Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/26839
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

My brain is probably just broken, but it has a question. It tends to invent odd scenarios that become quite interesting. It also knows that the story will only be interesting to others if it has characters and they do stuff... but it doesn't want to do that work.

For example, it seems like it would be interesting if a guy in jail was confessing to something he did as a kid that got him going down the wrong path, say... tricking Santa Claus into giving him a certain kind of present that he knew would slow Santa Down. This enabled him to catch Santa, which was fun, but also got him into lots of trouble.

Seems like a funny scenario. But my brain doesn't really create characters very well, and even when it creates them, it doesn't have them do interesting things.

In the Santa case, it might be funny if the kid took Santa hostage and made the reindeer do funny things. But then Rudolph (with his nose so bright) pretends to be a police car outside, and the kid surrenders. While my brain can see the scenario, it doesn't do well at inhabiting the scenario and seeing what characters are doing. Don't even get me started on high-level story arcs.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. So would my brain. :)

Original score: 3