Having a difficult time coming up with a decent story idea

CrimsonCavalier · Oct 31, 2019

So I wanted to write a story where the protagonist saves a female North Korean female military officer from NK.

At first, she dislikes him but as the story will go on, they grow closer and work together. Eventually, it leads to a romantic relationship (towards the end).

I was going with the James Bond-like story first, where the main character infiltrates the DPRK to retrieve secret documents but the idea seems worn.

So that’s allowed me to open up my imagination more. I want to have more creativity here. How, I am not sure.

Settings-wise, as stated above, I am willing to use more imagination. It could end up taking place in any kind of world, I clouding that of Skyrim or other fantasy worlds.

My problem is, I can’t decide on anything. And my ideas are too vague. I’m struggling to narrow it down.

How can I better brainstorm and get going here?

indianroads · Oct 31, 2019

Start with your MC. Personally I think normal people in extraordinary situations are more interesting than some cool super-spy.

1) Getting into the PRK - he could be a tourist in China. They bug all the hotel rooms, so he might say something they don't like (maybe communism, or overthrowing tyrants). He could be arrested and 'disappear' then brought to the PRK for interrogation.

2) How does he meet FMC? Who is she? American ex-pat that came to the PRK for humanitarian reasons - then arrested?

Anyway - IMO characters make the story interesting. The best story ever can't make a dull character intriguing.

Woollybear · Oct 31, 2019

CrimsonCavalier said:
\

How can I better brainstorm and get going here?

Some of us at writers' club like The Snowflake Method.

CrimsonCavalier · Oct 31, 2019

indianroads said:
Start with your MC. Personally I think normal people in extraordinary situations are more interesting than some cool super-spy.

1) Getting into the PRK - he could be a tourist in China. They bug all the hotel rooms, so he might say something they don't like (maybe communism, or overthrowing tyrants). He could be arrested and 'disappear' then brought to the PRK for interrogation.

2) How does he meet FMC? Who is she? American ex-pat that came to the PRK for humanitarian reasons - then arrested?

Anyway - IMO characters make the story interesting. The best story ever can't make a dull character intriguing.

I agree, character development is important

Regarding #1, I do like that idea. Is it reasonable that after some sort interrogation, they somehow end up in a different world?

For #2, she is an Native North Korean who is serving the mandatory military term that women must serve

CrimsonCavalier · Oct 31, 2019

CrimsonCavalier · Oct 31, 2019

@indianroads how I visualize the character

https://thecostaricanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/North-Korean-Female-Soldier.jpg

indianroads · Oct 31, 2019

CrimsonCavalier said:
I agree, character development is important

Regarding #1, I do like that idea. Is it reasonable that after some sort interrogation, they somehow end up in a different world?

For #2, she is an Native North Korean who is serving the mandatory military term that women must serve

I don't know what you mean by "a different world".

There are many South Koreans with family still in the north - the hatred they have for Kim and the PRK is palpable. Crossing the border between the two Korea's is pretty much impossible - she would need some sort of diplomatic way of getting in. If she is native to the north, she may not want to leave - as strange as it is for us to believe, many living in the PRK love Kim.

Brightdreamer · Oct 31, 2019

Sounds like you may need to do some more research, to get an idea of what ideas are feasible/plausible, before you go any further.

Read up on NK: the history, the propaganda, the politics, the geography, the culture, true stories of defectors, any popular fictional treatments, etc. It's easy to stand outside and make flat assumptions, but you'll want to dig deeper to get a feel for what it's like behind the curtain (if you haven't been there yourself... and even if you have, one person's experience alone is just one person's - valuable, of course, but you'll want to look at things from multiple perspectives to get a solid feel of your setting.)

Read up on other oppressive regimes, how people endure living in them, and/or instances of "rescues"/defections/escapes.

You mentioned "other worlds" - if this is a fantasy, that opens up more doors, but the best fantasy still has grounding in reality. If you plan to incorporate mythology from an existing culture, do your homework and don't just rely on pop culture impressions.

Once you know better what you're working with, you may have a better idea about what kind of story you want to tell, what characters you can add to the mix and how they might act and react.

Good luck!

CrimsonCavalier · Oct 31, 2019

indianroads said:
I don't know what you mean by "a different world".

There are many South Koreans with family still in the north - the hatred they have for Kim and the PRK is palpable. Crossing the border between the two Korea's is pretty much impossible - she would need some sort of diplomatic way of getting in. If she is native to the north, she may not want to leave - as strange as it is for us to believe, many living in the PRK love Kim.

By a different world I mean perhaps it starts in NK or wherever, and eventually they end up in a place like the Skyrim world, Halo world, etc

I got the idea from a friend. I’ve thought about it a bit, but it’s far from certain.

