impossible for him to move and perform comedy 4. A happily married family man has a nightmare that he had murdered someone as a child and buried the body in his old garden and so driven mad with a desire to dispel the fear in his mind, he goes back to check. Yet in this manic obsession with his dream, he neglects a very real danger to his family which tragically takes their life in his absence. 5. An alcoholic writer has his autobiographical script green lit in Hollywood and a young director casts him in the starring role. Yet with filming almost complete, his alcoholism - the very thing that had driven him to this point - derails the entire project. 6. A teenager learns to play popular songs on the piano in hopes of impressing a girl, but she ignores his performance at the school. This rejection inspires him to write a successful song, which she also ignores. Finally when he lets go of the pretense of making music, he gets her attention only to realise he prefers his relationship to his instrument.
I like 1 and 4. Probably cause I like stories about creativity and muses and 4 because it sounds a bit like a thriller. The others - number 5 could get tedious with the alcoholism, 6 sounds good only it sounds like a short story, 3 could be very quirky which could be good. 2 could work although I've only read a few books about affairs that I've actually liked. There's a balance you have to maintain in not making your characters look like major jerks for the bulk of the story. Which one most interested you? I usually pick a story by what character or idea I want to delve into for months at a time.
These are pretty good! I like 4 and 6 the best. I think 6 has superb possibilities, but you'll need big subplots to resolve happily in there.
Write them all. Use them as exercises and practice different style within each. You could play with types of perspectives, or maybe try a minimalism plot with some of the more dialogue heavy ones. Practice in volume.
Not that taken with any of them. If I had to pick I'd say 1 had more potential. But you could write them all and see which one feels better.
A couple of them are Twilight Zonish; I'd stay away from 4 in particular. 5 is kind of Where the Buffalo Roam, which i hated, even though I like both Hunter Thompson and Bill Murray. I like 3 as an introspective story that you might actually care about; whereas the others, you're just being clever.
Hmm not sure I'm really seeing a twilight zone connection. It's like not like there's a story where one guy is the same, but everyone else is different. Or a smash cut ending and it turns out all the characters are in fact fruits trapped in a fridge. That's twilighe zoneish from my understanding. I don't consider myself clever or even trying to be. I would love to be able to write fun twilight zoney stuff though.
Twilight Zone I think referring to twist endings. They get what they wanted but there are unforeseen consequences that rob the fruit of its sweetness, like the TZ story of the man who wished he had all the time in the world to read, then was given exactly that opportunity but broke his only pair of glasses (in a controlled environment were he wouldn't be able to get replacements). Like getting wishes granted by a Genie (or by the Devil) but there's always a twist that makes the anticipated heaven into a hell.
I do like 6 and 1. Reckon 4 is very interesting too. Don’t know if you have enough time to draft something up for all of them. You might find that it’s the less interesting prompt that gives you better characters or more interesting subplots. I think maybe begin by starting with a paragraph or two for each of them. Relating to writing prompts: There’s this book that’s been sitting on my amazon wish list for years It’s ideal for members of the forum who enjoy drafting their stories exclusively around given prompts. There are some fantastic ideas in this one. 642 Things To Write About
Alright, interesting to learn 6, 1 and 4 were somewhat liked! I will try to write them all. Making a premise work is tough as hell, but I'll try my best to enjoy it as a writing exercise. I find the hardest thing is knowing what to write, so it's always good to have some ideas and have at least a bit of faith the ideas have some promise. Thank you everyone!
That's exactly what I liked about it. All 6 have potential worth exploring with at least a short story, but 4 was my favorite. I would actually play up the Twilight Zone aspect. It sounds like you have connections in mind that might fit the bill. Not every TZ episode had a twist ending, so that's not necessarily what I mean. Often, the dark irony was present through most of the episode. They were twenty-nine minutes long. If there were nothing to each story but a trick ending, it wouldn't have been much of a show, and probably wouldn't have run for 158 episodes or gone into reruns a thousand times.
Twenty-nine minutes of film can be several thousand words in print. I like Rod Serling's stories, and they're wonderfully cinematic, as well as accessible. Just - I wondered whether that expertly-trodden path was where Zeppo595 intended to go. The story ideas struck me as just a little too pat; too academic. As I said, any of those could make a good story if written by someone who cares about the characters and what happens to them. I thought #3 had the most potential for an interesting character and with perhaps the least predictable outcome. I'll be interested to see how they all turn out.
I don't know if it'll be anything like the twilight zone until I write out, though I suspect not. It might be kind of generic psychological thriller-ish. But I've never written anything like that before, so I hope I'd enjoy the process of trying something different even if it lacks artistic merit.
If anyone is interested, I have written number 6 now and it's here: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/piano-boy.165809/
Personally, I like 4, but that's probably just because I enjoy books that are weird and sort of fever dream-ish. But I know that's not a common thing, so maybe don't go with that one? I'd say the next most intriguing one was 6, but you've already written that one, so 3 seems interesting.
Hah. I guess I do. Anyway, I wrote them all and unless I heavily edit the rest, only 6 will survive. I just didn't really connect with the characters in the others. It felt like I was just connecting the dots of the plot, but I wasn't really into it. I never got into any kind of zone with it and quite honestly, it was not enjoyable. But maybe I'll do some surgical work on them, and that might be more fun.
Any or all of these could be good. More than that, they seem to have the latitude to work as either a short, or a full length. Heck, write them all as shorts and put them into an anthology Reading through them, they kind of remind me of the old HBO show Tales From the Crypt in the late 80s/early 90s. Anyone ever watch that? I used to love that show. The plot lines in the OP could be like log lines for episodes on that show...similar vibe.
Really interested in your first, and forth idea. Philosophy in a story can really make a story come alive. The third point reminded me of a video on YouTube. It is a philosophy video. I hope I'm not breaking any rules with this link, could not find anything in the rules saying I couldn't! Yes writing all six if anything will improve your writing ability's. good luck!
Too many stories are about aspiring artists due to authors' experience bias, so it feels old already. If the main character is a villain, it's a big challence to make it credible without losing the reader's empathy.
It's not 'experience bias' to use elements of your own life and interests in fiction. None of the things the characters do in these plot ideas are situations from my actual life. It gets old if I write the same type of story in the same style. For example, if EVERY story is about some artist who fails in a way the reader expects. I'm not interested in writing about heroes and villains. Every character should have a little villain in them.
Check out "Creepshow" on the Shudder tv channel. It's written in a similar vein. Usually a one hour program with two 30 minute esipodes. One of the recent ones was a retelling of "The Monkey's Paw" which I didn't care for but it was interesting..... Scott