writing thread

[Astrum]

So I am a writer, if anything other than a musician. I enjoy writing poetry and have a decent folder filled with poems I have written, but I am much more keen with writing short stories, novellas (or something roughly the length of a novella) and screenplays. I've been completely stumped lately though, I tend to stare at the screen for hours and hours to turn out one sentence, then erase it. Usually once I grab ahold of something I like I'll run about fifteen or so pages with it then leave it unfinished. I have an alright amount of finished works, though.

So I decided to break my recent writers block I wanted to write something fun, generic, and easy. Something a bored 30 year old would read or a teenager of normal intelligence. Something not too deep, something with an actively moving plot, some violence. Something very basic.

So I've been considering three lame ideas: A suburban man living in the nearest suburbs to chicago, who is running errands in a shopping mall when some rival country to be determined unleashes nuclear holocaust upon the United States. He is one of few survivors in a nearly destroyed country. Sort of a The Stand feel.

number two: Set in Boston, crime drama involving Irish mobsters, crooked cops and sleazy italians. Violent, simple, generic.

number three: Some random man with a somewhat interesting past and a somewhat interesting occupation that leads him to some reigon of northwest europe and falls in with some sort of murder/ritual/conspiriacy/something. Lots of imagery and characters. I havent thought much about this one but it was inspired by the opening track to Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk. eerie.

So yeah, which one do you think I should go with?

and also, as the main focus of this thread, who here writes? discuss the general topic and feel free to throw up ideas for anyone, and post any works or links to works.

 

[cookiecutter]

Three sounds the most interesting to me.

 

[Matt]

I would do some sort of fantasy/horror epic.

If only I had the patience to sit down and write a long story. I have so many ideas.

 

[Astrum]

ahh, what I find is you can have the best goddamn ideas in the world and when you go to write them you blank out. That's everything thats been happening to me lately.

 

[Zephyrus]

I'm not creative enough to write fiction.

 

[mutantllama]

I want to write a fantasy sometime in my life.

 

[Valerie]

I'm not creative enough to write fiction.

One morning, young college student Jeremy Swist was preparing to go to class when suddenly a GIANT FUCKING BEAN CAME CRUSHING DOWN ONTO HIS BUILDING. But it didn't matter because the bean was only giant in perspective of an ant. Jeremy was completely oblivious to the event, and went on his way. Then he got run over by a drunk driver. The end.

 

[Matt]

I do plenty of poetry (see poetry thread), and I've been wanting to write a short story for a long time, but I can never get beyond a page or two.

Oddly enough, a rather detailed plot virtually exploded into my mind on Saturday morning after I'd been up all night. I was thinking about all those times in horror/suspense movies when a character who's been in relative safety for the bulk of the story suddenly makes a few connections between events they've witnessed recently, and realises that they're actually in grave danger at this very moment, and that by now it might be too late to escape it.

From there, I tried to think of an instance where such a frightening character epiphany could happen. Here's the best I could do:



A guy and girl who've been dating for a while finally decide to live together and rent a small house in the hills (you know, stereotypical creepy location). After a while, they find the relationship isn't going very well - lots of arguments, stupid misunderstandings, etc. - and they start getting sick of each other. The guy then decides one day he needs to get away from it, and tells the girl he's going to take the train back to the city (they only have one car between them, and she needs it for work) and hang out with his best friend for a while. He tells her this just before she leaves for work one morning.

When she gets back, he's gone, and she finds the house freezing cold (it's the middle of winter). Apparently the jackass left the back door wide open when he left. She closes it, and goes about her business of coping with her relationship troubles and being alone at the house. What she doesn't notice is that there's a bloody shred of clothing stuck to the door.

Time goes on. Some intermediate plot shit happens. Only thing I've really got right now is that an old friend of hers comes and stays at the house for a while to keep her company. They stay up late telling life stories, getting drunk and goofing around, all that nice stuff. Eventually her friend has to leave to finish up her last year at college (the main girl character had already finished a year ahead of her). So once again she's alone at the house.

Now, throughout the story the girl has been noticing odd things about her home - lights going out at weird times, creepy noises, strange scars appearing on the walls and then disappearing, etc. It creeps the hell out of her, but it never happens when other people are around, and she doesn't want to tell anyone else for fear of sounding like she's going nuts. But she really doesn't want to be alone there, and it troubles her that her friend is now gone. However, she's too far away from her family to be able to stay with them and still make it to work everyday.

