posted
hey everyone, with a story i'm working on right now i'm having an interesting problem. for once i have no idea where my story ends. usually i know where something ends instinctively, but this time i just haven't a clue where to end it.
the general idea for the story is that a middle-aged neurologist discovers a part of the human brain which can control space and time and then starts to play God, he has a close friend who is a more conservative scientist who is adamantly against the research and eventually becomes Lucifer... but i have no clue where the story begins or ends, i think my woes with the beginning are because i don't know the end, and my problems with the end might have something to do with not having developed the beginning yet... anyone for circular logic? heh.
anyways, does anyone know of any exercises i can go through to try to figure the end and beginning out instead of being constantly bothered about not being able to write it?
posted
Somebody will post some good plot development exercises -- I'm sure of that.
In the meantime, here's how I might do it:
The story could start at the moment of discovery, both scientists celebrating their success. The story's middle is "God" fooling around and "Lucifer" being the foil, not happy with God messin' about. The end is the battle (or conflict resolution) between the two scientists.
Add self-raising flour, a pinch of salt, 1/8 cup of water...
posted
Sometimes I find the best way of finding the end is to write the story and stop when you're satisfied. That's how I worked out the end of my first novel, at least.
Posts: 626 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
Since we don't know the ending of the original story, couldn't you find someway for yours to end on an open note?
Posts: 497 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
I think the problem is that you have not defined the conflict yet.
First off, what is the neurologist’s primary goal? Why is he fighting against the other scientist, aka Lucifer? What does he hope to gain? Why not just give up and let Lucifer win?
Once you’ve figured that out, now you know what the scientist is fighting for, i.e. what the conflict is. Once that conflict is resolved—once Lucifer and God are no longer fighting, or have reached a point of equilibrium where neither side is going to win--you’ve reached the end of the story.
Of course, the neurologist’s reasons for fighting may change during the story. (In fact, I believe that stories work better when they do!) But that’s just another conflict that has to be resolved. Once the new equilibrium is reached, the story ends.
IMHO.
(BTW, the beginning is when something changes, when the scientist finally gains the opportunity to get what he wants. I suspect that his discovery was an accident, so what he really wants is not the discovery, but what it means to him. Fame and fortune may be his initial goal, but I would think there is something deeper, something more basic (and more admirable than mere fame) that the discovery satisfies. That's why the scientist keeps fighting even after it is obvious that he will not gain the fame and fortune he's after, because of Lucifer. That's the real conflict of the story. And it helps to hint at this real conflict at the beginning.)
posted
It seems to me that the end of your story should be the beginning. I mean end it with Your God creating the world. It might set up a bit of a paradox, but they are fun anyway.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
IMHO you're not ready to have an ending yet. You could try playing with the idea and the character, like they do in that chapter in Character and Viewpoint. Who's Mr. God? Why's he want to do this? Why's Mr. Lucifer opposed? What does he do to oppose it? What happens then? Etc etc
Posts: 2830 | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
The problem might have something to do with the fact that you're "breaking the system" with your premise.
Think out some possible logical consequences of this guy getting god-like powers. Then pick out the ones that seem really significant to you, either good or bad. Your neurologist wants to follow this to the conclusion (good or bad). "Lucifer" wants to stop him for some reason (good or bad).
There you have the conflict AndrewR suggested, not a puppet-play of "I'm God!" "Well, I'm the Devil! Let's fight!" like you have now.
Basically, everyone is suggesting that you give these characters reasons to fight over this. Once they have reasons for what they're doing, then the audience can be brought to regard one set of reasons as better or more compelling than the other, and will begin to care about the outcome. At that point, you'll have the material to create that outcome, which is the ending of your story.
posted
ah, so basically this story is begging to be a character story. heh, i've always had problems with character stories. thanks for helping me see what i wasn't wanting to see, i need to develop my two main characters more, and then the story should develop, rather than making the story and having the characters develop around it, or developing the milieu and building the characters and plot around that.
this'll be a tough one for me to get started on, but now that i know what i'm after i'll get it going eventually.
quote:It seems to me that the end of your story should be the beginning. I mean end it with Your God creating the world. It might set up a bit of a paradox, but they are fun anyway.
that sounds like a good idea, and actually i thought about it, and then tossed it out because i couldn't seem to find a beginning to compliment that ending
anyways, thanks again to all of you for making me see that i have on my hands a character story for once and characters that i have not fully developed. i've probably done character stories before using premixed characters, but those don't count.
posted
Are "God" and Lucifer the only characters? Are they going to involve mortals as pawns to play out their fight or just throw cataclysms back and forth? If you bring in mortals, you may broaden your base of operations a little. Just a thought...
Posts: 142 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Ask yourself, "what do I care about in this story?"
Do you care about the idea of having a man become God and his friend, essentially, Satan? Then maybe you want to end the story when they both fully take those roles upon themselves. Or maybe you end the story when they destroy themselves (or each other) because man isn't meant to have that kind of role. That's a viable conclusion, too.
Or maybe what you care about is the need of your character to be God. Maybe, then, the story ends when the character fulfills that need--defeats his adversary and becomes God. Or perhaps it ends when the other scientist convinces him that he doesn't actually need to be God, and he decides to reject his own arrogance.
But perhaps what you actually care about is the idea of being able to unlock this power in humans. The story, then, would be about the character's struggle to prove his theory, and his friend would merely be an obstacle standing in the way of it. The story would end, then, when the character succeeds in unlocking this power (but maybe it has unexpected results!), or when he fails once and for all, proving that his friend was right all along.
My point is, you need to find the question before you can find the answer. A story has to set up some expectation in the reader when it begins, and at the end, it has to fulfill that expectation. This isn't necessarily "conflict" and "resolution", because the story won't always be about conflict in the strictest sense of the word. What it's actually about is tension and release. You show your reader something that needs to be resolved and make it clear that it's important by devoting time to it. And at the end of the story, one way or another, you release that tension.
That, to me, is the basic framework of a story. If you find out what you care about in a story, then you can find out what expectation you're going to set up in the reader, and then you can find a way to resolve it.
posted
it's been a while since i've posted in this topic, i've been busy with a hectic work schedule and the other online communities i'm in. i have not made much progress on the story, i intend on working on it during this coming week since i won't be working for a while...
anyways, it seems that my last comment on this thread, which i had meant in jest, was taken very seriously, and hurtfully by the person to whom it was in reply to, and i just would like to give my apologies and grovel upon the ground publically. consider this grovelling to continue until rocklover tells me i can get back up
posted
I don't write without the end. I start with the end and then organize the entire story to dignify it. Sure, the may characters and incidents change as the story becomes richer, and the characters make all sorts of decisions that I didn't know about in the beginning, but the end stays.
If it ever is the case where I the end changes, well, that's another story.
posted
Has anyone here had four or five (or some number higher than two) possible endings for their story? And, with that, wrote all of those endings before determining which ending they liked?
posted
My issue with playing God is how God would interact with the moral law. I mean, as God, the chances screwing up are more severe.
Posts: 193 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I have a story I have rewritten four times and every time the ending changed, as well as some of the charaters. To me there is a message there. I have not clearly defined my story in my mind, so it meanders as it tries to fulfill some undefined goal.
Posts: 575 | Registered: Dec 2003
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