Hello everyone!
First of all, English is not my native language, so I apologize for strange-sounding sentences.
So, my plot is somewhat not-really-a-plot-yet. Basically I know the beginning and the end but the middle is somewhat not-existing yet. So far it goes like this:
20-year old Jill is at a book market and meets a strange woman named Josephine who looks pretty much like taken out of a book about the french revolution, opulent dress and all that. While the books she sells seem to be rather normal, she talks about the souls of the books, born out of the fact that so many people read books each in his or her own way, which results in souls as diverse as 'normal' human souls.
For some reason I haven't figured out yet, Jill accompanies Josephine to her hometown, which is strangely accessible by a train Jill takes every day without ever noticing a trainstation with the name of that town. But it's there and Jill finds herself in a town where everyone looks as strange as Josephine, but also very scatterbrained, as some people can't even remember the names of their best friends. Jill also finds out that the library there only contains a single book.
Back at home, no one has ever heard of Josephine's town and when Jill tries to get there by herself the next day, she finds herself unable to remember what she even wanted as soon as she boards the train. So she ends up walking through the city and finally entering the local library, a place she really likes. There she meets a librarian called John, who helps her remembering since he obviously knows about Joephine's town. Jill returns to the town and searches for Josephine, figuring out that everyone has obviously problems remembering her, as well as some places seem to have disappeared.
This is where the detailed ideas stop. What I also plan is the fact that there are some people called 'dreamers' who are responsible for keeping the town existant, but who disappear over time. When Josephine, Jill and John (who accompanies them because of...I have no idea) investigate, they find that a strange technology kills these dreamers, who are all people from Jill's 'world'. John also dies and, like everything, is forgotten. There also is a mystical place somewhere, described in the only book in the library, where everything can be saved.
Basically, Josephine's town shall represent the world of the souls of books, which gets more and more destroyed by technology and stuff, since people stop reading. My oh-so-clever (*cough*) idea is that Joephine obviously doesn't disappear, since the reader is obviously reading her novel, making also Jill a part of her world. This should just be revealed in the ending.
About John...he was planned as some kind of 60-year old librarian, but I also got the idea about him being something like a cursed prince or something, since there are so many books and fairytales with a 'cursed-so-and-so'-plot that I thought a cursed prince should be part of Josephine's world. But I somehow don't know...well, he obviously gets revived at the end, since I love happy endings, but still...
So, if anyone is still reading all the crap that I write, now the plotholes that need to be filled:
1) How exactly are the dreamers responsible for keeping the town existing? They pretty much sleep all day, but how saves this Josephine's world?
2) What is the place where the world can be saved and how can it be saved? I first thougt about it being a place which technology can't touch and Jill getting to be a dreamer there, but that wouldn't be a happy ending...
3) How much romance should there be in the novel? I actually planned that Josephine falls in love with Jill, but with the 'maybe-a-cursed-prince'-John there, everything in my head turns upside down.
4) If John isn't a cursed prince...why is he there? Why does he remember Josephine's town?
5) Why is there this mystical, single book in Josephine's town?
Yeah...help would be very, very much appreciated! :)
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50,826 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2007 - 09 47
1) Maybe the dreamers should be literature students and professors the world over, as well as the authors of the books. See, Josephine's world and fellow townspeople exist as long as people remember and ponder the characters in books, but with technology in general now, people have shorter and shorter attention spans and memories. They can't even remember the name of the main character in a book they just read. The authors are getting old and dying. At a point in time, when no one in the entire world is thinking of a character, they cease to exist.
2) The place where Josephine's world can be saved would be a university where the literature program is the last really demanding program in the world and where the students actually remember all the characters they study. The program is in danger of being cut... by a villain who is actually from Josephine's world and the same story as John.
3) Josephine and John long lost lovers?
4) John found a way to escape being forgotten and manages to live in Jill's world even though he's disappeared in Josephine's, so he can't go back. Same with the villain who wants to take down the literature program. He's forgotten, and can't stand the thought of all those other characters being remembered but not him.
5) The single mystical book is the story of Josephine, John, and the villain. Jill needs to bring it back to her world, convince the literary department at the university to make it part of the curriculum so John and the villain can exist again, face each other and do battle... whatever that would mean. The hard part would be explaining why Josephine exists because someone is reading your novel, but not John and the villain since they're characters in it as well. Hmm.
