Step outline / Theme brainstorm- Story 1

[amanda]

Here's where we can start bringing in ideas, either for the theme or plot points for the first collaborative short story.

What I have found useful in story is something called a "step outline"

Step outlines are stories told in steps- basically the turing point in scenes written out in one or two sentences. example: "He climbed the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro to find the treasure was already pilfered away by the rebels." Everything else of the scene works away from that point. How did so and so get there? Who is he? Why is looking for treasure in some absurd place like the top of a mountain and so on.

But since we are at the very beginning, it would be helpful just to have this thread be a bucket for ANY ideas relating to this story- theme, character's names, place, favorite ice-cream flavor of the pet goldfish... ANYTHING. Toss it in here, kids. We'll pick out the soggy bits later.

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Theme- powerlessness. abandoned love.

scene- as the child hears fighting, he slips outside to watch fireflies. He remembers from his book that the flashes are the males asking the females to love him. He wonders if he could flash too.