When I woke up this morning, the very first thought shouted at me by my brain was, “What if Death rented a room in your house?”
Neil Gaiman says that most of his stories start out with “What if . . . ” or “If only . . . ” so I immediately wrote down my “What if . . .”
. . . and didn’t know what to do next. Normally, when I want to write a story, I take my idea, and just start. Something like:
Dorothy Hansen sat in her living room and did The Jumble. After Loretta went mad with Alzheimer’s the previous Fall, Dorothy vowed to keep her 75 year-old mind sharp any way she could. She wasn’t going to win any Major Awards, but she completed The Jumble more often than not,
Then I get stuck, because that’s shite. But it’s good information for me to use inthe building of this character. I would almost certainly cut that stuff before I even made it to an editor’s draft.
The story really starts when I get here:
There was a knock at the front door. She pulled herself out of her chair and called out, “I’ll be right there!”
The wooden floors of her living room creaked and popped beneath her as she walked. Her steps echoed down the hallway ahead of her.
She turned the deadbolt and pulled the front door open, revealing a tall young man.
“Yes?” she said.
“Do you still have a room for rent?” he asked, pointing to a sign in her front window.
She studied him briefly. He wore a dark coat and a white shirt. His hair was to his shoulders, and he held a small bag in one hand. He smelled nice, like old spices and leather.
“I have two rooms,” she said, and motioned him into the house. “Upstairs, or down?”
“Let’s take a look,” he said, with a smile.
“The downstairs room is off the kitchen, down this hallway,” she said.
She walked into the house, and he followed. The floorboards were silent beneath his feet. His footsteps were like sand blowing across dunes.
“I’m Joseph,” he said.
“Mrs. Hansen,” she said, “pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
That took me about 45 minutes to write, and it’s still a mostly-naked skeleton . . . But there’s stuff in there that I like . . . I think maybe this guy will have all sorts of Egyptian smells and things around him, and I like the way he glides over the floors.
About halfway through that, I thought maybe it would be better to tell it from the perspective of someone who already lives in the house. Maybe a college student, or something. I also don’t know when it’s set — maybe that’s not important.
But the thing is, I don’t know what happens next. Oh, sure, he takes a room, Probably the upstairs one, so I can use the eerie silence of his walking on the staircase, but once this “scene” is done, it’s a mystery to me.
So I guess this is where that outline comes in handy, so I know where I’m going.
I think it’s interesting if a girl who lives nearby falls for him, I think he puts everyone at ease (that’s what Death would do, right?) and everyone likes him . . . but he makes them feel slightly uneasy, and they don’t know why.
Somehow, people have to start dying, and some suspicious neighbors decide that this guy is responsible. He’s not. He’s just Death, so he takes them, but —
OH! I have it!! Someone in the town is a killer. Someone respected or something, like a cop, or a priest, or something, and Death has come to town because there’s going to be a lot of souls to take care of. What if it IS the police chief, so he’s investigating himself? What if Death falls in love with someone in the town? I don’t think I’m going to let Death fall in love with anyone. I think that’s been done to . . . death.
Heh.
But I think I will let a neighborhood girl get a crush on him, and see what happens there.
What if? What if? Well, maybe I don’t have it. But that’s some stuff to build on.
Is that an outline? I still have no idea how the story ends, but now I have enough ideas to make me want to finish it.
I googled for “How to write a fiction outline,” and didn’t really find a definitive answer. However, I came across this site, where I found this very interesting and useful post:
Mileages vary, but I’m really glad I kept my day job. Writers who make their whole living from writing have a couple of problems:
- They have to write whatever comes their way, whether it’s interesting or not. On the couple of occasions when I had to write a novel for the money, it was like pulling my back molars with my fingers.
- They end up writing novels about novelists writing novels.
Still, Robert Heinlein did pretty well as a fulltime writer (until he got old and successful and self-indulgent). He also left us his five rules for writers:
- Writers write. They don’t wait until they “have enough time” or “inspiration strikes.”
- Writers finish what they write. No matter how much they hate the current project, they slog through to the last page.
- Writers never rewrite except to editorial order. Writing a novel is like building a deck or renovating a bathroom–you don’t want to rip everything up and do it all over again. So you plan carefully, do it right the first time, and don’t keep fussing with the story.
