Thursday, November 5, 2009

Blame it on Buffy

Did you ever have an idea pop into your head that you thought was just really and truly brilliant? I had one of those yesterday after watching part of the movie, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

I wondered why nobody ever set a vampire story in Alaska or any country in the far north for that matter. Think about it. Six months of night. Your vampire could vacation in Alaska rampaging across the frozen north chewing on necks twenty four hours a day. Really cool idea, right?

Wrong. How's he going to get at all those necks hidden in hooded coats and wrapped in woolen scarves. Not to mention trying to talk a woman out of her clothes in forty below temperatures. That's never going to happen. And what if he gets caught in a snow storm? Maybe trapped in a glacier slowly moving south? He'd be there for all eternity. Alive in a block of ice. That would truly suck. He might even melt into the next apocalypse and there'd be no people. Thawed and no blood.

While this idea might make for a fun flash fiction piece, I doubt it could be worked into anything longer that would appeal to readers. Part of writing is putting together ideas in your head before you write them down on a piece of paper. So many of us dash every idea down before we even give it a thought and then get frustrated because it doesn't work.

The next time you get a really hot idea, take a couple of hours and work through the story in your head or jot some thoughts and ideas down on a piece of paper. Ask yourself if the idea has wings to make it fly or is it just a clever thought that isn't going to go anywhere? By taking the time to plot through in your head first, you could save yourself the frustration of a story that doesn't go anywhere and probably shouldn't have been started in the first place.

And from Pam Castro's Flash Fiction Flash Newsletter we have the zine, "Ruthless People" http://www.ruthlesspeoples.com/node/4 This is a cross genre monthly done in PDF format. They're looking for horror, sci-fi, and crime stories and they pay. $10 for flash of 500 - 1000 words. $35 for shorts and serials up to 3500 words. A penny a word for mini-flash up to 500 words and a flat fee of $5 for poetry.

7 comments:

Corey Wilde said...

I think your idea would make for a great funny short story. Suppose you have an inexperienced vampire who hasn't thought it all through as you did? He thinks he's there for the vacation of his life and instead he starves (or almost) to death.

Amy said...

ummm, they did already think of that. I saw a schlocky vampire movie set in Alaska just a few months ago. Can't remember the title--but it was actually pretty good.

I find that while ideas are original to ME, they have frequently occurred to others, independently, as well. In fact, I was writing a mystery (A Feng Shui to Die) and discovered that someone else had already written a similar one. I had no idea--had never read the other author. But what the hey, I'm going to write it anyway (and maybe just chose a different title).
sincerely,
amy corwin
http://www.amycorwin.com

Unknown said...

30 Days of Night and I thought it was a pretty effective (produced three graphic novels, 1 movie, and 1 mini-series) foil for the wussy Anne Rice streak of vampirism.

JDC

sandra seamans said...

I agree that this could make a great humor short, Corey, and I've been playing around with the idea. The idea lends itself to a Three Stooges mentality, at least in my mind.

Amy and John, of course there are no new ideas, just a new writer's concept of the idea. And to be truthful, I hadn't heard of either of your mentions. I guess I need to get reading more Vampire fiction.

David Cranmer said...

I think you have a great premise. And I'm looking forward to reading it.

G. B. Miller said...

I had that problem with more than a few short stories during this past year.

I would start them, then get anywhere from a few paragraphs to five pages before running out of steam and not knowing where to go.

Finally got fed up with looking at all of those stray bits and pieces, came up with the brilliant idea of weaving all those stray bits into one longer story (about 20 pages) about a writer who keeps getting interrupted whenever he starts a story and can never get back on track with it, so he starts another, and another, and another...

Well, you get the basic idea.

sandra seamans said...

Thanks, David, I keep giggling to myself as I consider all the humorous situations that could unfold.

That sounds like a fun idea, G! I have folders full of started stories that tend to go nowhere. But then I'll get another idea and pull out the folder and finds it fits perfectly with something that I've already written. So none of it actually goes to waste. I just hate sitting in a chair pulling my hair out when a story falls apart because I didn't think it through far enough. :-)