Idea For A Book--I Need Your Advice!

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:03pm

Okay, I had this absolutely kooky idea for a book that I got while I was trying to fall asleep the other night and I was wondering everyone else's opinions on if it could work/how I could make it work/if I should just give it up. Okay, so here goes:

We're on the verge of World War III, the world is about to go into turmoil. Iran is going to drop a bomb on Israel. The book will be a series of short stories with main characters living in different parts of the world, different walks of life, different situations. Each story, between 10-30 pages in length, would describe their lives before the news comes to them and then what changes after it happens. Obviously, it will show several different perspectives of the whole thing. I think it could be really interesting.

Thoughts? Flames? Ideas? Suggestions? I'm an open book at this point--literally!

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:09pm

Have you read The Things They Carried? I think Tim O'Brein does that structure (many characters and only one action) pretty well.

Maybe have an American, a Brit, the Iranian and the Isreali?

[sommerfeld]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 3:42pm

I hope your book can be found in the FICTION section of my library.

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 3:43pm

Haha, well, is that a compliment, Sommerfeld, or are you just saying that you don't want WWIII to start?

[vmlinnie]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 3:49pm

Nice layout. I think, though, you'd have to make the characters completely off the wall. The brit could be an agitated taxi driver, or something funny, just so that it's not too serious. Nice idea though, I'd buy it.

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 3:55pm

I don't know how I like the whole "You'll read 30 pages about one character, and then she's out."

Are they going to come back in? Or are you going to have a chapter about one, and then switch to another?

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 3:59pm

I could cycle it a couple times. That's a good idea. There could be an introductory chapter on their lives and then one with their reactions to the news and how it affects them. That's a good idea.

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 4:01pm

I recommend The Shape of Things, by Timothy O'Brien. It's about Viet Nam and each chapter is a short story surrounding one of the characters.

Even though they're short stories, they're all connected through their experiences in Viet Nam.

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 4:10pm

Fiction Writer, is that one about women? Because I saw a play that my school did about a bunch of individual stories about women during and after Viet Name and the war's effects on them that was amazing...

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 6:06pm

Nooo.. that was A PIECE OF MY HEART. Where do you live? My high school did that my junior year. It's such a great play. I cried during the entire thing. I can't monologue that broke the dam though. I remember the actress used a crutch in the scene.

The Things They Carried is about the soldiers.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 7:11pm

Find a way to tie each of the stories together in the last chapter. It leaves your reader with a sense of closure.

[vmlinnie]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 7:16pm

I was just thinking that. Somehow, in the end, they are all interconnected by some really exciting unexpected twist. And they realise that they're all in the same boat.

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 7:18pm

Technically, we're all in the same boat anyway.

Everyone is affected by GWBush, somehow.

[vmlinnie]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 7:19pm

Hear Hear. Or is it Here Here? Anyway, I agree. Oprah for President. There's never been a female president or a black president, kill two birds with the one stone with Oprah! Everyone would vote for her! Well, almost.

[SarahBeth]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 7:22pm

This kind of reminds me of Canterbury Tales, but with a more current feel. Sounds good.

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 7:23pm

We could go one step further and vote for a black lesbian. Besides Joanne, I don't know any.

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 10:42pm

I was thinking about having the last chapter being an epic poem or something along those lines that would tie together all the stories. I don't know if that would be interesting, but I think it oculd be.

And I agree, but we all know Oprah would never run. So unfair. You know everyone would vote for it.

And thank you all so much for your support. How do you think I should go about doing this? Any suggesetions as to where I can find good research? Obviously I'll need to do a lot of that to make this at all believable.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 1:52am

kinda like that movie about 4 different people around the world, and their taxi experiences the same night.

interesting idea that you've now given to the world....write fast or someone will beat you to it......actually may already be doing so.

suggestion.......ask close trustable friends, not all of BWW.....and, have you been to many countries? It will be hard to make it believeable unless you have....research just cannot give you a feel of say Lyon, Adelaide, or Bratislava.....but nice idea.

Updated On: 8/4/06 at 01:52 AM

[Elphaba]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 1:56am

and NO to the epic ending.......just make them individual stories. The reader WILL know to tie them together as the connecting theme is before and after.........