Does anyone have any good ideas for an episodic novel?

Question

It's for my english class. The first part is due in a week and I have no idea what to do it on. Just a simple storyline will do, but the main character has to but the main character has to be on the verge of attaining a long-term goal, but something stands in the way. It can take place in the future, past or present. Please be original and creative. Keep in mind that the more detailed, the more likely you'll get the ten extra points!

Answer 1

30 year old guy going to meet long term girlfriend to pop the question.
Stops at motel for night on the way and awakes to find......no one.
No people, no bodies, empty cars parked all over the place, shop doors open but no staff.... nothing.
Continues journey untill passing through small western town where there are....people!!

End of part one.

Befriends this new group, who are as scared and confused as him, but wishes to find his girl.......
Becomes the leader of this group over a period of two years, helping them to rebuild some kind of life......
Gets farming started (there are still animals), sets up search partys ( they find nothing )
Builds a collection of books and educational aides with which people learn to be all they need within the small (100 ish ) community.......

End of part two.

With the community safely established, he plans his search......
Still no contact with anyone else in any form.....
Obviousley in a small American town, with cities, roads, the world around them, but no sign of life.....
He sets out on his search on morning, with the full support of his community.
He opens the front door of the house he has made his own and is met by a person he has never before seen.......
The stranger says ''This is my house, who are you?....''

End of part three.

Start of part four.......

To be continued.

I love the idea of this story and have had it in my head for years, but I can't write ( can you tell )

I see atleast 2 books in it (parts 1&2 then 3&4)

For parts 1-3 it is a simple well known story you can embellish to make your own, but in part 4 to be confronted with what your community is searching for (other people), as your leaving to embark on your own personal search, is a good twist.

I know how I see part 4 being played out & ending, but I'll leave that to you, it could go many ways.

So, well, I like it but if you think it's siht, then fair enough.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Each episode is a letter, the transcript of a phonecall, or a series of entries in a journal, or a combination of the above. Stylistically, I would exclude a narrator and just let the reader fall into the first-person journal, translate into the phone calls, and read the letters without segwey. It might be a little over-done, but it will be easy to write. End with an obituary. See below for a rough outline.

Also, this is completely made-up off the cuff, so feel free to improvise.


Episode 1: Introduction
Corporal John Wilson graduates the Paris Island Marine Corps boot camp.

Episode 2: Drama
Cpl Wilson is deployed to Iraq.

Episode 3: Tragedy
Cpl Wilson realizes his dream of fighting for his country, and also comes face to face with the brutal realities of war.

Episode 4: Resolution
Cpl Wilson recognizes his dream as naive, and becomes a pacifist.

Episode 5: 90s-style ending
Cpl is killed by an IED (improvised explosive device) in western Baghdad, the day before returning home from the war.

Answer 3

Well, the thing about storytelling is you can make a story about just about anything interesting if you embelish it enough, so I just recommend using the first kind of main character that comes to mind as interesting, then take that character, and think of something they'd desire, anything at all. From that point, it's not hard to develop a personality for them, and a problem in reaching that desire, here I'll give you a couple examples you may want to use due to their sheer awesomeness.

Alexander the suicidal paperclip: Alexander was an innocent paperclip, he enjoyed his youth among other paperclips in a large bin of paperclips enjoying languishing in the paperclip way of life, and overall doing nothing. Now, one day, this all changed, he was plucked from his former home and bent, he was forced to hold together a variety of papers, then reused and captured again and again. This after all, was what he was always told was his purpose, he was bound by duty to do it, and yet, it didn't feel right, he knew, as a paperclip, this was what he was meant to do, in fact, it was all he could do, but he just didn't want to do it. WIth this in mind alexander got his mind set upon suicide, a relief from being a paperclip. But this was easier conceived than done (paperclips of course can't talk), as his people were nigh-immortal when left to their own devices. He has tried to switch places with a paperclip bound for the paper shredder, and succeeded in reaching it, but found himself capable of stopping the blades, and was carefully removed, then of all things REUSED. Eventually, through shipping invoices he finds himself in a steel mill, and is able to sneak his way near a vat, finally to have his dream realized. When all of the sudden, someone spots him moving. This violates the hundred year code of his people, the one thing he still held sacred from his childhood, he had betrayed everything, and now couldn't even end his thoughts of this betrayal as he sat still, hoping the man would pass and assume himself imagining things. (insert more detauks here... PS: One may not want to write of this if a professor is prone to worry).

It's not that hard to come up with ideas, just take any horrible idea, no matter how bad it may seem to you and dress it up a bit, the garbage man who wants a certain expensive cologne, the french fress fruit salesman (i.e. someone who owns a fruit stand and gets free fruit from his job, also lacking sufficient income to pay for more than rent so is forced to utilize this) who has an incredible longing for the escargo of his native land... Just take an idea and run with it.

Answer 4

Yes, why do teens cut/slash themselves.

Develop what you know about this subject.
Maybe you're finding you already know kids who do this.
Make the girl - a hero after she gets help and stops other kids from doing it.

Make the girl have a terrific future because she gets into college and becomes a doctor someday and helps others.

GOD bless us one and all, always.
MBA-Boston Univ.