writers block on a short story for school?

Question

I could really use some help finishing up this story.

here is a short summary of what happens:

The odd neighbor who has a bad reputation, asks to spend the night at the main character's house (since the main character has a working fireplace and he does not). The main character agrees to let him sleep over, but around 3:00am concludes that she has made a horrible mistake.

So that's as far as I've gotten. I still need to figure out why she made a horrible mistake. Any ideas?

thanks so much for all the answers! I'm getting some really great ideas from them that'll keep my story from becoming too cliche.

in case you want to see, here's the first part that I've written so far:
The cutter. The druggy. The murderer.

My new neighbor with the reputation for eating children had just knocked on my door. He had explained to me that his fireplace was broken, and asked if he could spend the night at my house, and I had said yes.

You may ask, 'Are you crazy? Letting a creep like that spend the night at your house!'

Well, maybe I am a little crazy, but as far as I can see, I'm in no danger. For if he is a cutter or a druggy, who cares? It's his problem if he wants to destroy his body, not mine. And if he is a murderer, meh, I'm not afraid of death. And if he eats children, well, that's just weird, but once again, not my problem.

Once my neighbor, whom had introduced himself as Gabe, was inside, I led him into the living room, where a dying fire was casting a dim, flickering light on the walls.

"You can sleep here," I said, gesturing towards the sofa. "The bathroom is down the hallw

ay, and if you want food I have waffles and lucky charms. Do whatever, I guess, but I'm going to bed so good night."

Gabe only nodded and I said good night a second time, before departing to my bedroom. As much as I was warming up to the oh-so-talkative Gabe, I really was tired, and my new electric blanket was calling my name.

Once I had climbed into bed, I fell asleep almost immediately...



But not for long.

Answer 1

Wow! I like this question. I wish there were more of it in here :).

Ok, here we go. The odd neighbour has a "bad reputation" right? It's not as if the character knows if he's done any of them or not. So i think you can create a real nice twist-end story out of this idea. What if the "odd neighbour" is just always at the wrong place in the wrong time? And is innocent of all those things he's accused off. Our character, ofcourse, doesn't know this so she would spend the night tossing and turning, wondering if they were all true. If, at 3:00 a.m., she heard a noise down stairs, she'd probably feel her doubts were proved right. That this person was going to do to her the things he's supposed to have done to others. She'd panic, try to sneak a look at what he's doing and only gets a glimpse of him doing something that makes her feel he was coming after her. She'd ofcourse try to jump out of the window, or lock herself in the freezing toilet room, or do something crazy. She'd break her leg and lie in the snow (if she went out); unable to call for help OR would imagine hearing voices, maybe even a whisper, as if he's standing outside her window, if she locked herself in the toilet. But we'd ofcourse learn later that such wasn't the case. That the poor guy was either taking some milk from the fridge and gone back to sleep or have died because of the smoke from the fireplace (or has got that seizure thing that makes people fall on the ground and act like a chicken with it's head off when they haven't taken a medicine), whatever! Make the story sound as mysterious and scary as possible. Because it's easily predictable; bad repuation people are usually innocent in the end. What you should work hard on is the twist end; something that would make the reader go "oh my God! that must be why ..." (something from something that happened previously that proves your "oh he was innocent after all" point).

If you need further help on this, write me. I'd love to lend a hand.

Answer 2

That an interesting yet a very typical plotline, but why dont you try to spice it up with the following:
She wakes up and finds the man dead in her own house due to an overdose of anti-deprressents and then gets interested in the man, researching his past and finding out that he was a lonesome man who lost his child and wife in a car accident and is not on good terms with his family due to some stupid fight a real long time ago...the main idea behind this would be that the woman(main character) eho also has bad relationship with her mother due to smoe stupid fight fixes it up...

option two - she wakes up and finds him robbing her house

option three - she wakes up and finds out that he is an alien and is trying to perform some weird surgery on her pet...or even better herself

option four - he is a ZOMBIE...he he he...i just watched the land of the dead yesterday...

well let me know if you chose any of these options and if you did id love to read the whole story and find out how much you got on your assignment...

*Blessed Be*

Answer 3

Well, if he's an odd neighbor with a bad rep, maybe she just happens to spot him during his 3:00am trip to the bathroom, and she sees some tattoos on his back that she knows have some bad connotations attached to them.

Answer 4

Perhaps at this point she heard him talking to what appeared to be himself from her bedroom. She soon realises that he is speaking into a cell phone in a strange language she hasn't heard before. Perhaps he is a terrorist, perhaps an informant, perhaps a spy, or perhaps a high-class thief in the midst of his latest operation, making cell phone calls from a house not actually his own so he cannot be traced. I hope one of these helps.

Answer 5

in case you prefer writing exercises attempt writing a narrative on the subject of right here; 'The Letter,' 'the abode on the Hill,' 'The Dream,' and 'the hot automobile.' With in basic terms a sprint thought you're able to make each style of information up with those primary matters and those are one in each of those issues that any ingenious writing classification might set you as an workout. good success including your writing.

Answer 6

She looks out her window, and sees that her neighbors' house DOES in fact have a chimney... anyway she becomes extremely angry with herself at her lack of judgment, and is even more angry that her neighbor lied to her, but then comes to the startling realization that her neighbor must be in the house for a different reason... but what? she thinks... but she cannot think of any reasons... and you can make up the rest lol

Answer 7

do something that no one would expect the character to do

Answer 8

sorry.