Story Ideas/Plan....

[moosa]

My problem is that I have written an opening paragraph for a story but am stuck on how to follow it up. I need a plan of what will happen in the middle (it needs to have an argument in), the resolution (making up after argument, seeming like things will be okay) and a twist. E.g. BEGINNING - Mary flirts with Suzy's boyfriend at a party. Mary writes this secret in her diary. MIDDLE - Suzy finds diary and confronts Mary, leading to an argument. RESOLUTION - Mary convinces Suzy that it meant nothing because she was drunk and nothing actually happened anyway. TWIST - A truer and more worrying version of the secret is revealed to the reader in another diary. The opening paragraph of my story is:- The rust leaves crunched underfoot, I wasn't even sure if I was heading in the right direction anymore. The tres were thick and the sky grew darker with every minute that passed. A small tree rustled by my ankle, startled, I spun around in time to see an auburn shadow darting further into the forest, deeper into the night. 'A fox,' I thought, 'must have been a fox.' After all, what else could it have been? Any ideas on the outcome of the story, characters or good lines would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!

[bluedolphin]

Suzies boyfriend is in fact a girl and they have had a laugh at Mary as she attempts to get one over on Suzie...Mary finds out by nicking a packet of Suzies photographs from her bag when she is in the loo.... It shows Suzie+"Boyfriend" on beach on holiday ...both in bikinis .... Mary is so relieved cos after the torment of hiding it she is able to come out and tell her friend Suzie that she has been in love with her since the day she met her 2 months ago....THE END.

[Ouisch]

Suzy is at Mary's house, they're getting ready to go out for the evening. Mary is in the bathroom primping; Suzy needs to borrow a blue hair scrunchie to match her outfit. "There are a bunch of hair doodles in my room, in that drawer under the book case," Mary calls over her shoulder. Suzy finds the drawer in Suzy's room and starts digging around in the barrettes, hair ribbons, headbands and scrunchies. Near the bottom she finds Mary's diary. Curiosity overcomes her and she starts peeking. (She finds the secret, they have their argument, etc) Twist could be that, although Mary insists nothing happened and she was just drunk, she doesn't realize how drunk she was, and obviously something did happen at the party, because she's now pregnant. Just a thought or two. Good luck with your story!

[Gef]

Sorry, could you repeat the question. I fell asleep halfway through the first paragraph.

[Bob Carter]

Advice ... buy a dictionary. What are "rust leaves"? And then: "A small tree rustled by my ankle." What does that mean. If it's getting darker by the minute how could you tell it was an "auburn" shadow?

[bluedolphin]

dont be too harsh Bob...moosa is being creative...got to let it all flood out and then fix the inconsistancies...

[moosa]

BOB> it was supposed to say the rusty leaves , a metaphor! And by saying it was getting darker by the minute i didn't say it was pitch black or too dark to see, just that it was getting darker! A small tree rustles by my ankle means it moved a bit and made a sound at at my ankle height- simple enough for ya!

[Bob Carter]

Fair enough Moosa ... sorry to come over so harsh. I've edited others writings a lot over the years and if I've one piece of advice it's not to let striving for effect overcome the sense of what one is saying. In other words ... less is more. Good luck with it. Is your first par at the beginning of the story chronologically? If so ... you're a long way from a party.