She would be a native of the north in the north. My idea (whether it’s realistic or not) is she’s doing her job, hates the regime (secretly), and wants out. Her initial action towards the main character is to make sure he’s captured/killed/jailed/whatever, and eventually they become a team. And yes there will be a lot in between before they become friendly towards each other.

CrimsonCavalier · Oct 31, 2019

Brightdreamer said:
Sounds like you may need to do some more research, to get an idea of what ideas are feasible/plausible, before you go any further.

Read up on NK: the history, the propaganda, the politics, the geography, the culture, true stories of defectors, any popular fictional treatments, etc. It's easy to stand outside and make flat assumptions, but you'll want to dig deeper to get a feel for what it's like behind the curtain (if you haven't been there yourself... and even if you have, one person's experience alone is just one person's - valuable, of course, but you'll want to look at things from multiple perspectives to get a solid feel of your setting.)

Read up on other oppressive regimes, how people endure living in them, and/or instances of "rescues"/defections/escapes.

You mentioned "other worlds" - if this is a fantasy, that opens up more doors, but the best fantasy still has grounding in reality. If you plan to incorporate mythology from an existing culture, do your homework and don't just rely on pop culture impressions.

Once you know better what you're working with, you may have a better idea about what kind of story you want to tell, what characters you can add to the mix and how they might act and react.

Good luck!

Very good points. The furthest I’ve gone, Research-wise, is watching YouTube videos of Australian travelers taking a trip there. As well as a couple of videos here and there of “Top 10 strange facts, laws, etc.” but nothing truly information-rich. Like books, published anecdotes, articles, and obviously a lot more.

Thank you!

Bing Z · Oct 31, 2019

Read some memoirs by North Korean defectors to understand the situation, the culture, and their mentalities. One of them is A Girl with Seven Names by Kyeonseo Lee. It has more twists and turns than a spy novel. Not to mention the author is hot ^_^

Is your hero a Chinese or Japanese or South Korean (easier to fit in) or a westerner (me thinks you will need a brilliant plot for him to infiltrate into a regime where potentially every foreigner is under surveillance. But if you guy is Joe Wicked, or 008, then it is another story.

cool pop · Oct 31, 2019

Sounds like you're putting too much pressure on yourself. You don't have to be perfect and the story doesn't either. Just write it and everything will fall into place. The first step is doing it and once you get over starting the process everything will be easier. Don't worry about if the nuts and bolts now. Just get the book down now and worry about everything else during the editing phase.

indianroads · Nov 1, 2019

Is your hero a Chinese or Japanese or South Korean (easier to fit in) or a westerner (me thinks you will need a brilliant plot for him to infiltrate into a regime where potentially every foreigner is under surveillance. But if you guy is Joe Wicked, or 008, then it is another story.

I'd stay away from having the hero be Japanese - Koreans and Chinese can often tell if someone is Japanese by their body structure, AND the Japanese did some pretty horrible things to the Koreans and Chinese - a lot of prejudice remains.

Dan Rhys · Nov 1, 2019

Brightdreamer nailed it...you need to do a lot of research that will likely take some time. Knowledge breeds creativity. In my case, I wrote about things I was extremely familiar with (things mainly involving my job), so coming up with various situations and dilemmas that could arise in my field was surprisingly easy. You also write more confidently and authoritatively if you have strong knowledge about the subject matter. Readers can pick up on that.

Introversion · Nov 1, 2019

CrimsonCavalier said:
By a different world I mean perhaps it starts in NK or wherever, and eventually they end up in a place like the Skyrim world, Halo world, etc

Are you trying to write SF? If not, why not ground the story in this Earth?

What does moving them to another actual world do for advancing the story? Why is it needed, other than the "oh, wow, not Earth" thing? Do you think there's not enough interesting material in your characters being from two vastly different societies, and learning how to trust one another?

indianroads · Nov 1, 2019

If this story is SciFi or Fantasy, why have it take place in the PRK at all? Look at Nazi Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Stalin / Lenin Russia, Mao's China - and many others, and draw inspiration from that to create your society? Heck, if you're going to fly your characters to another planet, why not just have the whole story on an alien world?

CrimsonCavalier · Nov 4, 2019

Bing Z said:
Read some memoirs by North Korean defectors to understand the situation, the culture, and their mentalities. One of them is A Girl with Seven Names by Kyeonseo Lee. It has more twists and turns than a spy novel. Not to mention the author is hot ^_^

Is your hero a Chinese or Japanese or South Korean (easier to fit in) or a westerner (me thinks you will need a brilliant plot for him to infiltrate into a regime where potentially every foreigner is under surveillance. But if you guy is Joe Wicked, or 008, then it is another story.

The hero is definitely a westerner. I’ve thought about making the main character myself, as interesting or bad as that may be.

I like the idea of having to come up with a brilliant plot, but yes much research I need to do.

