Ok so Im trying to write a story and could use some ideas. Im good at writing romance and like a lot of supernatural stuff like vampires,demons,werewolfs,meramids etc. My main character is a girl named Vixyn. If anyone has some interesting story ideas that would be great. I know it's getting a little cliche right now and thats why I need ideas so that it wont be.
Avenged Bullet, it's your story so you have to come up with it. You can't count on others to give you ideas, it all has to come from you. I'm sure Cogito will be here shortly to give you his 'template reply' about cliche plots or characters. There are very few stories that haven't been done before in some form. It's the way you write it that matters.
Anonymous, I understand what you're saying. I plan to come up with the plot itself but even a small idea as to a certain part or something a character says that I can twist to make my own is mainly what Im looking for. I suppose I should've made that more clear..
Well, here's my idea, using some of the things you like to write about: Vixyn is locked in a tower. She can only see the world through one small window. Vampires have placed her in the tower for two reasons: first, Vixyn is the first human being to have blood that is poisonous to vampires; second, she may, through the study of her blood, lead to a stronger more resilient race of vampire. Unfortunately, the werewolves have sent their minions to the tower. The moon is waxing… Hope lives in one man with a demon sword. He races to the tower with little chance of rescuing Vixyn.
I would use the M. Night Shyamalan school of plot twists. Take a normal object, put hair on it, and make it deadly. And have an alien abduction. With killer trees.
AnonymousWriter, you're mistaking this for the "Here's my story idea, do you think it's good," oe "Has it been done already?" that I have a template response for. This doesn't have a template response yet, but such a template would have to start with "The story idea needs to come from the author." It's like saying. "I want to tell a story. Anyone want to tell me what the story is?" What I can suggest is to look for a goal to reach, and a barrier to that goal. Decide who your main character is, and any main antagonist. Start fiddling with the characters to try to make them more intersting. There's no formula for that, but practice will help. Just making them odd isn't the key. There has to be something the reader can relate to, perhaps even respect. Get creative with the barriers. Make them tougher, make them intersting, Add other barriers to make the characters take action, so they can't stay put and can't retreat. Make the goal more interesting. Don't get caught up in the apocalyptic goal that gas to be grander than every other goal, e.g. the Universe will cease to exist if you fail. Make the MC question whether the goal is even worth attaining - that too is a barrier. Other ways to look for ideas: Read a book ar watch a TV show or movie, and play "What if?" What if the lead had not been able to do X, how would he still succeed? What if the adversary had done this instead? Look at short story challenges, such as our weekly writing contests for ideas too.
Vixyn had a destiny, to help the All-Father dispense his justice throughout the world: charity to the poor, talents to the nice, sacrifices demanded of the naughty. Legends make the mistake of portraying her kind as solely for transport, seeing them as a single horse with many legs, or reindeer. She is more accurately seen as a female were-fox, sometimes a wolf, and she spies on the world. The All Father was jovial and dangerously powerful, so the Sedition (secret organization) used their magic to bound him to the North Pole for all time, but one day a year. (Kind of a pressure-valve loophole.) This arrangement worked to everyone's satisfaction for a few centuries, for there is no true justice during the Holidays with the modern forces of evil rising, of commercialism and hypocrisy. One day at the North Pole, Vixyn met Orlando, a tall, dark, statuesque elf. He was an aberrational elf, unbeknownst to her: doomed to eternal life so long as he never sees the sun and lives on nothing but blood. Under the charge of the Sedition, he infiltrated the elves' workshop. He massacred his own brethren, destroyed their carefully-crafted blessings, and stole the Big Book of Naughty and Nice for re-writing by the Sedition. The Dasher, messenger of the All Father, was killed. The Dancer/Prancer, bringer of blessings, imprisoned. Comet, the transporter, fled --with the agents of the Sedition on his tail. Donner, the illusionist, surrendered to serve the Sedition. Blitzen became the personal all-purpose manservant to the All Father, who can not be killed although after this wave of attack his powers became compromised. Vixyn, wracked with guilt that her infatuation for the elf had blinded her defining skills, sought the All Mother, Empress of the Green. The All Mother mercifully erased Vixyn's memory and gave her life as a human, safe from the Sedition, until such a time that she may once again realize her destiny. Vixyn's defining skills, however, of observation and shape-shifting into a fox, cannot be taken from her. A conflicted Orlando, upon seeing what the world has become with no Santa Claus and no sense of good and evil anymore, and with the Sedition's promise that he would not longer be aberrant if he served them proved to be a complete lie, dedicated the rest of his eternal life to seek redemption... and Vixyn. One day, he found her. Then, the story begins.