- (Kilian’s Exemption) When you’re starting out, you need your novel in progress to teach you a lot, so it’s OK to go back and revise your ms. on the basis of what you’re learning. (This is actually listed at 3a, but I’m using list tags. Sue me.)
- Writers put their work on the market. They don’t just inflict it on friends and family.
- Writers keep their work on the market until it sells. So the first 15 or 20 rejections don’t matter; you send it out again.
Heinlein argues that writers fail by breaking one or another of these rules, and he’s right. I wrote my first novel in the army in 1966, sent it to one publisher, got rejected, and never sent it out again. Bad as it was, some wretched publisher would eventually have bought it, and my career would have started a decade earlier than it did.”
I also found Something for nothing: advice for writers, and Ten Rules of Writing.
It’s a lot of interesting stuff, and I laughed out loud when I thought, “Wow, there’s useful information on the Internet, if you can get around the porn and shopping.”
Discover more from WIL WHEATON dot NET
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Wil, A similar kind of premise was done on that Twilight Zone episode……Mr Death (I think that was the title.). Robert Redford played Mr Death. The old woman was afraid that Death would come for her so he had to be disarming in order to get in the house. A young, handsome police officer that has been injured. One of my favorite episodes. I like your idea, however. Work with it!
Wil, A similar kind of premise was done on that Twilight Zone episode……Mr Death (I think that was the title.). Robert Redford played Mr Death. The old woman was afraid that Death would come for her so he had to be disarming in order to get in the house. A young, handsome police officer that has been injured. One of my favorite episodes. I like your idea, however. Work with it!
Wil, A similar kind of premise was done on that Twilight Zone episode……Mr Death (I think that was the title.). Robert Redford played Mr Death. The old woman was afraid that Death would come for her so he had to be disarming in order to get in the house. A young, handsome police officer that has been injured. One of my favorite episodes. I like your idea, however. Work with it!
Good you are dumping the fall in love with death theme… put Brad Pitt in the lead, and you’d be writing “Meet Joe Black… Again”
room for rent…old. done. boring. there are so many others. think lolita. think over. no offense. just please move out of that one. it sounds like the opening for a love story and eventhough you’ve made it known that you aren’t going for that, please PLEASE escape the room for rent deal with the WOMAN having a room for rent. it’s so very boring at this point. gee, i can’t wait toget tons of slack from your readers.
Greetings Wil,
Gee, after reading all those comments I almost forgot what I was going to say. How about making your “Death” character a female. After all, it seems Death is always portrayed as a male. The female element might add more than “old spices and leather” to this tale you’re spinning. OK, that’s all… now I’m going to hit Submit twice just because you said not to…and if anybody points and laughs, you will definitly be burned up at the Prom( but most of you Old Goats out there have already been to the Prom, so you don’t have to worry).
Gidday again,
Can’t resist, what with all these film and fiction references being … ahem … done to death, but who can forget the film classic, Arsenic and Old Lace, with Cary Grant in his finest comedy role?
(yes, I know, not strictly Death coming to visit, but those little old Aunties were sooo sweet …)
Toodle-oo
Cass
Hey Wil, that is the start of an interesting story for sure! I know you surfed the net for a bit about writing fiction and I wanted to send you a link to http://www.hatrack.com which is the website of Orson Scott Card.
If you have not read Orson’s Ender’s Game before, you have truly missed out. Rush out and buy it and read it, I think it is modern day “literature” that should be read by all.
Orson also has links about his writing class, and I believe he also has a book out about writing fiction, developing interesting characters, etc. This is certainly worth a few minutes for you to surf over and check him out.
I hope that helps!! Good luck on the writing project and those writing rules certainly make sense!
oops, one more thing, sorry to say this, but be VERY careful about the help on your storyline, it sucks to say this, but many authors have to protect themselves from “…I gave him that idea and I want $$$…etc”
I am sure that won’t happen, but someone needed to mention it….be careful!
Sam Hinton
“Awake…
Rise from your sleep my pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day… the day’s divinity….
I closed my eyes and Death smiled.”
Morrison does get the creative juices flowing, don’t he?
Dude!
As a writer wanna-be, I think this book is a must-read. Please put it on your Christmas list.
http://tinyurl.com/y8j5 (links to an Amazon reference)
You see, I think the way stories should be written is to fully develop the cast of characters, and set them loose on one another. Go Wil!
