idea to story

I have some ideas. A lot of ideas. Ideas that are rather strange or maybe even questionable like, “How can you think that?” kind of questionable. I figure these things out through writing sometimes. Sometimes, I comment on them through writing. (In all honesty, Dragon Slayers was based on my thoughts.)

The question is, however, how do I get from the possible situation (say, daycares severely increases the risks of autism) and make it a setting with an interesting story behind it?

I’ve figured it out thus far on a plot by plot basis but I’m thinking there has to be a formula or something to figure out how to make the story consistent.

Examples thus far: Dragon Slayers is a commentary about the stupidity of endangered species. (I honestly can’t wait until someone else can read that, just in case I’m off with how the story goes.)  But I set it up to focus on one girl’s family, and  how they react to it,

I have another story with the commentary on universal healthcare. (if I ever write it, I don’t expect it to be as bad as I portray it right away. It’ll take a long time.) I see universal healthcare as a possibility for the government to decide not only who is important and who is not but who is worth saving and who is not. Basically, in my story, the government flags some teenager as a public threat because her uncle was involved in some protests as a college student.  Because of this family connection, she ends up dying of type 1 diabetes. I end up showing this through a series of flashbacks during the funeral.

But I have so many other ideas that are just speculations about how the wold might be if, (in all honesty) the liberals took over. Things like what happens if daycares actually cause autism. What happens if we ban cars due to global warming? What happens if we reorganized education so that parents can choose if education is important or not, and the child is provided with an education based off how much the parents care?  Just thinking about it now, what happens if we allow guns practically everywhere with ease?  How far will the government go before people decide they need to have a revolution?  What happens if it is decided to go totally green on the common person?

I have so many of these speculations and I don’t know what to do with them. I’d like to write about them, just short stories that allow people to wonder just like I do. But just because I have the speculations doesn’t mean that I have a clue about how to implement  the speculations into writing a story.

I suppose it doesn’t matter right now, because I have so many other stories to write. I actually want to write my arranged marriage story (that I’ve had to totally block out of my head because of school.) And I could write about the healthcare story. And I desperately want to edit Shad and Dragon Slayers over the next two weeks.

So, I suppose I have more than enough before I have to figure out this all-important question.  I just wish  I knew how to write better oftentimes.

(By the way, it’s good to be back.)

our worlds

i’ve never been much of a fan of Harry Potter. I’ve always said, however, that Rowlings should never write more after she finishes with the series. She should just finish with Harry Potter and never write a single story about that universe again.

I’ve also said that, no matter how famous of a series I was to write, I would never write more than I planned. It isn’t right. Just, finish with the universe and be done with it.

Why? Because I hate it when authors find a universe they feel comfortable in and just keep writing it, having everything tie back to the stories. (If you desire an example, Ted Dekker’s circle Trilogy. Pretty decent three books for mainline Christian. But he then writes a Paradise series that references it. (Horrid book, the first one BTW) And he writes two or three other series based off of that one. Ick, ick, ick, all of them. Will not read or recommend any of Ted Dekker’s series books again because of it.) It gets to the point that It’s like, give up already. Can’t you write something new and original by now?

Anyway, I finished watching Lord of the Rings today. (I’ve been watching all three over this Christmas break.) It’s strange. I started looking at it automatically from a literary point of view.

Just think of thinks. Tolkien designed a geographic location with such details as the plains, and those plains and cities and each city has its own history. My dad is explaining stuff the movie does not and it is amazing how much detail just goes into everything.

Then, he creates a language. At least one, where he has Elvish.

He creates each species of the people: men, dwarfs, elves, hobbits, orcs, the other ugly creatures, wizards, not to mention goblins, eagles, dead, mountain men, and anyone else I forgot. Each of these people have pretty much their own history developed as well, so example it is believable and awesome.

Now that Tolkien as created this world, he writes about it. And he doesn’t write about it for just one little story. He writes it in three, separate, huge novels, probably on a typewriter, so it isn’t as easy to change things as it it is now. He draws it together in such a way that the three novels, although, yes, they lag (i’ve only listened to Fellowship of the Rings.), but there is so much in them that it is stunning and beautiful and you can practically see it as you write and as you think about it.

Then it’s over. The maps go away. The dictionary guidelines you wrote get stored in the bottom drawer. The notes are useless now. And it’s over, just like that. Middle Earth slowly fades away.

But you still love it. Your home is back there amid the shire and the elves and hobbits and wizards. It’s like your special, magical place and the characters in the stories are your friends. You still think about them, even though the story is over.

As such, I understand now why authors go back to their masterpieces. Their masterpieces have their whole spirit inside of it. It’s like going home and writing about home. And even I did that with Kontyo. It’s the same universe; if anyone was to read Shad, they would see the similarities and they would recognize the story.

On another note, I’ve been thinking about creating my own Galaxy, since I write science fiction. The idea behind that is if I can create a believable enough galaxy, and have all my stories operate within this general area, I will eventually have such a complex universe that it is very believable, with all sorts of background and details and things. However, since it is as large as a certain area of the galaxy, the stories will never really overlap and become icky. Toss in different dates and things become even murkier, but just as awesome I would think.

I’m still playing with this idea, but I think it is something plausible. As much as I love creating worlds, eventually I’ll want to go back to something new I would think. Obviously, not everything would be. I still have a current world comedy I hope to write someday. But I think it would be interesting to pursue. (And I have the time too, to develop such a complex place, seeing as I have a good fifty years of writing ahead of me.)