Hello, Avenged Bullet. You could always try interviewing your characters. It might sound stupid, but it only needs a little imagination. It's your story so imagine yourself as a big shot sitting behind a desk in an office the size of a mansion. There's a knock at the door, you call 'come on in'. Vixyn enters. What's your first impression of her? Does she approach you confidently? Is she talkative or is she tight lipped and nervous? Is she wary? Are you wary? Are you comfortable in her company? Do you like her? Tell her to take a seat and then offer her a fat cigar, just to see what her reaction is. Ask her questions about anything and everything, delve deep and find out what makes her tick. Get to know her, find out what you like and don't like about her. Let her throw questions back at you, too. Give her a personality and a mind of her own, and let her discuss the story with you. You might be pleasantly surprised at the ideas that can develop from doing this. If she doesn't measure up then fine, just move on to the next candidate. You're the boss, all you have to do is shout 'next' and see what walks through the door. It's worth a try. AMCV
Bullet, you'll hear it once, you'll hear it a thousand times: you need to come up with your own ideas. Or, rather, your own conceits, which seems to be at least partly what you're looking for here. You'll find that many writers are adverse to handing out ideas to you, especially ones that the secretly feel are good ones. Ideas are easy to find, but it's not easy to make a good story out of them, so not everyone is going to want to share. The bigger concern is if you really want to develop as a writer, you need to learn to come up with your own ideas by yourself. (That doesn't mean you can't ask for advice on development or other issues, of course!) Try looking for inspiration in music lyrics, or in every day occurrences. You'd be surprised how many ideas you can get from them alone. Start daydreaming, too. If you could have any power in any sort of world, what would it be? Real-world logic be damned, what kind of adventure would you like to have if you could have it? What's your favorite theme? Death? Rock 'n' Roll? Drugs? Religion? If you're stumped no matter what, Google Seventh Sanctum. It's a site with generators for story, character, and item ideas. I wouldn't rely on the place exclusively, but for a starting point, why not?
Idea!!!!!!! Oh!! Oh!! I got an idea! Vixyn can be a mermaid that flies out of the sea at night, because that’s the time she turns into a vampire. You can start the story off with her being a little girl and lovingly play with her father. After making the reader fall in love with the father-daughter relationship, a demon comes and kills the dad. Her quest in life is to kill the demon. Many years later she meets a guy she falls in love with him. She doesn’t know it’s the demon. She finds out later and is torn between killing him and wanting to be with him. The demon tells her that it was her real father that sent him to kill her. The guy she knew growing up stole her from her real father. She finds out her “adoptive” father is evil and her real father a good guy. So she wants to be with the demon and all the happy ever after crap. The only problem. The demon is really a girl! Enjoy!
Vixen. That's the name for a female fox. Fox demons are a popular part of Japanese culture and are famous tricksters and shape shifters. Your MC finds that she is one of these creatures, maybe stuck in human form, and living in the west. Why?! You could do research on the lore, the magic, the "fox feelings" and much more. Plus, it's something different.
Shape shifting into a fox sounds like the MC in Patricis Briggs' series. If you are having a hard time coming up with ideas, first think about the main things. What does she want? Once you thought of that. What does she have to do to get it? Who or what is blocking her way. Who or what is making it hard for her to get what she wants? That's your plot. Everything else is filler. Then start with action, after that go into some background, then development, then climax, then end, she gets or doesn't get what she wants. I like the idea that she is the only human with blood that is poisonous to vampires. Not the tower part, but that is an interesting nugget. Honestly I might use that concept.
I have no idea who that is, but she got it from Japanese folk lore. It's like saying that a story about Thor sounds like a Marvel Comics story.
TheAlderian, my point was not that Brigg's idea predates Japanese folklore, but rather than it is not a new idea for a novel's MC. That was all.
