Short Story Plot?

Question

I have to write a story for my English GCSE.
I want it to stand out, be innovative and have flashbacks, two or three major characters. It needs to be good cos its coursework.
I have no inspiration, any ideas?

Answer 1

I've been working on this one for a while, but you can have it if you want. Not all the kinks are worked out. Your main character switches from scene to scene. It's a small family, just the mother, the father, the teenage son, and a two year old girl. They are your basic family. On the surface they seem normal. Cheery and have their own personalities. The trick is, none of them can be taken at face value. None of them are truely happy. Yes, including the two year old. It can actually be pretty interesting to come up with the psychological mood of a baby. Trust me. They are all deeply depressed, and they don't know what to do about it except pretend everything's normal. They're empty shells, and they don't feel like they are really alive. Like they are just there for no reason at all. Depressing yes, but much can be done with this. They each dwell on the one thing in their life they would have done differently, or what somebody else should have done differently. You see their ups and downs. You feel for them. You cry when they cry. You hurt when they hurt. Make sure they each have some sort of humor. They all think that they are the only ones who have a problem, and so they don't turn to each other, which might be the only thing that can save them. The story can either end in a mass enlightenment or really thoughtful, leaving you to draw your own conclusions. I hope you like it. It might not make much sense on here, but it's clear as a bell in my head, playing it there like a tv show. Hope you can make it your own and get that picture too. Good luck on your paper wether you use this or not.

Answer 2

Hmm...
I always think the gothic genre is fairly simple to follow and create while still being very effective- despite critics saying the period of gothic novels is over... (spoil sports..)

I realise this may sound cliche, but the classic 'love story' plotline always seems to work. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, something bad happens, they split up, the problem is overcome (but not without much difficulty and plenty of challenges), they get back together- happily ever after. This mixed with mystery, despair, dark dreary surroundings and troubled characters is a winning recipe.

I'm thinking, girl gets bitten by werewolf/vampire and the boy goes through challenged to try and rescue her soul. He goes on a mission to find a cure- having to go through a series of challenges from various ghoulies to do so- then challenges the main villain who bit her in a final showdown. In a twist, he loses and the cure is lost forever... then the reader realises it is all the flashback of the girl, remembering her long lost love...?

Hope it helps.. :-)

P.s. hopefully there aren't too many mistakes in the grammer/spelling as I got an A in English in year 10, an A in English Literature and Media in year 11 and am currently doing English Lit. at A level!! lol

Answer 3

I would start the story backwards, starting with someone in a place, unsure of how they got there. As they look around they see things which jog they're memory such a broken piece of glass on the floor. That makes him look at his stomach to see a slash, to which he flashes back and remembers it happening but details are fuzzy, such as who did it etc. As he remembers more things, the flash backs become more and more vivid until he can actually replay the whole series of events as though they were happening now. So the end of the story is as though you are retelling what happened before your story even began.

Tut tut, I never had none of this when I was doing my GCSE coursework

Answer 4

How about solving the murder of the black dahlia??? The murder victim alive and happy....you follow her through out the whole story and add different characters, like detectives, boyfriends, or family members....then switch into this mobster-like scenerio saying that she was involved with this mobster and she ripped off everyone she knew.......then kill her off at the end.....then it turns into a whodunnit....you ask the question at the beginning of the story and then at the end....then you answer it yourself....WHOA this would make a great plot line.....this is fresh i just thought of it right now....lol

Answer 5

The first line reads: 'I live in a sewer.' Then you flashback to how this happened to you. The two thugs who were pursuing you for no reason - you'd never seen them before. How you have resigned yourself to living there and are beginning to like it. Peace and quiet. No TV. Pet rat.

Innovative - or what?

Answer 6

seem at countless the families previous black & white photographs of ancestors or people you have in no way met and that's basically approximately specific which you will think of of a quick tale that is going with them. good success.

Answer 7

What about a man in his 40's in a snowstorm, contemplating suicide. Flashing back to what he would have, could have, should have done. Realizing that he would have made different choices, but get the same outcome. Contemplating suicide in a snowstorm.

Answer 8

i find basing it on books you've read works, if their world is cool. hey i got an A*. u know, ure not supposed 2 ask 4 help. tut tut.