Help with my story, please?

Question

Set in English 1831

An inspector finds a prostitute unconscious by the river. Assumes she attempted suicide; but it's not,someone tried to kill her and cover up the crime to make it look like suicide. The prostitute gets amnesia, forgets her past, becomes as innocent as a child. So, basically, she symbolizes how humans were before they were affected by the ways of society. Anyways, the inspector hates her at first, because she is, after all, a prostitute, but later on comes to love her-of course, this happens towards the end of the story.
The question is WHO tried to kill her?A clergyman who had an affair with her,but tried to cover it up for the sake of his reputation?
Should I have the inspector find a diary of the prostitute's which tells of her life before she got amnesia?
How should the story end?Turn her back into a prostitute,by the influence of society?
....This isn't a mystery fiction, it's mostly based on the life of the prostitute

Should she have a diary, and WHY???
And if she does have a diary, why had she gone into prostitution when she was able to read and write???

And what should the inspector's surname be? Frederick...what?? Gerald? Grammond? Garamon? Lydgate? Garth? Renfield??? Any suggestions??

Also,what should the relationship be b/w the prostitute and the inspector?Should it be tragic,like,the woman only views him in a fatherly way,but he really loves her??? (though he despises her at first,as he is against prostitution)

Should the inspector be the protagonist, or the prostitute?? And WHAT DOES THE INSPECTOR LEARN (EMOTIONALLY?) FROM THE PROSTITUTE....HOW DOES SHE CHANGE HIM?

...sorry for the many questions. I'm just in a major writer's block, but am dying to write something here....

Answer 1

If it is set in 1831 (did I understand that correctly), I would find it hard to believe that the prostitute keeps a diary.

As far as the end is concerned, I think (as someone who hates romance novels) that having her turn back into a prostitute at the end would be a good finish. It would probably be unexpected (most people expect a happy-ever-after ending).

You could still have the inspector falling for her, but realising that they come from two such different worlds that there is no future. You could have them going their separate ways (him believing that he has helped her turn her back on prostitution). Then say five years later he is called out to solve some crime involving prostitutes and he sees her there and realises that she went back to prostitution.

Answer 2

Don't use the diary. That's telling--not showing, and it's cliched. Generally avoid anything resembling a voiceover or flashback. Instead, have the detective uncover facts about her throughout the course of his investigation.

This means you'll have to research the methods of mystery writing. How do you reveal something slowly and in an exciting way? A few tips I can give you: 1. Come up with the end first and make that the beginning. Then just work through the plot points backwards. 2. Find the cliche and kill it. There will always be an easy answer that the reader comes up with first and expects you to use. Don't use it. 3. Delay and retard the revelation as much as possible. Remember that this final revealing of her true past is what everyone wants to know, so build anticipation. Think of it as a burlesque strip tease. You're about to reveal the final piece, but then something interrupts! There's another murder! Now the detective has amnesia! Something ridiculous like that should always happen.

The detective's surname should be Relective, a) because it rhymes with detective and b) because it implies that he's a "relic"--like he's getting too old for this ****.

I'm kidding. If you ever have trouble thinking of a name, just use a placeholder. Call him Relective for now, a) because it's an unusual word that you can easily do a "find and replace" on once you come up with a good name and b) it's too ridiculous to grow on you.

The rest of these questions are ones that you need to answer. You're the writer, so you come up with the story.

Answer 3

Yes let the inspector find the diary but keep it to himself, that is don't let her know about it, not yet. He's trying to find a good time to do it.
So he falls in love? Maybe he fall madly in love and against his character,( morals vs. lust) he tries to make a move. "Afterall, she is a prostitute right?" But with her new-found inocence, she ademantley refuses. It makes the inspector angry and he throws out the diary. She knows that her past is in there but she's afraid to see it. The inspector feels bad and embaressed and tries to take back the diary. "She's not ready." But she just must know. So she keeps it and then she finds out:

She had a husband but he died in a tragic accident
She has a child which she had to give up for adoption
She went into her "career" because there was no other income and a wierd old lady told her she was so pretty it was too good of and opertunity to pass up. She hesitated but decided to give it a try.

(She never did write about the clergy man. She was afraid because he threatened her so no vivid memory of the the man remained)

Of course the prostitute felt terrible and ashamed of her dark past but she had to make things right. (Story of reformation like Rahab or Mary Magdalene from the Bible) She set out to find the long-lost child.

Somewhere along the way she felt like she had to confess at the church so she went and while in the pulpit she faintley recognized the voice of the clergy man. The inspector had start to become like a mentor and he was waiting for her outside.......
...... Man this is your story take it from here...I hope I helped though and I'd love to see how you worked out this story

Answer 4

she should have a diary about her hard life after a major incident happened because after the inspector reads it and thinks highly different of her. as a result, he falls in love with her. she can read and write because she came from a wealthy family where education was very important to them since she would soon have to take over her family's business. but her family lost their family and as a result, she became a prostitute to help support her family. the inspector's name should be frederick. at first, the prositute would only view him as a fatherly figure but later on falls in love with him. the inspector should probably be the protagonist and he learns from her that there is always going to be something that will lead a person's path to the correct way if they were on a wrong path. she changes him by trying to make him understand and view everything in a different perspectives instead of one perspective. i think i pretty much answered all your questions. if you have anymore questions that you want to ask me about this story or any other story you want to write, then email me because i might be able to help you.

Answer 5

i'm a writer to, and i hate it when i get writers block. anyway, the prostitute should have a diary cuz most of them do. a clergyman is so used u it makes no sense. you have to make it closer, like the head of the guys department, who then finds out and sends crocked inspector to kill him and the prostitute.
if your story ends with a gun fight, no one will read any of your stories, make it more original like a fist fight in the subway station that ends with the prostitute saving the guy or something.
now the part about her turning back into a prositute, i don't know, it depends on how close they are.

Answer 6

I don't think she should have a diary, a woman like that would never have journal time. It should be the inspector who tried to kill her. he had tried to reason with her on her ways because he was a past lover of hers and when he saw that she was not in love with him, he felt the only way to have her would be to kill her to own her completely.. Maybe past love letters to be found later on with initials and another detective on the case discovers these and has to figure out who wrote them while the love sick detective Thomas has to desperately try and cover his remaining tracks that he never knew her.. as he See's what he's really wanted for sometime being that she is innocent of all bad things, he is seduced by her and wants more then anything to be with her, in his sick obsession over her, he will desperately fall into a maze of insanity and despair trying to hide himself from the other detective and once again try to be with the woman he wants to own completely. feeling like he is running into the gates of hell, never to return the same if he cant make her love him...

Answer 7

More tragic is that she tries to make it in society, but her reputation follows her and she has no choice but to go back to the streets, where she is murdered by one of her Johns

Answer 8

it depends on how you want to go with the story. do you want it to be more real, or do you want it to be romantacized? real-she goes back to the streets, maybe gets killed. romantacized-cop takes her away, gives her a life again.