quddusaliquddus

Hi all,
i need some advice. I am writing an arabian quest story in which a boy has to search for "something" and in finding it he must visit various wise people. That "something" can be the solution to a riddle or an object. The fate of the world is at stake.

What should that "something" be? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance!!

Q

Fantasy of You

It better be the Recylce Bin. Those stories have been done a million times. Said object must be found by unlikely hero to save world. Boring. Do you have to write this story? Couldn't write another?

If you're set on it, make sure it's not a vial, a lamp, a ring, a mirror, a golden statue, any other type of statue, or anything to go with a God.

-Fantasy

__________________
It's only natural to want something profound in your sig.

richie

Agree with the second part:
You got to be VERY carreful with clichés on this tipe of story. Try to think in many options of how to do this, and make new approaches to the overused, avoid the obvious at all costs.
Do you read much fantasy stories?

__________________
"...the truth comes to me...the truth loves me..."

quddusaliquddus

Thanks guys for yout advice. i dont read much stories and i was hoping this would be an advantage as i wont regurgitate their plots. but it seems that ive already done that.

mammamaia

sorry, but that's backwards.. to be a good [and successful] writer, you MUST read not only a lot, but constantly... how on earth can you know what to avoid, if you don't have a clue to what's been done?

__________________
For 100% free writing help/mentoring:
www.saysmom.com

"You must BE the change you wish to see in the world." Gandhi

rydenthorne

I'd would start with reading "Arabian Nights." If you'd like to do a story like what you're saying, it would put you in the right mindset and provide some background.

Talia_Brie

as much as I generally dislike agreeing with Maia, she's dead right here. You can't be a good writer if you don't understand the genre, or the artform. And the only way you can do that is to read.

__________________

Shade

Make it something strange and weird, but something thad is always around your characters. Make your characters think why that is the item that will save the world.

__________________
Saga of Alftalis
Volume 1 A Prophecy Renewed
Volume 2 A Prophecy Shattered
Volume 3 A Prophecy Reborn
If there's a Will, there's a way!

quddusaliquddus

thanks for the input everyone!

Fantasy of You

What about a bucket?

__________________
It's only natural to want something profound in your sig.

Fixed

the object is
A grain of sand found in the arabian dessert
This is no ordinary grain of sand... au contraire, it is a drop of blood from the past king of arabia or whatever you wanna cal that important guy.
This drop of blood was crystallized and has magical powers

errmeuh... ya just something I thought up when I read your post... take it seriously or take it as a joke... I'm kinda high right now so to me it's a bit like a joke but when I make jokes a lot of people take it seriously, and my ideas rock when i'm high so peace DAWG

__________________
You've just been Fixed

Shawn

He goes throughout Arabia in search of... a kick in the teeth.

__________________
The most frightening part of leaving a parent's home, to me, is not knowing where one's own home is.

Mike C

He probably finds it in Iraq.

__________________
My writing
My Photo Blog
Web design for Writers
The Oddville Press

Mungye

The thing is there really isn't much new under the sun.
JRR Tolkien , from his Catholic perspective said that there was one story, creation and the perfection of it and the Fall, and all the other stories were the longing to get back to it and the million ways of doing it.
In other words take love. A person could say he is not going to write about that because it has been done a billion times. That is true, but in each of those stories two different people, or perhaps more, are involved,and they have their own unique set of circumstances.
If you are expert at building the characters so that the audience has strong feelings about them, so that the audience is swept away with the strength or beauty or uniqueness of this particular group of people and the subject love it will work.
And so will what you have proposed if the world you put them in all fits, and you carefully write it so that you have the reader so engrossed in the hows and whys and such that they don't want to put it down.
But like the others have said you have to READ and read and read some more so that the TYPE of story you want to write is very familiar to you.That way it will sound and feel right as you go along.
When someone sews a dress they cut out a basic pattern. They have to. After that they can add whatever suits their fancy. But they have to start with that basic pattern.
I wish you the best. If you want to, you will do it. No matter how long it takes.

__________________
Once upon a time in a place far far away..........

FrankBlissett

I don't know - seems to me that everything having to do with God is quite marketable now. Though it'd have to be quite well written to have staying-power.

I agree with Maia's assessmant on this idea. If you don't read much, you'll write what's "logical" - in other words, what every other writer has already thought of.

One trick is entertaining writing is to creatively "steal" others ideas and make everyone think they're your own. Remember that it's not whether the story has been done before, but whether it's cliche in the eyes of your audience. I see old-time radio plots and themes recycled time and again in modern horror, but to someone who's never heard OTR the ideas are fresh and new.

Agreed with the background. However, keep in mind that they are NOT modern stories. The characters are stock (for their time and place), the plots are sometimes thin, and the pacing may be different.

A more modern (biographic) story of Arabian swachbuckling is Lawrence Of Arabia.

As for the object of the quest, it may be a bit too cliche for some, but it brought to mind a Tim Allen movie from some years back. Don't remember the title, but let's face it - there aren't all that many Tim Allen movies. (possible spoiler alert, btw)

Anyway, he learn he has a son living in the Amazon Rain Forest and visits. The mother (an anthropologist) asks TA's character to take their son for the summer. The village elder tells the son to get the flame from the Statue of Liberty while he's there. The son eventually learn that the flame isn't real and is despondant, and TA explains that the elder likely knew as much all along.

Actually, that triggered a memory of a similar Prince Valient plot. One of his sons was sent on a quest to return the discovered Holy Grail to Jerusalem. He follows the riddles only to find a large room full of cups - and an old man. The man informs PV's son that the cup isn't the real grail, but that his order (for whatever reason) sends young knights on quests to return the "grail", with the quest itself being the ultimate goal.

Just a couple ideas for you to tumble around your brain.

-Frank

__________________
"Sheepish Sentimentality" - 40 pages of verse from Michigan's north country