[This post has been edited after the "suggestion period" expired. I've stipped out the details so there are no spoilers for anyone who gets to read this novel SOMEDAY!]
I’m asking all my creative and imaginative friends to help me write my novel this month. I’d like to hear any ideas you have based on the following characters and situations. Feel free to brainstorm wildly. You can suggest anything, and I mean anything! Don’t like one of the characters? Suggest that character die in some awful and bizarre way. Want to add complications? Have someone win the lottery or steal a car. Truly anything goes!
While I can’t possibly promise to use every idea, I’m hoping to incorporate those that surprise me and advance the story in a way that the characters will go along with. I’ve not yet solidified how this will all turn out so you might have a huge influence on the direction of the story.
Here’s the basics of what I’ve developed so far:
Main Characters & Their Situations:
Margery Adams: 3rd grade school teacher whose life is turned upside down when she takes in a little, neglected girl.
Sharon: 3rd grader, the neglected girl with the swollen eye.
Audrey: School nurse, mastermind of a secret vigilante operation against inept or otherwise incapable parents.
Mitch: former cop, son of Audrey, the muscle and pain inflictor of vigilante effort.
Lakeesha: Sharon’s mom, sends her daughter away with a black garbage bag of clothes (and hidden in the clothes, a gun).
Denzel: unemployed, wants his gun back.
James: “jack of all trades” and self-professed healer.
Final Instructions:
Let your imagination have a field day here, since you don’t have to actually write the novel—I do! For instance, if you want one or more of these characters to be abducted by aliens or ninjas, go ahead and suggest that. Or if you want a flood to strike and destroy the school or someone’s house, that’s okay too. Just go nuts!!!!
6 comments:
I think Margery should enroll Sharon in Girl Scouts (Brownies to be specific) and then they should make some major discovery while out selling cookies door-to-door.
Thanks, Kim! You wouldn't be drawing from real life there, would you?
Margery should encourage Sharon to express herself and let her decorate her room, paint it together in Sharon's choice of color. There could be a playful painting scene that allows then both to put their guards down and grow emotionally closer...like paint on their noses or in their bangs... The experience would give Sharon a sense of home and connectedness that the girl with a garbage bag for luggage probably never felt before.
I think Margery found the gun and buried it in the yard under a flowering plant and didn't tell Sharon about it. It's safe and hidden but could be a future complication if Denzel becomes suspicious or asks too many questions.
I think that as Marjery does lesson planning in the evening she could bounce ideas off of Sharon, which roils help both of them and make Sharon feel special. It may also lead to an increased work ethic in Sharon and add to her confidence academically, which, in turn, could lead to increased socialization and a new friend.
How about if Denzel suspects that Lakeeesha sent the gun with Sharon and he breaks into Margery's house and hold Margery and Sharon hostage. Margery could keep her cool and witness to Denzel during the crisis.
I think Margery should become more self assertive. Decide that she is going to mother the young girl. To do so, she is going to leave the city and teaching and take the girl with her to protect her from her mom's wacko boyfriend who got angry when she spilled some ice cream on the couch and pushed her into the corner of some furniture where she smashed in eye first (resulting in that injury).
But anyway, Keith, I'm sure you will come up with a great story here. Keep the writing going!!!
Thanks for the great suggestions! OOdles of appreciation to Marci, Renee, and Kelly. Thanks for your show of interest! It's encouraging!
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