CrimsonCavalier · Nov 4, 2019

Dan Rhys said:
Brightdreamer nailed it...you need to do a lot of research that will likely take some time. Knowledge breeds creativity. In my case, I wrote about things I was extremely familiar with (things mainly involving my job), so coming up with various situations and dilemmas that could arise in my field was surprisingly easy. You also write more confidently and authoritatively if you have strong knowledge about the subject matter. Readers can pick up on that.

Yes I do need to do more research. I know parts of the story will not be completely realistic, but I’ll have to figure out a way to make it work

CrimsonCavalier · Nov 4, 2019

Introversion said:
Are you trying to write SF? If not, why not ground the story in this Earth?

What does moving them to another actual world do for advancing the story? Why is it needed, other than the "oh, wow, not Earth" thing? Do you think there's not enough interesting material in your characters being from two vastly different societies, and learning how to trust one another?

It’s definitely not science fiction. You bring up a good point about how the background differences can make it more interesting. Interesting enough where there is no need for a new world. I thought it would be cool to go to a new world because a friend of mine writing a story was going to do the same.

Would it be too far-fetched to start off in NK and end up in a place like Utah, Montana, or even Switzerland (where there are mountains and cabins)?

CrimsonCavalier · Nov 4, 2019

indianroads said:
If this story is SciFi or Fantasy, why have it take place in the PRK at all? Look at Nazi Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Stalin / Lenin Russia, Mao's China - and many others, and draw inspiration from that to create your society? Heck, if you're going to fly your characters to another planet, why not just have the whole story on an alien world?

I do have my own society/world called the Neutral World. It’s way too complex to explain at the moment with my time constraints, but I personally love it. It’s a combination of many worlds including real Earth, and everything is the way I want it. I’ll write about it on here soon.

Regarding the alien world, could I still start off on Earth (in North Korea) and end up in a Star Wars world like Kamino? Or go with just go with just one or the other? What’s troubling here is that there are so many appealing ways to go about this.

MaeZe · Nov 4, 2019

Brightdreamer said:
Sounds like you may need to do some more research, to get an idea of what ideas are feasible/plausible, before you go any further.

Read up on NK: the history, the propaganda, the politics, the geography, the culture, true stories of defectors, any popular fictional treatments, etc. It's easy to stand outside and make flat assumptions, but you'll want to dig deeper to get a feel for what it's like behind the curtain (if you haven't been there yourself... and even if you have, one person's experience alone is just one person's - valuable, of course, but you'll want to look at things from multiple perspectives to get a solid feel of your setting.)

Read up on other oppressive regimes, how people endure living in them, and/or instances of "rescues"/defections/escapes....

This^

Right away my first thought was, you've picked an incredibly secretive society. You've handicapped yourself but at the same time it could make for an incredible novel.

Unless you are already familiar with N Korea for some reason, start with this book:

Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite. The author spent time in N Korea as a teacher of the elite kids.

A haunting account of teaching English to the sons of North Korea's ruling class during the last six months of Kim Jong-il's reign

Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields—except for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where Suki has gone undercover as a missionary and a teacher. Over the next six months, she will eat three meals a day with her young charges and struggle to teach them English, all under the watchful eye of the regime.

Life at PUST is lonely and claustrophobic, especially for Suki, whose letters are read by censors and who must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but from her colleagues—evangelical Christian missionaries who don't know or choose to ignore that Suki doesn't share their faith. As the weeks pass, she is mystified by how easily her students lie, unnerved by their obedience to the regime. At the same time, they offer Suki tantalizing glimpses of their private selves—their boyish enthusiasm, their eagerness to please, the flashes of curiosity that have not yet been extinguished. She in turn begins to hint at the existence of a world beyond their own—at such exotic activities as surfing the Internet or traveling freely and, more dangerously, at electoral democracy and other ideas forbidden in a country where defectors risk torture and execution. But when Kim Jong-il dies, and the boys she has come to love appear devastated, she wonders whether the gulf between her world and theirs can ever be bridged.

Without You, There Is No Us offers a moving and incalculably rare glimpse of life in the world's most unknowable country, and at the privileged young men she calls "soldiers and slaves."

Or if you don't have time, watch the author's discussion on CSPAN Book TV: https://www.c-span.org/video/?319870-6/without-you-us

Without You, There Is No Us
Suki Kim talked about her book, Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite.

The interview took place at the 2014 BookExpo America, the publishing industry’s annual trade show, held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.

I thought I knew a lot about the country but this eye-witness account revealed, whatever I thought I knew about propaganda, I was underestimating by ten-fold. There are other accounts, of course. With N Korea you need accounts by people who've been there. They are so secretive it's the only way information gets out.

Brightdreamer · Nov 4, 2019

CrimsonCavalier said:
I do have my own society/world called the Neutral World. It’s way too complex to explain at the moment with my time constraints, but I personally love it. It’s a combination of many worlds including real Earth, and everything is the way I want it. I’ll write about it on here soon.