Hi Wil,
Do you read this far into the comments? Well, if you do, I have two books on writing to recommend. Both of them, besides being helpful, are excellent reads in and of themselves.
1. Bird By Bird, Anne Lamott
2. Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
Also, if you can get through it and actually do the 12-weeks of exercises, Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron can be life-changing.
J
I’d definitely read it. The idea is exactly the kind of stuff I go for when perusing the aisles in the bookstore.
Fragile eggshell? That’s a redundant redundancy.
I’ve been reading this thing for a while, and whenever i see you put your ‘seed’ ideas out there before they’ve even had a moment to germinate i can’t help but think you’re doing a disservice to yourself and the idea. Perhaps it’s a personality/validation thing, but who can judge an unborn storyarc. eh, my 3 cents(inflation).
I don’t know if any one has mentioned it yet, but the Piers Anthony series ‘Incanations of Imortality’ (sp?) has a book about death in it. The book is called ‘on a pale horse’. It is, IMHO, the best book in the series.
The pale horse reference is taken from the Bible. I met a pale stranger and he rode a pale horse (called Binky) or something like that.
It has inspired many a book and also the title of a film known as Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood).
People meeting death isn’t original, death coming to stay isn’t original, but how you write it can be. If we let the fact that someone else wrote a similar story already stop us we’d never write. It is said the ancients Greeks have written every story possible to write. Girl meets boy, boy takes girl to death star etc. etc.
I understand that some of your ideas seem to be quite accidentaly coincidental to the things people have already done. What matters is that you take your own ideas and twist them into your own work of art. Sometime down the road when your story is out and somewhere in the world there is a conversation on literature. Someone in that conversation will say, “I think the version that Wil Wheaton wrote is much better. His ideas are geniuine and his charasmatic approach in the telling of his story, making his story much more magnetic”.
I myself read what you have so far and I find myself sitting here thinking that I need more.
Take life one day at a time…Conquer the world one reader at a time.
How bout ‘his hair FLOWED to his shoulders’ instead of ‘WAS to his shoulders’?
To Wil,
I don
You might want to check out Stephen King’s “On Writing”—he mentions that he doesn’t outline at all, because he’s telling *himself* the story as he writes it, and doesn’t want to know what happens next until it does.
GMS
I like your take on death not necessarily being a bad/evil thing.
Maybe explore what’s deeper in your mind here — what is death really? A helper? A guide to the next thing?
How about giving this entity an occupation that is a metaphor for the real work? Or something totally off-the-wall — death is an obstetrician and helps bring people INTO the world too.
Side story – death asking questions trying to figure out why people cling so desparately to life? Do they know it’s just another phase before the next thing (or the same thing again)?
Personality trait that makes people uncomfortable when all the murders start happening – death is calm, unalarmed and acts puzzled by the reactions of everyone else… doesn’t get it.
Last bit: why does death have to always be male?
I believe Piers Anthony even did a story with this theme, only he branched out and used incarnations of Time, Fate, War, God and Satan as well…. started out with Death though, called “The Incarnations of Immortality Series”, and it’s humourous.
Still, you really should trudge through and make this a story worth reading. There’s always room for more stories, even if there are only 7 ideas to work from…
Wil, check out Robert Sawyers website at http://www.sfwriter.com/. It’s the best I’ve found for writing advice. He paraphrases Heinlein’s rules in slightly different (better) way. Also, if you want to READ a great story on Death, check out ‘Doctor Dodge’ by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff(http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?AuthorID=5296).
It begins: “When Reedy Watson was still a young man, he determined he must find a way to avoid Death…”
Wil,
Take my advice: just write your story.
Yes it does sound a little like “Death Takes a Holiday” which was then remade as “Joe Black” or something with Brad Pitt but all stories start with a concept and JAWS and MOBY DICK sound awful similar when reduced to the concept level.
So do all Hollywood movies which come to think about it are only really interested in selling concepts (as my Hollywood screenwriter friend put it)
But none of the individuals who have written about death as a person share all your values, your experiences, loves, hates, philosophies, perceptions, politics, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs and anything else I happen to forget.
That cuts to the core of the very definition of an artist. Is that an artist be true to himself.
So just write your story, be honest, and use your own words, your own mind.
And that is originality.
Stephen King’s “On Writing” may address some of your concerns. It’s a great read, and is very helpful.
Hi Wil!
