I am Writing a short story and need a little help with the plot?
So my story is about a 17 year old girl who is in a mental institution. She has been there ever since she was in 8th grade, when she set fire to her house out of desperation. OUT OF DESPERATION TO WHAT?BUT WHY DID SHE DO IT? WHAT CAUSED HER TO IT? Now she has to go back to school after being released from the institution becuase she completed the required time.
Any thoughts on how i can add to this, or how can i make it much more interesting and can you answer my 3 questions on why she did it?
- Nishi ?’s TheMaine
Tags: Desperation, Mental Institution, Old Girl, Writing A Short Story
October 15th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Abuse. Mental and/or physical from her mother or father or both parents.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:25 am
Maybe she is desperate because her parent were going to move or because they wouldn’t let her see her boyfriend. If you are going to be a writer, you have to come up with your own plot.
October 18th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
She could have been abused by any of her relatives, a brother, father, or even her mother as an unexpected twist. Unable to get up the courage to stand up to the person she was abused by, she lit the house on fire while they were sleeping. She set the house out of desperation to rid herself of the person who has made her life miserable, without obviously being the criminal.
Or she could’ve been intoxicated and lit the house on accident, she was sent to the mental institution because she was a drug addict or alcoholic. She became high or drunk (whichever) because of her home or school life. She collapsed under the pressures of adolscence.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:44 am
Google in Desperation and mental illness, you will find that most people with mental illness have this symptom. When we fill desperate we do things that we normally would not do when things are in control.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 am
Maybe she did it out of stress… does she have a self absorbed older sister who is getting married and is the higlight of everyone’s life leaving the poor girl to be left alone in the shadows? so she did it for attention.
or, was she viciousily raped by her mother’s boyfriend and no one believes her so she did it to escape the truama and hopefully have a chance at a real life?
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Perhaps she lived in a broken home, her parents, who she needed love from, instead spent most of their evenings together fighting. She withdrew to her room, and tried listening to music, but still couldn’t drown out the constant battle going on outside her door.
And it was always the same words that she would hear, night after night, until it began to seemingly send her a message, the wrong kind of message for her young, impressionable psyche.
Those words, over and over —
Daddy to Mommy: “You’re nothing but TRASH!”
Mommy to Daddy: “And someday you’re gonna burn in HE**!”
After months passed, with no love to warm her heart in that cold house, she finally came to one conclusion……….