See larger image The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile (Paperback) By (author) Noah Lukeman List Price: $13.95 USD New From: $7.93 In Stock Used from: $5.98 In Stock

I began this story a couple of years ago and lost steam after a few paragraphs. I didn’t really know where I was going with it. This was supposed to have a theme of perception of both the character and the reader. My idea was to start big and then gradually move smaller and smaller until I reach the level of individual perception. It has potential but like all of the other projects that I have listed on this site, I don’t have any interest in pursuing it further.

As always, it certainly is possible that someone else has already plucked this idea out of the ether and written the story so you may want to be on the look out for that if you choose to use this idea. Otherwise this idea is public domain. The plot, characters, settings, names etc are all free for you to use with no expectation of reimbursement. Have fun.

Sometimes I like to think I am a divine being sent here on a mission from god. I like to think that deep within myself and hidden by my skin and bones is an angelic essence sent here to effect a great change in humanity. Or instead maybe I’ve been sent here as the next step on my angelic journey and when I die I’ll have earned a pair of wings that will take me back to heaven. Or that being here is the celestial version of being sent to bed without dessert. A chastisement for refusing to eat my broccoli, or for plucking a cherubim’s wing or playing marbles with the worlds in the universe.

Sometimes I like to think I am a Prophet or a Buddha or a Shaman cleverly hidden as a mundane human. I like to think that my poetry, though just a jumble of confused thoughts and misused words, are in fact divinely inspired messages in which the secrets of the world are revealed. Or I’m a the only remaining survivor of a dead planet sent here as a child and that any day now my superpowers will kick in and I can start fighting evil.

I like to think that my ex-husband left me because he really is a shallow jerk.

I like to think that I survived child abuse so that I may help other victims of the same tragedy.

Sometimes I like to think I am a human worthy of being treated humanely. That when I smile at my neighbor he’ll smile back instead of rolling his eyes. That when I perform a kind gesture, that it will be acknowledged with a thank you instead of suspiciousness. That every Christian I meet won’t tell me I’m going to hell.

I like to think that one day when I look up the word normal in the dictionary, I’ll see a picture of me.

I like to think there is a purpose for it all.

Yeah, I like to think that.

I got this idea for a character who didn’t fit in with her family. The story is partly based on a situation that I found myself in a few years ago. I had somehow taken a wrong turn and ended up in a place that resembled Stepford, Connecticut – Home of the Stepford husbands and wives – where everyone was blonde, thin and had no personality. And heaven help you if you were none of the above.

As always, it certainly is possible that someone else has already plucked this idea out of the ether and written the story so you may want to be on the look out for that if you choose to use this idea. Otherwise this idea is public domain. The plot, characters, settings, names etc are all free for you to use with no expectation of reimbursement. Have fun.

Story type: Short story or Novella

Title: Unacceptable

Genre: Drama

Main character(s): Main Female Character(MFC) and Mother

Primary theme: MFC battle at trying to gain her mother’s acceptance and approval

Synopsis: This story is about the relationship between a mother and daughter. The daughter, MFC, is different from everyone in her family. Everyone in her family is tall, thin and blonde. She is red-haired and over weight. Even when she loses the extra weight, her bone structure is such that she will never be as small as her sister and mother.

MFC has always been heavy. She likes to eat. At first the mother didn’t care. She does not like MFC for reasons I’m not quite sure yet. But as she gets older and bigger and less popular and all the other mothers started looking down on her (the mother) she begans to care.

She tries everything in her power to get MFC to lose weight. For her birthday, she tricks her (MFC) into going to a beauty shop to get her hair dyed. She even goes so far as to cut MFC meal portions and force her to exercise but MFC steals money to buy food so her efforts are wasted. She finally settles for being cruel in hopes it inspires her to lose the weight.

Finally MFC and her mother get into a vicious fight and MFC flips out and declares that aliens abducted her mother and implanted her in her womb and she (MFC) really is an alien. Her mother can’t believe what she is saying and walks out on the argument.

So MFC plays on the alien theory for awhile. She is Princess Fatassie from the planet Pigula. She even invents a language. It drives her mom crazy. She takes it to school when the other students pick on her and also to embarrass her sister. Her relationship with her family only worsens.

She ends up getting into trouble at school and has to stay after for detention. The teacher makes her write a short story about the subject of her choice and she has to stay after school everyday until it was finished. So she takes her alien invention and puts it on paper. The teacher helps her polish it and enter it into a short story contest which she wins.

Spurred by her success, she begins her writing career. She writes a story that is an imitation of her life. With her focus diverted, she has ceased tormenting her mother and they are living in an uneasy truce. MFC finds her release in writing. When her mother makes her angry, she expresses it in the story. She starts losing weight without realizing it because her writing addiction has taken the place of her food addiction. Her father convinces her to sign up for a karate class which she really likes and the weight comes off.

Now her mother wants something to do with her but can’t seem to get her (MFC’s) attention. In addition to Karate, MFC has joined her local readers and writers club and is alway gone. Plus she has developed a good relationship with the teacher who first inspired her to write (who is tall, redheaded and big boned too). This becomes painfully clear to her mother on parent/teacher night when MFC shows her teacher her latest effort, the first her mother ever heard of it. MFC is very different with her teacher than she is with her mother.

So in an effort to understand her daughter the mother goes into her room and reads the story she’s written. MFC catches her and gets angry at her for invading her privacy. Her mother tries to explain that she only wanted to know what was going on with her in her life. They get into a huge arguement about the story because her mother cannot believe that she (MFC) thinks that badly of her or that she was that cruel to her.

