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I currently have ... I think ... a couple dozen story ideas sitting on my back burner. One of those stories has been bubbling recently. The current working title I have for it is "Ward of the State".
In this story, being homeless is ... not exactly a crime, but it *is* an issue the state (of Norcal?) governor promised to "fix" as one of his campaign promises. Once he's been inaugurated, a law is passed, where anyone who is homeless is automatically declared a ward of the state, without regard to the age of the person.
Sweeps then begin through some of the larger cities, where homeless people are rounded up, then are helped (aka forced) to find housing. Ellis Liberty Fletcher (aka El or Elli) is one of those homeless people. For those rounded up individuals who can hold down a state provided job, they are release from the status of ward, and recognized as self-supporting adults.
For those (like El) who find it difficult to "put their noses to the grindstone" and do the jobs provided, they are enrolled in the FIRE (Fully Immersive Reparenting Experience) project. They are placed in group homes with other wards, and are treated (mostly) like children. The goal of the project is to provide the tools needed to become a self-supporting adults.
While I *do* have an initial scene, where Ellis is caught in one of those sweeps, I don't really have an outline for this story. I'm tempted to just skip the outline and write by the seat of my pants, but I've already got plenty of orphaned stories, and I worry about leaving another story only started, or half finished.
Would anyone be interested in seeing the start of this story even if I'm not sure where, if anywhere, it'll go?
Comments
My experience
I've tried doing outlines for the stories I write. I have probably half a dozen stories that I can't write, because I did an outline and as far as my muse is concerned the story is complete and now it would require a great deal of writing skill, that I don't have, to flesh out the stories to something readable.
My usual technique is to get spark of an idea, know where I want the story to end, work up a title that somehow will fit into the story line. I've learned that I need to start the story with some kind of prologue that will set the scene and grab the readers attention. From there, I write by the seat of my pants, usually letting the protagonist and supporting characters write the story while I'm just along for the ride.
While this technique produces some great stories, it also, unfortunately leaves some stories as you have observed, unfinished, languishing on my hard drive. If I'm lucky, when I lack other prompting by my muse, I sometimes can read the unfinished story and catch the spark and write some more and occasionally finish it.
That's exactly what happened with "Dumb Bet". It lay on my hard drive for nearly two years before I picked it up again and finished it. It turned out to be my most successful story, It currently has 410 Kudos and over 53K hits.
So you can see that I'm a fan of writing by the seat of my pants. I'm not skilled enough to do it any other way.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
"... half a dozen stories
"... half a dozen stories that I can't write, because I did an outline and as far as my muse is concerned the story is complete..."
Try picking out one of those old outlines and reading it anew. You might see spots where you can improve the flow, the narration, the dialog, etc. You might persuade your muse if you call it "revision" or "fan-fiction" or "fix-fiction".
Remember that genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
It sounds interesting,
I would love to see it, are you looking for feedback on what you have so far? If so, I'd be happy to do so. If you are just wondering if you should post it when you don't know if you are going to continue, I'd say post it with this caveat so people know what is going on, that way no one should be able to complain.
Thank you!
I appreciate everyone's feedback! I think I'm gonna try writin' out what I got floatin' in my head, and see where the story goes. I've sorta been feelin' like I need a break from the current story I been postin', and this may just be the thing I need.