Writer's Block Daily

I must say...your story sounds very interesting to read.

Ewolf: Cord has no powers yet. His superhero-origin was the "lost a loved one to unnecessary violence" type. I'm still trying to figure out whether he doesn't have CONVENTIONAL powers like flight/telekinesis/strength and if he'd have more passive emotion-based powers, or whether he's just a Badass Normal whose strength is forming deep connections with people and eliciting Undying Loyalty.

Luigisan: Thank you! You can read the first twenty or so pages if you click the link in my signature.

No problem!

You can check mine as well by clicking to my page and you'll find the links.

well stuff

I have been thinking about a intense psychological thriller about a 12 year old girl who can see Necroforms (Corpse-like ghosts) brought by a pair of glasses for her vision defect and a disturbing murder mystery.

So I have a few questions

• How do a girl react to the Necroforms?
• What causes the girl's vision defect?
• What murder mystery would the girl and the Necroforms solve?
• What would be the variations between Necroforms?
• What would be the other questions you ask?

An important question is, how do the Necroforms help this girl solve mysteries in the first place? Are their forms reflective of the manner in which they died, which could provide vital clues as to murder weapons or the location/state of the bodies? For example, if a corpse is found bloated in a lake people might assume drowning, but if there's some kind of mark of strangulation or poisoning on the Necroform, it would imply someone covering their tracks.

Alternatively, do the Necroforms lead her to certain evidence? If so, how do they know of it? Are they able to point her to the killer? Did they know him or her? Was the killer someone high profile, who's getting away with stuff because they have the connections to make evidence disappear? Can they lead her to the corpse if it's hidden somewhere? Do they have some kind of divine insight to help suss out evidence?

Why are the necroforms there in the first place? Are they a natural, but thus-far unseen, part of the world, like a kind of mental echo? Are they, and she, some kind of tool of divine justice? How do the Necroforms communicate with her, if at all?

A lot of the questions you've presented rely pretty heavily on what you want to do with the plot. A premise is a good starting point, but without some meat and potatoes behind it, you haven't really got anything at all.

Let me give you explanations about them,

Necroforms are corpse-like ghosts. They take a appearance of a walking talking corpse, their bodies reflect their stage of decay and the way of death. They are unable to talk, but able to show evidence on how they died to the said girl. They are natural, usually when the human dies. However there is a dangerous variation of Necroform known as the Necrocider, murderous or vengeful ghosts when a human dies a violent or filled with grudge.

Okay, so that gives a pretty clear idea of how she'd likely be using them to solve the murders. Decay could also work as a Race Agains The Clock, if she has to, say, find a body before it decomposes past the point of being useful evidence.

Though it bears asking, if people who died violent deaths become Necrociders, wouldn't that mean all murder victims do, and therefore they wouldn't be enormously inclined to help her? Or does the transition to Necrocider not always occur(Or they're intelligent enough to want her help to get revenge) Also, are they capable of interacting with the physical world in any way?

Which leads to another question: Why would this girl help them, or use them, in the first place? Why not just do her best to ignore them? What do the girl, and the Necroforms, get out of this working relationship? If you're working with a Murder Mystery thriller, then your protagonist's motives are going to be one of the driving forces behind the plot, so it needs to be a pretty solid one. It could even answer a few of your earlier questions. for example, How does the girl react to them? She freaks out, hates them, and is willing to anything to get them to go away, including solving their murders.

Fortunately, most Necrocider transformations are very rare. Most Necroform bodies to not reflect their stage of decay their corpses have, so some look like skeletons and some look like perfectly alive. Necroforms cannot interact with the environment except the Necrociders who only desire to kill or take revenge unless they are imprisoned in the Grave.

The girl at first is unwilling to help them but later she grows trustful of them in order to solve a murder mystery committed by a Necrocider.

edited 23rd Sep '16 5:25:16 PM by Huthman

Huthman, that sounds like a winnable premise. Maybe the first mystery she solves leads her to make a calling of it? Using the departed to point you to the trail their murderers left. I feel like surely this must have been done before, but offhand I can't think of anything that quite precisely fits. Seems like fair game to me.

It sounds like in general, Necroforms still carry some grudge or sentiment over it when they're murdered. Is kept resentment part of the requirement for a Necroform to form? The old "unfinished business"?

Can we assume (within the premise) that anyone not sufficiently indignant or lingeringly emotional over their death circumstances simply "passes on"? (Whether or no this involves an afterlife is probably conjectural)

Her eye injury. Hm. I am dead certain there was a movie where a blind person received transplanted eyes from someone dead, and as a result she could see freaky stuff, so probably we wouldn't want to go that route. Also, the glasses able her perception. Must be some connection between something the injury did and something the glasses undo. It feels like something come-up-withable. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Question: in her world, do scientists (and the general, skeptical, open-minded open-hearted public) recognize / affirm the existence of Necroforms? