1. LibbiShannon

    LibbiShannon New Member

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    Could this form a story?

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by LibbiShannon, Jun 13, 2013.

    A young teenage girl, plays netball professionally for a English netball team. She is that good that she goes over and plays a season for a Australian team. During these experience she goes threw the life as a normal teenage girl but has to age up quicker and doesn't have much of a life from Netball and School, which means she doesn't have many friends.

    Could in form a story?

    Other things I might add,
    She has a child (Yes or no)
    Her best friend dies (Yes or no)
    She gets really sick or has a lifetime disease (Yes or no)

    Help please.
     
  2. Thomas Kitchen

    Thomas Kitchen Proofreader in the Making Contributor

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    I'm going to beat Cogito to it here and tell you plainly that in the end, asking whether a story idea will work is useless. I presume you came up with the idea yourself and found inspiration from external sources, and that in turn means that somewhere in that head of yours you want to write this story. That's fine. But it's slightly redundant to ask others about your idea as you will get a variety of opinions, mainly because different people prefer to read different genres and characters.

    So if you want to write it, write it. And don't ask us about where your story should go. This may seem like an unsatisfactory answer, but I you want to develop as a writer then you must think of the story and plot for yourself. By doing this your imagination and writing skills will mature. Have you noticed that when you wrote stories as a child (if you did, of course) you wrote a few paragraphs and then gave up on them? It's usually because you either outright copied the story from somewhere else or you didn't develop your characters and story ideas enough, which is fine as you were a child and did not know the surprising amount of effort that goes into writing a story. I myself did this several times as a child.

    This is not a post discouraging you from writing; this is a post discouraging you from asking for ideas. Create your own. It may seem hard at first, but it will get easier and you will receive far more gratification in doing so. Grab a pen and a notebook. Write your ideas down. Play with them. Mix and match. Ask yourself what story you want to tell. Eventually, one will emerge that will stir you.

    Hope this helps. :)

    P.S. If you want help on how to write down ideas and fuse them together, that's another question entirely, and one that this forum will answer. So if you need help with this, or are unsure of anything, just ask us.

    And welcome to the forums! :D
     
  3. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    ditto that...
     
  4. Justin Rocket 2

    Justin Rocket 2 Contributor Contributor

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    Anything can form a story, in my opinion, provided you have interesting characters that the reader cares for and a tight plot/conflict.
    What you've got is just a disjointed set of ideas.
    Try this, after each of your ideas, attach "..but.." or "..consequently..".
    So, "she has a baby, but..?" or "she has a baby, consequently..?" Write about a page of words using this approach (ie. <idea>, but.. and <idea>, consequently..) and see where it gets you. If, at the end, you are happy with what you've got, then you might have a story.
     
  5. EdFromNY

    EdFromNY Hope to improve with age Supporter Contributor

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    Welcome to the forum. This is a natural question for a newcomer (both to the forum and writing in general) to ask. The only thing I will add to Thomas' excellent points is that the thing you are asking for help on are the very things that a writer must develop on her/his own. From the moment you conceive of the initial idea - which is what you've done - it belongs to you and no one else. No one will ever know that netball player as well as you do, or will understand what motivates her, what she fears, or how difficult it is for her to overcome her obstacles as you. So, by definition, any advice we offered would be inferior to your own instincts.

    What you may need to do, depending on how much you've read and how much life experience you have (and those are the two things that limit more than anything else a young person's ability to tell a compelling story), is read other stories to see how others have developed their ideas. Not only will this give you something to go by, but it will also let you know what's been done before and what you might want to avoid. And when you do this, read outside the genre in which you are looking to write - that is, don't confine yourself to stories of young professional athletes. See how other gripping stories are told and make notes on the ones that grab you the most. You may also want to consult some quality non-fiction works on or by young athletes, to get a real-world view of what they go through. In this, I would not limit myself to your particular sport.

    Good luck.
     
  6. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    No, it couldn't form a story. Someone has to write it, and then it will become a story.

    How good it is, or how crappy, is solely a matter of how skillfully the writer writes it.
     
  7. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    that, too!
     

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