Questions

Self explanatory…

Anyways I would like it to be a deeper subject then just the usual short stories.

I was thinking of a story about a Jewish girl’s experience in the holocaust but I couldn’t condense it enough for a short story.

PLEASE HELP! All ideas welcomed!!
- tayloo_heartsyou

Writing a novel begins with a simple idea. That story idea is what will lead you to your story plot, which is the core of what you need for writing a novel.

Plot is simply the plan of your story. It’s the movement of the ***?ople in your story through situations and through ***?ttings to get to certain goals. Some novel ideas are about a situation. Some ideas about a character. No matter where your idea starts, you must turn the idea into a plot if you ****?t enough story for writing a novel.

How do you do this? By ***?king questions. The two questions you ****?t to ***?k to transform an idea into a plot are: What if. What if is the ***?ed question to every novel plot. To get a ***?ll, complex plot, you must ***?k this question over and over and over and over.

For example, take the idea of an alternate universe where ***?t is considered beautiful. To transform this idea into a plot you might ***?k, what if a very obese woman from our universe ended up in this alternate universe? What would that be like for her? What if she suddenly was considered drop-dead gorgeous in this alternate universe? What would that be like for her? What if she started losing weight? What if by losing weight, she ends up ***? unhappy in this universe ***? she was in the one she left behind? Do you ***?e how this works? You play with what if.

Once you’ve ***?ked the what if questions ***?veral ***?mes, you are ready to ***?k the next question. Why? The why question expands on your what if questions. You use why to flesh out the scenarios you came up with ***? a result of ***?king what if.

For example, one of the what if questions for the alternate universe idea could be, ‘what if the main character started losing weight?’ To expand on this what if, you would ***?k, ‘Why’. Why would she lose weight? The why would take you back to what if. What if she lost weight because she was so happy that she no longer ate to cover her pain?

That what if would lead you to another why: Why, if she ate to cover pain, wouldn’t she just eat again once she started losing weight in the new reality? Wouldn’t that make her unhappy enough to binge again? Why wouldn’t she just go back to eating a lot?

That why, again, will take you to a what if: What if she no longer ****?ts to eat to cover pain and something in her experience of this new universe has changed her. She just doesn’t know what it is. What if? Why? Do you ***?e the process? You ***?k what if. That gives you information. Then you ***?k why. That gives you more information, which leads you back to what if.

It’s impossible to structure novel plotting much more than this. It’s a general brainstorming process that requires your mind to be free and ***?ll of possibility. This brainstorming is what will give you the foundation of what you need for writing a novel.


- Karin Manning

I’m working on a story idea, but ran into a lack of knowledge problem.

The story is about the a state, some fifteen years from now, trying to leave from the United States. They want to remain friendly with the rest of the states, but will no longer supply men, money, weapons, nor supplies of war to the US military.
Now, my knowledge of the national Guard stems from Civil War history, where the Guard were basicly state militias, under command of the state in which they came from.
So, my idea was that the National Guard of this particular state would be, or try to, withdraw from the nation’s service, and be brought up to protect the state itself when the US tries to take back the state.

(please note that this is a work of pure fiction intended for many years from now.)

I need to know how the politics of the National Guard works.
Is the National Guard like state militias?
How do the orders come down to the individual state’s Guard?
Who do the orders come through?
Does the state have some influence over the Guard’s orders?

Any information will be very helpful. Even if it means I have to rethink the story.

Thanks a bunch.
- The Chronicler

yeah, so i’m supposed to write a short story for my english honors class. my teacher is very cool and likes odd yet compelling things. any ideas? and please don’t say just think of somethign and it will come. because i’ve been doing that for a week and i got nothing.
- fuzzyblackdice31

NaNoWriMo (national novel writers month) is coming up, and altho ive wanted to do it for the past 5 years, this is the first time ive really had the time. ive been wracking my brain trying to come up with a basic plot, but nothing is coming. i want it to be light and funny sci fi, nothing serious. i dont expect this to be good, because i havent written in about 2 years, in fact ive never written anything unless it was for a grade, and i was given a basic direction, but i really REALLY want to. and i just want to use this as a chance to exercise my literary muscles. so please help.
- just along for the ride

My story idea is complete, along with synopsis and book structure…I know what each chapers is going to be about but heck everytime i sit down I delete every thing I write because it isnt good enough! 3 months! argghhhh and I am on a deadline!
HELP!
- Gypsy Gurl

I’m writing a short story for my ninth grade english class and it was going pretty well.. but now I’m having some writers block. I was wondering if anyone can give me ideas on how to adjust the story and add more detail to it.

The story is about a 21 year old mime who promised his cousin who was 16 at the time to continue making people laugh by becoming a mime himself. The story idea may not sound good but trust me the story is really interesting. Well anyway, his cousin died and the mime, who’s name is Brendan Radke, believes he died because the clowns had kicked them out of the fair. Now 12 years later Brendan went back to the fair to show the clowns they can’t pick on him and he could stay and make people laugh with his humor for his cousin. When he gets there he sees people being entertained by the clown and he needs to steal the spotlight.. any ideas on how to???????

i was thinking maybe Brendan storms up to the clown and then surprisingly the clown turns the spotlight over to him and Brendan realizes he can forgive the clowns after all these years because they didn’t kill his cousin after all…. but i feel like that’s too plain..

any help?
- perkins97

well…it’s not that I have writers block, it’s just that all of it’s in my head, and not on the computer screen. I started the novel, but now that I look back at what I’ve written so far, a lot of it sounds stupid. Not uninteresting, just irrelevant in a way. It’s bugging me really badly, and I’m afraid my story idea has been used already (well, every idea has been used already), but I just don’t know how to make it work. Make it unique. My novels going nowhere, and I’m stuck writing poetry in the margins of my school notes, and working on stories that I’ve long since abandoned. I really want to get this published before I turn 15.
- Monkey P

Our latest assignment in my Creative Writing class is to write a short childrens’ story. After the stories are graded, we will be going to the elementary schools and reading them to 2 classes.

The story is to have about 14 pages of text, and 14 pages of pictures. The pages of text aren’t supposed to be filled; they are only supposed to have a few sentances.

It can’t be a sad story. If our story leaves the children in tears, we will get a failing grade, thus failing the class.

I was assigned to read to a fourth-grade class and a fifth-grade class. The whole ’short childrens’ story’ idea, along with the requirements, seem to fit that of something you would read to a much younger class - now I am at a loss as to what I should write about.

If any of you have any ideas for a good topic or basic story-line, please help me. =\

Also, the book itself can contain multiple shorter stories, similar to that of .George and Martha., which contains 5 stories.

Thank you!! =]
- Shizzly

I’m writing a short story for my ninth grade english class and it was going pretty well.. but now I’m having some writers block. I was wondering if anyone can give me ideas on how to adjust the story and add more detail to it.

The story is about a 21 year old mime who promised his cousin who was 16 at the time to continue making people laugh by becoming a mime himself. The story idea may not sound good but trust me the story is really interesting. Well anyway, his cousin died and the mime, who’s name is Brendan Radke, believes he died because the clowns had kicked them out of the fair. Now 12 years later Brendan went back to the fair to show the clowns they can’t pick on him and he could stay and make people laugh with his humor for his cousin. When he gets there he sees people being entertained by the clown and he needs to steal the spotlight.. any ideas on how to???????

i was thinking maybe Brendan storms up to the clown and then surprisingly the clown turns the spotlight over to him and Brendan realizes he can forgive the clowns after all these years because they didn’t kill his cousin after all…. but i feel like that’s too plain..

any help?
- shhh!, i cnt tell!