# I NEED IDEAS!



## Jasonwolf (Mar 18, 2008)

Thank you for looking at the post first of all. Second, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for bits and pieces of a story. I have the setting, the characters, and the general idea, but I don't know how to pass simple time between huge plots and climaxes. Like the characters free time.


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## Kemmy (Mar 18, 2008)

First of all.. HEY LOOK IT'S JASON! *waves*

secondly, how about little interactions, that'll give the feeling of one character's emotions towards another, like at some shop or something... I dunno, just throwing stuff out there


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## lobosabio (Mar 18, 2008)

First off, what are the characters, setting, plot, etc, etc.  It would help if I had a better bearing of what's going on so I might be able to come up with something that would work.  

Second, just come up with things they might do in their free time.  Little mundane things.


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## M. LeRenard (Mar 19, 2008)

First of all, and maybe this is just me, but I don't see why you would need to have boring stuff happen in between big plot events.  Why not just keep it going at full force the whole time?  People take more kindly to constant action.  Unless I'm misunderstanding the question.
Second of all, yeah... a few hints about the plot you have in mind would be useful.  I have a billion and one story ideas, but that doesn't help you much.


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## Poetigress (Mar 19, 2008)

I think what he might mean by the simple times are the times when the characters are recuperating from the big events, processing them, and reacting to them.  The times that end up being more character- and emotion-based, rather than plot- and action-based.

I mean, yeah, you don't have to show everything, and every scene should be there for a reason, whether it's plot-based, or showing the reader something about the character.  If you have to get your characters to the building where the big thing happens, you don't have to show them in the car on the way, unless the reader needs to see something important that's going on in the car.  Just get them there and get it going.

For things like reactions and downtime, look at your setting.  I admit I'm guilty of writing in Generic Medieval, so there's always your tavern or evening campfire along the quest to stop and think about what's happened, what might happen, and how the characters are dealing with all of it.  If your setting is present-day urban, think about where you spend your downtime -- what you do at home or where you go to relax.  Also, everybody's gotta eat, and besides providing you an excuse to get the reader some good sensory input to really immerse them in the story, mealtimes can be a good time to give the characters some breathing room to talk -- or not to talk, depending on what's going on.

Even then, though, choose wisely when adding in those kinds of scenes.  Sometimes you don't want your character to have time to process what's happening to them -- you want them dragged along instead of making nice clear-headed choices.

Hope this helps.  As the others said, it's hard to give guidance without many specifics, so I hope I haven't misunderstood the question completely.  >^_^<


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## Jasonwolf (Mar 20, 2008)

The setting is an all boys all canines school in a slightly futuristic world. Basically it's the characters getting through school all while having to deal with the stresses of life. A few of the characters have life crisises going on and it's hard for them.


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## M. LeRenard (Mar 20, 2008)

Ohhh... so the whole story is MADE of events like that.  In that case, definitely concentrate on character development during conversation.  A chat during lunch, walking between classes, in the locker room after gym class, whatever, just as long as the conversation doesn't center around the weather or what grade so and so got on Mr. Prancibald's last exam (and if it does, make sure to tie in some life crisis to that subject somehow).  
Another technique you could also try is to retell the same event from multiple points of view (either in chronological order or not), so that we get reactions from every character.  That way you'd only need a couple of events to get the same length story.
Other than that, misunderstandings are great fodder for this sort of thing.  I'm thinking, say, Character A decides to play a joke on Character B, who happens to be brooding over something his parents did to him last night (or whatever), and Character B gets horribly offended by the joke and threatens to break apart the relationship because of it.  Then you spend some time trying to resolve the resulting conflict.  Or maybe Character A does something at football practice that merits him getting lots of praise, and Character B (who's been having problems at home) begins to resent character A, or something like that.  Keeping it more interesting than that, of course, in the 'semi-futuristic' world.  But you get the idea.
Is any of that useful, or is it too soap-opera-y?


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## Jasonwolf (Mar 22, 2008)

Thanks all, especially M. Le Renard. This helped


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## M. LeRenard (Mar 24, 2008)

No probalo.


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