Great idea. There’s great symbolism in which room death chooses. Perhaps he takes the upstairs room, symbolizing that he’s Heaven’s messenger of Death and does the day to day stuff in nursing homes, hospitals, etc.
A Death that takes the downstairs would be direcly from Hell, and could deal with the murderous/rage murders that might occur. Perhaps there’s two, and they’re twins…nah, too complicated. For a short story though, the idea is awesome.
peace.
-Nathe
oh! oh!
A twist would be that death isn’t a ‘Joe Black’ character, but rather a character like Steinbeck’s Lenny from “Of Mice and Men,” or the lawnmowerman from King’s short story. Still rich with the smells, history, and world understanding, but just a bit slow.
*damn, I wish blog comments had edit buttons*
Wil, I really enjoyed your links. Having just finished the first year of a creative writing course at RMIT University in Melbourne (and about to reinrol, yay!), enlightening windows into how other people write (including yourself) is always fascinating. I feel priveleged to sit inside your head for a bit.
You may be pleased to know (and hopefully secretly thrilled to bits) that I got onto your website when one of my fellow students gave a talk on blogs for our editing class. Yours was one of the sites she featured – and I was hooked – especially being a Star Trek fan as well.
Can’t wait for the movie deals to come from your books!!!!! (Sorry, I’m addicted to exclamation marks. It’s a vice I’m desperately trying to control – infortunately one of many, but hey, I reckon it makes for good writing, or the process particularly enjoyable at times. OK, adverbs are another bad habit of mine that I’m trying to break after being taught we should be using muscular verbs.)
Sam Hinton is right. Be very careful about using these suggestions for plot lines. It can seriously come back to bite you in the butt. Even J.K. Rowling got sued for someone who said she stole her idea. Stephen King says this is the reason he doesn’t read anyone’s manuscripts.
Hey–Congratulations on your book deal! I just read about it on Publisher’s Lunch. I knew some publishing company should have grabbed you a long time ago.
Wil,
Douglas Rushkoff wrote a few posts on the topic a while back here is a link to one of them.
http://www.rushkoff.com/2002_09_01_archive.php#85421421
If you’re looking for advice for writers, and the like, I’d like to take the opportunity to point you in the direction of a great non-fiction book. It’s called On Writing: A memoir of the craft and it’s written by someone you might’ve heard of by the name of Stephen King. It was written back in 2000 and was actually interrupted by him getting blasted by that minivan. There’s actually a section of the book that talks about it, but all in all the book is a great piece of work that details just about every aspect of the process. Just tossing my nickle’s worth in, though, cuz of well..ya know..inflation. 🙂
I’ve read most of the posts here, and they seem pretty positive. I’ve got to tell you, though, I was not all that impressed with what I saw. No offense, but it just didn’t grip me like a lot of your other writing has. It just seemed to me that you were trying a bit too hard. It was rather stilted.
I do realize, of course, that it was a quick draft, and reworkings would probably lead to better prose, but the whole idea of the story itself doesn’t really excite me either. It’s not fresh, it doesn’t grab me. I see the premise and I think, “Oh, another story about death.” I know those are some pretty harsh judgments for such a brief snippet, but that’s what I felt as I was reading it. Who knows? Maybe you’ll whip this thing into shape and dash off something really impressive. That would certainly be nice. But I think you’re going to have an uphill battle with this one.
Someone already mentioned it… but NaNoWriMo all the way… http://www.nanowrimo.org — go for next year, National Novel Writing Month 2004!
ED
The comment posted by Dawn on December 7, 2003 11:12 PM has a superlong URL that is making the page wide. Right now this window has to stretch across two monitors if I want to get rid of the horizontal scroll bar.
Heinlein’s rules suck. They’re rules for Heinlein. I’m sure they worked great for him. Leo Tolstoy rewrote War and Peace eight times (in longhand) and was still revising it as the print run started. Once you find Wheaton’s five rules you’ll be all set. Of course it will take you half your writing career to find them, so they don’t really do you much good now do they?
Well OK, Heinlein’s first rule makes sense to me.
If you’re geeking on the sensory details of the scene, some of Theodore Sturgeon’s short stories might provide inspiration. The man was IMHO unequalled for bringing a moment or a character to life with two exquisitely-chosen details.
The first rule is “There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays and every single one of them is right!” The second rule is “Submit it and let the editors decide for themselves if they want it.”
