There are so many basic story ideas running around in my head and I'm having trouble picking! I know I want it to be exciting, but I also want it to be humorous! Or maybe I don't? Anyway, after picking my brain I think I'm going to lean towards the exciting side of all these stories... Here is what I will be going with (for now)
My main character will be male. He'll be in some sort of detention facility at the beginning of the story and will eventually break out. This will lead to a good chase as he tries to escape the prison guards and his previous life inside the walls of wherever he was being held. He will probably break out with an accomplice or two. Once finally free the game is on to find out more about the place they were being held, and why there were there in the first place. Some truth will be discovered that will lead the protagonists to attack the facility and free the other people inside. Of course, there won't be any sci-fi scientific experiments going on inside the facility, but something "weird" will be involved in the place.
I think this might work, at least, I've always dreamed of escaping my accounting class so I think that escaping prison would be a similar affair.
Ian, my worry with this piece is that you'll get too distracted by the adventure to pay attention to the humanity of your characters. Remember, we are always working towards a human truth, as fun as it would be to teach a class on comic writing. Read some George Saunders and see if you can take note on how to do both. He is hilarious and poignant. That said, I'll give the go ahead on this if you promise to make your characters real, and if you let the story choose the ending it wants, rather that anticipating what your protagonist will do in the end. I think you'll find blowing up the facility isn't going to be the most sincere resolution. Plus, explosion scenes never are as good on paper.
ReplyDeleteOk, I've been thinking about this quite a lot. What seemed like such a good idea in my head has become quite difficult to put on paper. I really was getting too wrapped up in the action part of this adventure. I'll definitely look into George Saunders, you've made him sound interesting! I might be reworking this a bit but I'll keep the original idea alive. Thinking time round 2!!
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