See larger image The Stepford Wives (Full Screen Collector's Edition) (DVD) Director: Frank Oz Starring: Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) List Price: $12.98 USD New From: $0.99 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date November 9, 2004.

As always, it certainly is possible that someone else has already plucked this idea out of the ether and written the story so you may want to be on the look out for that if you choose to use this idea. Otherwise this idea is public domain. The plot, characters, settings, names etc are all free for you to use with no expectation of reimbursement. Have fun.

Award winning romance writer Leigh Micheals teaches you how to write a great romance novel. Get it at Amazon.com

Story type: Novel or Short Story

Title: Unknown

Genre: Romance

Main character(s): Katherine and Main Male Character (MMC)

Primary theme: The developing relationship between the two main characters

Synopsis: MMC has the power to heal. He comes to visit a church in Katherine’s town. This story is set in historical western time. Katherine is a little eccentric in the way that she doesn’t do what is expected of her. When the story begins she is taking a prostitute to see the healer. She is about to commit a serious faux pas.

Here is what I have written so far:

The healer arrived at Saint Matthews church on Friday afternoon and that Sunday morning the small church was packed to the rafters with sick people.

“Katheryn I think you are making a big mistake bringing me here.” Thelma said, looking around her at the respectable townspeople milling about talking amongst themselves about the miracle healer arrived in Jamestown.

“There’s been no mistake.” Katherine replied.

“How can you be so calm about this?” She exclaimed. “Katherine your reputation is about to go to the pot. When these townspeople saw you being friends with a harlot, they thought you were missing a few cards out of you’re deck but they tolerated it. They even tolerated the fact that you own a business but they will not tolerate you asking a holy man to put his hands on a whore.”

“I’m not going to the healer to put his hands on a whore. I’m going to ask him to heal a woman in need.” Katheryn replied. She turned her head and looked into Thelma’s worried face.

Otherwise this plot bunny is public domain. The plot, characters, settings, names etc are all free for you to use with no expectation of reimbursement. Have fun.

Award winning romance writer Leigh Micheals teaches you how to write a great romance novel. Get it at Amazon.com

This is a short love story. The MFC is an artist. Her ‘day job’ is painting portraits of people. She also makes busts of people’s heads, mostly rich people. She makes pretty decent money doing that, enough to afford a house in the country. Her ‘dream job’ is to sell her art in galleries etc. She gets an agent working for her and starts making pieces to show. She does paintings, vases and odd pieces. She makes this bowl of fruit out of clay and paints it so that it actually looks like fruit. She is very good at what she does but no one wants to take a chance on her because she is new and the art world is so fickle.

Her agent manages to convince a local gallery to show her and so she spends several months making up a few more pieces for the showing. She finishes that project but then is inspired to start another, a marble statue of a man. In fact the inspiration is so strong that she cannot ignore it. She goes to an art store that specializes in stone. She is browsing through the rocks when she is drawn to one particular piece of stone. The history of the stone is that is was taken from and old Scottish castle that had been recently torn down. It is very expensive and at first she decides not to get it but it seems to call to her and finally she breaks down and buys it.

It is delivered a few days later and from the moment it arrives she starts work on it. She can’t seem to stop working on it. She only pauses to sleep and barely to eat. She is driven to complete it. The night she finishes she falls asleep on her workroom floor. The next morning she wakes up in bed. She doesn’t remember putting herself to bed but as she lives alone and has no children, she figures she must have dragged herself to bed.

She gets up and dresses. She calls her agent to tell her the pieces are done for the showing. As she is cleaning her home, she notices that things are out of place. She becomes unsettled but there doesn’t seem to be any other explanation except that she must have done it herself. She goes into her workroom to cleanup but finds it is already clean and the statue moved. She becomes a little fearful. But she doesn’t have time to ponder it. Her agent and the gallery curator arrive. They view her artwork while she changes clothes. The gallery curator is impressed and is excited to show her. They go to lunch to discuss the details.

Over lunch, the agent mentions that the eyes of the statue were blue but she never painted him. She is alarmed. After lunch, the agent takes her home. She rushes into the workroom but the statue is gray. She spends the rest of the day catching up on work. Night falls and the most bizarre thing happens. She hears a sound like paint crackling turns around and finds the statue coming alive. She is scared to death. She trips over her feet and sprains her ankle. When she realizes he really is alive, she faints.

She wakes believing it was a dream but finds that she has indeed sprained her ankle. When she goes into the kitchen, she finds him there very much alive. She is shocked to say the least. Anyway, she manages to find some clothes for him to wear. She learns that he is a Scotsman from way back in the day. He was defending his home from a neighbor who wanted his land. He was doing a good job of beating down the opposition until one day the neighbor employed the services of a witch who cast his soul into the stone of his castle. He’d been there some three hundred years.

She goes to the hospital, gets her ankle looked at. When she goes back home, they spend some time together. At first she just shows him around her home. Later, she actually takes him out into the world. He is shocked and amazed at how much the world has changed and also scared. He’s not sure exactly how he will fit in. During this time, an old woman who wants to buy the statue visits her. She refuses. They fall in love.

The museum showing comes. It is a success. The old woman shows up and the statue mysteriously disappears. The artist is frantic looking for him but no success. What has happened is when the old woman cursed him, she, herself, was cursed to walk the earth until she made things right. She restores him to human form and offers him a chance to go back home to Scotland during the time he lived. He decides to stay with the artist.

The artist knew he was having a hard time adjusting to the new world he lived in and figure he was unable to fully adjust and so left. He appears days later on her doorstep. They live happily ever after.