A compulsory subject on writing STORIES?! (2 Viewers)

[noturningback]

Sorry about the title but honestly, I cannot do this.

Now before you go and say "It's your fault for being unprepared two days before the exam", I have prepared a belonging essay and done my best to go over techniques however this story is killing me.

I didn't prepare a story prior to today because I prepared one for the trial and couldn't even apply it to the stimulus so I just assumed that prepared stories wasn't the done thing. However, in the last few days I realized most people do have a great story up their sleeve.

Well, I tried writing one this morning and I made something better in my bathroom break between writing the thing. Really what I'm getting at is, what are some non-cliched ideas to use for the story?

I'm not asking for people to give me their entire story, I'm just looking for some unique ideas to develop a story on. I've written one about a lonely guy on a ship and an abandoned child in a circus. Both were cliche, corny and cringe worthy.

Can anyone give me some ideas for this? I have spent the last 2 hours listening to different music and staring through my room for ideas. I am just not creative, things must be rational and structured! I am having great difficulty with this!

 

[Top Secret]

Maybe jot down ten random words from the dictionary, then try to link a few of them to form an original plot.

Use a thesaurus to find synonyms of belonging? Maybe some of those will spark an original idea?

 

[Phoenix Fury]

Both of those themes sound ok, the ship could be quite good I imagine. But if you want other ideas that are fractionally less cliche i'd say,

- A sibling that gets more attention than the other, other is jealous and eventually finds a talent to impress parents
- Being lost in a strange environment, could be jungle/desert etc or one with human interaction eg new job
- A trouble maker who always finds themself in with the wrong crowd thinking that's where he belongs and either rectifies it to find his place or learns the consequences and understands he never truly had a sense of belonging when he is betrayed or something

Just remember nothing will be completely unique and you wont be crucified for some common ideas.

 

[noturningback]

Thanks for all the help, I honestly could have spent hours thinking and not have came up with anything half as good as those suggestions so thanks very much

I also tried the dictionary idea however it didn't work so well for me. However, thanks for the suggestion friend.

 

[JokerD]

Thanks for all the help, I honestly could have spent hours thinking and not have came up with anything half as good as those suggestions so thanks very much

I also tried the dictionary idea however it didn't work so well for me. However, thanks for the suggestion friend.

do u need more info or thats it? if you do why not try writing bout something fictional like a little girl looking around the street thinking why everyone around her is has freezed. Or somthing bout the dead like one night a teenage boy wandered around the graveyard to do somthing bad or straight off the line to the dead, then one night the dead came alive.(describe the dead) they react just the same as the humans, same functioning of body, heart beats but the only thing is that they want revenge for those that have murdered them, killed them, or any thing thats got to do with dieing. (they also have blue/pale skin)

 

[untouchablecuz]

they also have blue/pale skin

oh ok thanks

 

[lychnobity]

Try writing from a perspective that's not your age, or below. Imagine you're someone older, your parents, grandparents, maybe even aunts or uncles. Talk to them, they usually have interesting stories to tell.

 

[JokerD]

Try writing from a perspective that's not your age, or below. Imagine you're someone older, your parents, grandparents, maybe even aunts or uncles. Talk to them, they usually have interesting stories to tell.

yea Grandads and grandmas always tell good stories (if ur looking for somthing like fables, morals, fairy tales etc)

 

[kaz1]

If your desperate write the story of some random movie (preferably foreign as the markers would less likely be familiar with it). Look up the synopsis on Wikipedia and imdb.

 

[noturningback]

Thanks again for all the suggestions, I've actually jotted all your suggestions into my study notes JokerD thanks so much I hope you don't mind.

If I get in there and feel I can't apply any of those stories, I'll try the older person story.

As for stealing another story, thanks for the tip haha but I would be far too paranoid that a marker would realize that it wasn't original.

 

[mirakon]

Or you could write a cliched story but from a different and unique perspective, but only if you can't come up with an absolutely original idea.

Hope I helped.

 

[noturningback]

Okay what I've done is taken all the ideas given in this thread and made a document with the ideas as headings and then underneath a fairly brief plot description.

For example

Being lost in a strange environment
A plane set to the island paradise of Masgadoria crashes into the island however everyone is miraculously unharmed. However conflict soon arises and segmented groups of individuals begin to form. In order to get off the island the plane needs repairing however this is not possible without co-operation from all the groups together. Gradually, they begin to realise that some groups have resources (i.e. food and shelter) that are wanted by other groups. Eventually they learn to share and eventually begin work on the plane. Despite their best efforts they are unable to repair the ship however they then use the pieces of the ship to construct a strong vessel that they then use to leave the island. (they leave on a "friendship" towards lamestorycity)

Hopefully If I do that for each of the ideas I'll be able to adapt one of them tomorrow rather than being stuck there panicking that I can't think of anything to write about.



For the record:
I have an entire story I prepared for my trials that is complete from start to end. I haven't practiced it much however I know the story and how to write it haha
I'm just giving myself options in case the story I do have doesn't work. So I haven't entirely "Left it to the last minute"

 

[Livvy-Jane]

Dont worry i have the exact same problem! the day before the belonging exams and im still developing a story.

what is people opinions on a teenage guy teaching his friend to swim, not loudly gay but i would love to tie in some underling gay vibes. im just having trouble making it sound anything to do with belonging haha HELPxx

 

[InaudibleMelody]

I haven't got a story yet either, so not everyone. I'm actually making one now.. I'm going to write a rough plot out, but focus on the characters and relationships more- because this will help make my story more flexible.

And as for ideas, pick a really cliched belonging story.. and twist it around a little bit.. For instance I'm doing a story about someone who doesn't want to belong.

 

[Livvy-Jane]

strange thought

OOh i just a different idea,
would it be too crazy if i wrote a story in a form of a list? as in 20 things you didnt know about 'insert main character here' and so each point you could jump from time to time and place to place and just keep adding to this guy....so there wasnt any real beginning or end. Would the markers slap me over the head for that? lol

 

[InaudibleMelody]

Dont worry i have the exact same problem! the day before the belonging exams and im still developing a story.

what is people opinions on a teenage guy teaching his friend to swim, not loudly gay but i would love to tie in some underling gay vibes. im just having trouble making it sound anything to do with belonging haha HELPxx

Maybe the guy that is being taught to swim is constantly comparing himself to his older brother in his thoughts... and he doesn't belong to his family. A little bit cliched, sorry..

 

[noturningback]

I haven't got a story yet either, so not everyone. I'm actually making one now.. I'm going to write a rough plot out, but focus on the characters and relationships more- because this will help make my story more flexible.

And as for ideas, pick a really cliched belonging story.. and twist it around a little bit.. For instance I'm doing a story about someone who doesn't want to belong.

Yeah that's good thinking, After I've written out all these plot ideas I'll come up with strong characterization for a protagonist that I can throw into any of the scenarios.

 

[JokerD]

Yeah that's good thinking, After I've written out all these plot ideas I'll come up with strong characterization for a protagonist that I can throw into any of the scenarios.

what you wrote is like the movie LOST, maybe you should see the rating of the story first?

 

[JokerD]

collect stories from your dream too remember

 

[noturningback]

Thanks for all the responses
I managed to shape my prepared story from the trials to the stimulus