I had this idea for a story but can't make heads or tails of how it would possibly work: Boy writes a story about a girl who would fall in love with him. That girl wrote about a boy who would love him as well. They meet and fall in love and - wait. So they both wrote each other into existence? Boy made the Girl who made the Boy who... Somebody help me, I don't think my brain can take much more!
You should check out a short story by Howard Schoenfeld called "Built Up Logically." I can't find it free online, but you could google it and see what anthologies it might be in. It has twisty logic like that.
If you want to do it in a more straight forward manner why don't you just have the boy (or girl) writes a girl (or boy) who's been waiting their whole life to fall in love with the original boy (and has been trying to write him into existence) into existence. It could still get quite mixed up as neither would quite be sure who wrote the other into existence (or if they both actually existed before this at all) but I think it works much better logically.
This reminds me of a really excellent movie with Emma Thompson and Will Farrell called 'Stranger Than Fiction'. She is a writer and Will Farrell is the character, only, her signature as an author is that all her main characters die by the end of the story. And then, they meet in real life...
Wow, I have to see that movie! An idea I had for the plot is that since everything they write becomes reality, they end up creating real enemies by wanting an antagonist in their stories. The dangerous duo figures out how to rewrite reality, and chaos ensues...
It sounds awesome, but logically it seems like one of them had to have actually existed at some point for it to work. How could an idea write about an idea when that idea was writing about an idea which caused both ideas to become reality? Maybe it could work if you had the boy be created, like as an imaginary friend or someone else's wish. When that doesn't work out, he gets lonely and feels like there is no one like him. He then wonders if he can create his own idea, if he as an idea can write in an other idea into existence. That way both were once created into being, but one was already into being when it happened.
I mean, that could be the whole humourous confusion of the story, if you indeed wanted it to be humourous. You could make it so they're both trying to work that out in the end or something...I don't know...
can be tricky, I have a current issue somewhat like that where there is a mother and daughter, they basically swap bodies but different timeframe, the daughter goes back in time into her mothers body when she was her age (senior in high school) but they never swap back. Creating some kind of uncomprehensible situation to write. The daughter would be the mother, and give birth to herself at somepoint, then when her daughter is the same age she'd swap and go back to herself being a teen again, and the cycle would repeat indefinatley. she would live the same 18 years over and over again, always having herself as her own daughter. Then my brain pretty much implodes when trying to figure out, the daughters whole side of it. I like the concepy and would definatly read your take on the similar, 'who is who and who is real' concept.
This is not so hard to do, if you tell it from both perspectives. From the boy's perspective, he wrote the girl into existence. From the girl's perspective, she wrote the boy into existence. There are only perspectives.
Interesting. This idea reminds me of an exercise where you write a circle of events. EG: Man drops lucky coin at supermarket and coin is passed from person to person eventually coming back to the man. I know it’s not precise where your own idea is concerned, but it brought the exercise to mind. Maybe there could be some sort of circle?
I really liked that movie. Especially since ***SPOILERS*** In the end other characters than her tell her she must finish the book. Even if it means killing Farrel' character. Simply because the book, (and Farrel's life) could not be so beautiful if it also was not so tragic. But the twist at the end is how the movie makes you reexamine whether the tragedy was necessary in the first place to create a meaningful story. ***End SPOILERS*** I find the idea very humorous of two writers who think they "wrote" each other into existence. Even if probably they both already existed and it is only a coincidence, can you imagine thinking to yourself, "wait, what if I'm just a product of her/his mind?" I'm one of those weird dudes who would spend a lot of time seriously wondering about that.
Reminds me of my last relationship actually. I had decided I want x,y & z in a person. He showed up about 3 months later near my work. I lusted over the object of my desire for like 9 months and when we finally got together it was all beer and skittles until he finally stopped being my 'dream' and started being who he was. At which point it was all over. The mind plays hideous games on you. You see what you want to see based on what you most desire, and that plays out even in the face of evidence to the contrary because you keep telling yourself that you're seeing what you really want. I could see this working like that. Each one writing their perfect mate, they meet and think they are their perfect mate. But what they are really doing is screwing their own minds by filtering their perceptions of each other and eventually that web of self-deceit comes down. Or they really could have been created by each other but their interaction with each other is the catalyst for each of them to now break the mould they were written in and then make new decisions based on free-will. etc..
In general, I don't enjoy romance stories, but this idea is intriguing. It would be interesting to hear how this develops.