Regarding the alien world, could I still start off on Earth (in North Korea) and end up in a Star Wars world like Kamino? Or go with just go with just one or the other? What’s troubling here is that there are so many appealing ways to go about this.

First off, unless you're writing for yourself (or the fanfic community), do not use an existing fictional world, especially one associated with a Disney franchise. Not worth the cease-and-desist notices...

Secondly, you can take your story wherever you want - as long as you can make it plausible, and tell a compelling story. You could, for instance, start in modern-day NK and end up in 1950's New York City by way of ancient Rome... but would it just be a handful of characters wandering around playing tourist (yawnsville from the reader's perspective), or would there be a compelling thread or theme tying it all together (say - and I'm totally spitballing so don't history-nitpick-pounce me - following roots of paranoia and authoritarianism through history and how they bleed into each other)? Just because it's a nice shiny location or idea doesn't mean it's one that will work in this particular story, or with this set of characters.

Again, I suggest doing some research. Right now, you sound like you're in the brainstorming stage, and all sorts of dazzling possibilities are flashing around you - but many will ultimately be just flashes, here and gone with no actual substance behind them. To separate the flashes from the genuine ideas, spend some time with your characters, figure out your setting, and - again - do some research and reading.

Good luck!

CrimsonCavalier · Nov 4, 2019

Brightdreamer said:
First off, unless you're writing for yourself (or the fanfic community), do not use an existing fictional world, especially one associated with a Disney franchise. Not worth the cease-and-desist notices...

Secondly, you can take your story wherever you want - as long as you can make it plausible, and tell a compelling story. You could, for instance, start in modern-day NK and end up in 1950's New York City by way of ancient Rome... but would it just be a handful of characters wandering around playing tourist (yawnsville from the reader's perspective), or would there be a compelling thread or theme tying it all together (say - and I'm totally spitballing so don't history-nitpick-pounce me - following roots of paranoia and authoritarianism through history and how they bleed into each other)? Just because it's a nice shiny location or idea doesn't mean it's one that will work in this particular story, or with this set of characters.

Again, I suggest doing some research. Right now, you sound like you're in the brainstorming stage, and all sorts of dazzling possibilities are flashing around you - but many will ultimately be just flashes, here and gone with no actual substance behind them. To separate the flashes from the genuine ideas, spend some time with your characters, figure out your setting, and - again - do some research and reading.

Good luck!

I think you hit the nail on the head about new ideas popping up left and right. Definitely something for me to think about.

And you’re right going from one world to another with no real goal or purpose is boring.

Klope3 · Nov 6, 2019

If you want this to get published, you probably want to think about genre. If your story starts out with an undercover agent in NK, readers will expect the story to be some kind of realistic (that is, grounded in reality) spy thriller. Such a reader would be understandably baffled if the characters suddenly wound up on another planet halfway through; other planets are generally considered the territory of science-fiction, not spy thrillers.

That's not to say you can't use other planets. Just don't promise your reader one thing and then deliver another. If there's going to be space travel, find a way to hint at it early on. The reader should be at least vaguely aware, right from the start, that some spacey, sci-fi-esque things might be coming later.

Gateway · Nov 8, 2019

CrimsonCavalier said:
So I wanted to write a story where the protagonist saves a female North Korean female military officer from NK.

At first, she dislikes him but as the story will go on, they grow closer and work together. Eventually, it leads to a romantic relationship (towards the end).

I was going with the James Bond-like story first, where the main character infiltrates the DPRK to retrieve secret documents but the idea seems worn.

So that’s allowed me to open up my imagination more. I want to have more creativity here. How, I am not sure.

Settings-wise, as stated above, I am willing to use more imagination. It could end up taking place in any kind of world, I clouding that of Skyrim or other fantasy worlds.

My problem is, I can’t decide on anything. And my ideas are too vague. I’m struggling to narrow it down.

How can I better brainstorm and get going here?

Suggestion:

Get the plot better defined.

Then work the plot around a journey, which will give it more focus.

Then figure out how the character(s) change and how the plot elements provoke that.

Look for an underlying theme, argument, debate.

Work the plot, characters, journey, change to reflect the theme, argument, debate.

(nobody said it would be easy)

Having a difficult time coming up with a decent story idea

CrimsonCavalier

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

Woollybear

CrimsonCavalier

CrimsonCavalier

CrimsonCavalier

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist

CrimsonCavalier

CrimsonCavalier

Bing Z

illiterate primate

cool pop

It's Cool, Miss Pop if You're Nasty

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

Dan Rhys

Introversion

Pie aren't squared, pie are round!

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

CrimsonCavalier

CrimsonCavalier

CrimsonCavalier

CrimsonCavalier

MaeZe

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist

CrimsonCavalier

Klope3

Gateway

You Are My Density