At this point it's been maybe a week and a half. She's tried calling her boyfriend several times now - she just wants to see him again, and she's willing to forgive everything he did to upset her lately. But his cell phone never rings - she only get the voice mail.

Finally one night, as she's reaching her wit's end over her boyfriend being gone and all the weird shit going on in the house, she decides to start poking through all his private possessions that he left in their bedroom.

*cue creepy music*

As she opens the shelf to a nightstand where he keeps some of his stuff, she notices something very disturbing: her boyfriend's glasses. He's very nearsighted, and could not go anywhere without these. What the hell is going on, she wonders...

Then she finds a train ticket in the drawer. He never even left town.

A chill runs over her. Something definitely isn't right. Thinking back on the day he disappeared, she recalls the back door that was left open. It was in the dining room, where she never goes. She decides to take another look in there now. The darkness and silence throughout the house is so intimidating that she barely makes it to the light switch in the dining room without panicking.

The lights come on, and she sees the bloody shred of cloth stuck to the door. Fearing now for her boyfriend's life, she grabs a flashlight and slowly makes her way to the back door to look outside.

From this point, some generic horror movie climax ensues. Or maybe a not-so-generic climax, depending on what I'm able to do with it.



So what do you all think? Worth pursuing? Or am I just on my way to the next throwaway B-grade horror/drama to air on Lifetime?

If anyone actually wants to help me work on the story, that's cool too. Just send me a PM or something and we can throw ideas around, or just post some additions here.

I like it. Might send a pm.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

One morning, young college student Jeremy Swist was preparing to go to class when suddenly a GIANT FUCKING BEAN CAME CRUSHING DOWN ONTO HIS BUILDING. But it didn't matter because the bean was only giant in perspective of an ant. Jeremy was completely oblivious to the event, and went on his way. Then he got run over by a drunk driver. The end.

I like it. Might send a pm.

Awesome!

 

[supseudonymous]

One morning, young college student Jeremy Swist was preparing to go to class when suddenly a GIANT FUCKING BEAN CAME CRUSHING DOWN ONTO HIS BUILDING. But it didn't matter because the bean was only giant in perspective of an ant. Jeremy was completely oblivious to the event, and went on his way. Then he got run over by a drunk driver. The end.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

That would pretty much fit right into one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books.

 

[Zephyrus]

Yeah, but kind of the opposite.

 

[Astrum]

Aside from my multiple simple short story ideas, I've had this one characer in my head for years. An obnoxiously long story awaits him. A very intricate one. He is not a metalhead, nor a gangster, but rather an ordinary sort of guy, a little scruffy, mabey some long hair. Struggles with a drug an alchohol problem, does a whole lot of traveling, has an intricate family structure and many many supporting characters in the form of friends and family. Goes to rehab, lives stints in europe, boston, and new york, gets involved with some petty crime, lives through the good times, bad times, rehab and recovery. I cant put all the details here, this has been building on scraps of paper and napkins for years now. The plot spans over seven or ten years. Sensitive at times and aggressive at times, but never cheesy or violent. If anything will ever be my masterpeice, this would be it. It's basically staged for hundreds of pages, I just want to get it right.

It could turn out to suck, of course. It's just something thats very close to me and I've grown quite fond of over the years.

 

[Pessimism]

@ vihris-gari:
I liked it, continue it and show us what the character goes through.

@ Astrum:
#3 off the bat (although I'm not much of a fiction conspiracy buff), but #1 also sounds intriguing (especially if you start delve into character psychology... I love that).

 

[Rabid Headbanger]

I enjoy writing things that support a contrary opinion to my own.

 

[Astrum]

I've decided on writing a screenplay of sorts for #3, simply because the whole idea of it is the scenery, images, and surroundings. I just can't picture writing it in any other form.

I will probably write #1 in short story or whatever form, once I figure out how to start it.

 

[Zephyrus]

I'd like to write an epic poem in Latin in the style of Virgil. I might get a chance to do that during my years here at the university.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

One morning, young college student Jeremy Swist was preparing to go to class when suddenly a GIANT FUCKING BEAN CAME CRUSHING DOWN ONTO HIS BUILDING. But it didn't matter because the bean was only giant in perspective of an ant. Jeremy was completely oblivious to the event, and went on his way. Then he got run over by a drunk driver. The end.

I've literally been laughing for 3 minutes straight so far.

 

[Astrum]

I'd like to write an epic poem in Latin in the style of Virgil. I might get a chance to do that during my years here at the university.

I'd freakin read it. Have you written anything else of the sort?

 

[Valerie]

I've literally been laughing for 3 minutes straight so far.