Thread: There’s a story here somewhere – I just need someone to tell me what it is.

Put another way, I need help with a plot outline.

When I say I need help with the plot, I mean that although I have a great bunch of characters in a great setting, I don’t have any great ideas about what I’m going to do with them.

So any ideas you can come up with, for “what this story might be about”, will be met with much bowing and scraping and kissing of feet.

(Yeah, right)

The primary setting is a present-day small isolated town that’s dying after a local industry closes for good. (Dying in this context means people are leaving town faster than they’re being replaced.) The diehard locals don’t want their town becoming a ghost town but don’t know what to do to prevent it.

Enter the Main Character. He’s had a bit of multiple women trouble in the big city and just wants to get away somewhere peaceful. He hears of the town’s woes and comes up with an idea for revitalising it. His idea is to turn the town into a tourist venue by making it a replica 19th Century gold rush town, complete with both the technology and the occupations of the era.

I can have 19th Century policemen and publicans and pretend (or not-so-pretend) prostitutes, and tradesmen and thieves and tinkers, all involved in activities to help empty the tourists’ wallets and purses.

An addition to the Main Character’s primary idea, is to “salt” various locations in the district with small quantities of gold, and to promote, at a price, searches by tourists for this gold.

* * *

My problem is that I can’t think of an ultimate goal, or climax, or purpose, that all this leads towards. That the town ultimately is saved doesn’t seem good enough; it’s too “flat”.

And that’s where you come in. Two heads, and all that.

Reply here, or PM me if you don’t want the world hearing your idea. I won’t laugh, promise.

You mention at least three illegal activities: salting the mine, thieves, and prostitution. Your story could become a crime story. Your protagonist could come under suspicion by the police, and he must prove his innocence. Even if he isn't really innocent, he must avoid prosecution.

Another possibility is that your town's criminal opportunities attract organized crime and your protagonist must fend off the mob's attempts to take over the town. First the pimps move in with real prostitutes instead of pretend bar girls. Then secret gambling halls set up in the back rooms of the cowboy saloons. Then the pretend street holdups by masked men with six guns turn out to be real armed robberies, The store that sells souvenir pretend patent medicines is really selling cocaine and heroine under the counter, etc... Instead of the family entertainment that your protagonist envisioned, the town becomes a place of vice. I'm reminded of the early days of Las Vegas where the whole town was built up and run by the mob. You might even find some inspiration for plot ideas in the history of 1950s & 60s Las Vegas.

Good luck.

I guess the most obvious suggestion is that some of the locals start taking their parts as thieves and sheriffs a bit too seriously.

You could also have some of the more colourful locals come up with crazier and crazier schemes to scare off the tourists, because they want their old town back.

As a farce this could work very well, but I'm not sure if that's the genre you're aiming for.

Originally Posted by The Backward OX

My problem is that I can’t think of an ultimate goal, or climax, or purpose, that all this leads towards.

You can't. But your characters probably can.

If you've developed the characters well then start writing about what they would do in that situation and in a few weeks you'll have a novel. Then you can think about whether the ending makes sense and revise it when you start rewriting.

C.M. Aaron and kareman – Thanks. Every little bit helps. I'll definitely consider your suggestions.

movieman – I generally prefer to outline first. Thanks anyway.

After Tolstoy there is a new sort of story develops which is not plot based but uses the microcosm as an illustration of the state of the world, the characters become metaphors for aspects of the world at large. An isolate and traditional society where an outsider from a sophisticated world involves them all in a froth of spin and make-believe seems ideal for that. Animal Farm for the twenty first century.

Good thinking, Olly. In the right hands it'd be a winner. Unfortunately, this little black duck isn't too bright when it comes to waxing metaphorical. Call a spade a spade, is about all I'm good for.

Let one of your peripheral characters / tourists find a real motherlode. Obvious would be gold but it doesn't have to be so. Could be any other precious metal, platinum for example which could be mistaken as silver at first.
Then how is your little town going to keep it's identity without being swallowed up by some corporate mining giant?

Perhaps the success of the town, meaning it is saved, is the ultimate aim, and it could be achieved soon in the novel. And then what? The town is so successful it grows, becomes a city with suburbs. Perhaps it might continue to grow, its citizens by now live not only a 19th century lifestyle in terms of technology and employment, but also morals and attitudes. Perhaps tourists are so enchanted by life in this place they sell up and move here... schools would be required, and 19th century healthcare would be a drawback, but the growth could be quite organic, and not forced, simply meeting requirements. Maybe the climax of the novel could be the campaign to become an autonomous region, and the politics that go with such territory start to corrupt those who envisioned the living of a dream.

This idea is partly inspired by a novel by Julian Barnes, called England, England, which is a satirical commentary on society, in which the Isle of Wight becomes a tourist attraction, a mini-England, which eventually becomes an independent state and joins the EU, though I think this isn't the story itself, merely the setting.

*wipes brow*

Why ever did I start this thread? I was hoping for ideas for a light beach read.

Which reminds me of the one about what's brown and smelly and comes out of cows backwards? The Isle of Wight Ferry.

That'll be Cowes, then.

I like the 'price of success' angle. Pretty easily skewed into a morality tale with an Aesop ending. With a light touch, it could be a very fun story....

You could be really sinister here. I mean you're main character could build this new 19th century town, making it so blimin great and fantastic that he starts to pimp it out! meaning, the charactars have to pay him to stay living there and people have to pay in order to get in? There could be happy ones, angry ones and dam right two faced one's (*Character's that is) I know you say you want a beach read but, you don't want to fall asleep and get sun burnt It could be, that the so called outside world hate what he's done to this part of town, so the mafia send in a mole to un-cover certain things???.....oooh i'm getting all carried away now.....

I know it's not great, but seriously, you need a little salt in your water

Wow!

Wow???
Ha ha What does that mean..... Does it mean 'Get lost you're an idiot?'

I do find you quite amusing so be gentle with me ...please, I beg of you.