Not watertight plothole fillers, but maybe the ideas will help. :)
50,086 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2007 - 10 00
1) How exactly are the dreamers responsible for keeping the town existing? They pretty much sleep all day, but how saves this Josephine's world?
Could this be a variation on Descartes' 'I think, therefore I am' idea? Or the old philosophical concept that things only exist while they're being observed? (The idea was that things were given form by the observer. When you weren't looking at something, it melted into grey nothingness. As people are capable of self-observation, they're always present. Another variation said that things didn't really melt away because God was always observing everything.) You could hint at this by having the landscape of Josephine's world melt into nothingness at the very edge of Jill's peripheral vision, maybe. Perhaps Jill only visits Josephine's world when she falls asleep on the train? When no one's dreaming the landscape or individual people, those people slip into the nothing.
2) What is the place where the world can be saved and how can it be saved? I first thougt about it being a place which technology can't touch and Jill getting to be a dreamer there, but that wouldn't be a happy ending...
Could the place be a real-world library? (This is a corny idea, but it might help you think of something better) Could Jill volunteer to read stories to children after school? Maybe she could arrange for kids who'd usually be at an adjacent arcade to come in for a fairy tale about a cursed prince, and as she shuts the book, John, the vanished librarian steps into view, helping the children find 'more stories like that one'.
3) How much romance should there be in the novel? I actually planned that Josephine falls in love with Jill, but with the 'maybe-a-cursed-prince'-John there, everything in my head turns upside down.
Maybe you could play that by ear, or keep the romance subtle if you can't decide. Josephine might be in love with Jill, but Jill might have a crush on John, who's pining for his long lost princess, who is actually Josephine, though John doesn't realize it – well, it could get complicated.
4) If John isn't a cursed prince...why is he there? Why does he remember Josephine's town?
He could be a woken dreamer, perhaps an author who'd given up writing?
5) Why is there this mystical, single book in Josephine's town?
Someone dreamed it there? Perhaps it's a race to the book, with Jill trying to get to see it before the dreamer holding it in his mind wakes, and the only means of rescuing the town vanishes forever?
These are goofy suggestions, but maybe they'll help get your mind moving. Good luck!
----------~If my backyard resembled the world of my imagination, I'd be inside, nailing the windows shut.~
60,130 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2007 - 12 24
1) I really like the idea of them being authors. I'm not sure if that'd fit into the story since I have no idea what will come out of the chaos in my head, but yeah, you got the idea of the fact that Josephine and her people exist as long as people think about them right. Well, basically the dreamers are kind of immortal and can't grow old and die, but since technology kills them, their number get reduced anyway.
2) I never really planned on introducing a villain...mmh, I never planned on introducing so many characters, but I'll make a note about it~
3) Josephine is a lesbian. No chance, I'm afraid.
4) Yes, he obviously has at least been in Josephine's world...and well, he has to go back somehow so he can travel with Jill and Josephine. But I could make it at least difficult for him...
5) Whoa, that'd get very complicated. But you gave me some kind of crazy idea now which could actually never work out, but I still like it~
Thanks a lot! :)
----------60,130 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2007 - 12 45
1) There are still some dreamers left, so it's actually not Jill who keeps the world existing. But I still like the 'I think therefore I am'-idea, but it's more a 'I think therefore you are'-idea for Josephine's world.
2) That is a really brilliant idea and I'm totally gonna use it. Considering that John actually works in a real-world library and that he is something like a key to the story, that would totally make sense. Now I only must figure out what his role exactly is...
I also like your idea of John's revival. It sadly isn't possible with the ending I have planned, but the actual idea of John not suddenly reappearing when the world is saved is great and I'll think about something similiar.
3) Romance is definitely being subtile, seeing as I already fear that 50.000 words are only the beginning thanks to the sheer amount of plot. And since John is at least cursed with the appearance of an old man, chances that Jill will love him are non-existant. But this doesn't mean that he can't also fall in love with Jill, now that I think about it...
4) That's brilliant! Simply brilliant! Oh, I'll totally write that! *furiously scribbles down notes*
5) Yes...yes that would work...maybe...I could arrange it that John could've dreamt it there? I maybe could make the pages all empty since he'd be a dreamer who is awake and only when he is back sleeping there could be written how the world can be saved and stuff...*is writing down even more stuff*
...whoa I'm totally excited to start writing now. :D
Thank you very much, you helped me tons! :)
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