You should check out the usenet group rec.arts.sf.composition, which is a discussion among people who write speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, and related ambiguities). Lots of useful information, brainstorming, and commiseration.
MAO
STOP! Please stop with all of the waxing eloquent crap. Good heavens, even I, your arch enemy, could dig into the meat of your site and appreciate the raw, unfocused heat that emminated from each entry. But now, now you are so gung ho on this “I’M A WRITER” kick, that your site resembles the likes of an angst ridden adolescent that just wants to be heard. I can hardly get through any of your entries anymore. Listen, just because you have a drove of groupies, doesn’t mean that your kickin ass. You’ll always have a group of Wheaton-ites calmoring to feel close to a famous person, as your site typically allows one to feel, BUT you need to (cliche’ alert) keep it real. In other words…..Wil? Where’d you go?
Sincerely,
Fats Vernon
A fiction writer, you are not. Stick to what you do best and stop humiliating yourself.
It’s nice that you’re trying to stretch and write fiction, Wil. But I must say that the pieces I like best are the ones you write about your family and friends. Your love for them really shows through. I’m just an old softy, I guess. And I enjoyed your earlier “geek” pieces when you would talk about getting this site whipped into shape. You made me feel both your enthusiasm and your frustration, even thought I had no idea what you were talking about most of the time.
“After Loretta went mad with Alzheimer’s the previous Fall…”
Oh, so that’s what happened.
“But I think I will let a neighborhood girl get a crush on him, and see what happens there”
What happens is you end up with a short story called, “Death Gets a Hand Job.”
The girl should fall in love w/ Death. When Death falls in love w/ her or they decide to be together, the girl dies. The town thinks she committed suicide.
You’ve got a really good start so far. I’m a writer…I get in SO much trouble for writing when I’m not supposed to…anyway, if you need some help or tips or something from anything that you’re writing, I may be able to help if you’d like.
Speaking of Death, do you know who my favorite version of Death is? The character from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. I thought it was hilarious how William Sadler gave the character a ton of insecurity. Believe it or not, he played the character back in the 80’s on some European show. For those who don’t remember, this might bring back some memoriese….
—
Death: A hit. You have sunk my battleship!
Bill, Ted: Excellent! Yes!
Ted: I totally knew he would put it in the J’s, dude!
Bill: Good thinking, Ted.
Death: You must play me again.
Bill: WHAT?
Death: Um, best two out of three.
Bill, Dead Ted: No way!
Death: Yes way.
—
AND;
—
Death: I believe Colonel Mustard did it in the study with a candlestick.
Bill: Sorry, Death, you lose! It was Professor Plum!
Death: I said Plum!
Ted: No way! You said Mustard! Can we go back now?
Death: Uh, best three out of five!
Ted: I don’t believe this guy!
—
AND;
—
Bill: Best of seven?
Death: DAMN RIGHT!
I loved how the writers started with a cold, inhuman Death. But then during the flow of things we see how he has real human-ness to him…even if a bit over the top.
Idiot Troll.
129.115.38.64
First thought was “Dead Like Me” (which I don’t have access to anymore).
Second thought was “Why doesn’t Wil turn it into an episode of ‘Dead Like Me’?” You probably have enough contacts to get it in front of someone. And why shouldn’t they consider it — you are a published writer after all.
I’m not wil.
that whole essay that mr. gaiman wrote was wonderful. absolutely wonderful. so i thank you for sharing it with us, and introducing me to a writer i should’ve been paying attention to long before now… considering i keep seeing his name show up everywhere. 🙂
There are too many Wils around here! 🙂
Would the *real* Wil Wheaton please stand up?
Don’t worry Wil. We all know you wouldn’t talk about Anne like that in here. It’s not your style. Besides, she would probably kick you arse for making such a comment! LOL
Maybe if you can, you could modify the blog script so that when you post, it will put your name in a different color or a different font or something like that, so that people can’t pretend to be you. 🙂
Dude,
you need to update that top info about Dancing Barefoot, dude. Like, with that deal with O’Reilly, man.
Like, I am not that much of a writer myself, see.
🙂
That’s really cool stuff. I love books that flip back and forth between different perspectives. you could do Dorothy’s perspective, the student perspective, death’s perspective (which would rock if you could do that). I would read it 😛
And about writing a “proper” fiction according to all the rules… Rules suck. Tolkien broke every farkin’ rule in the book 😀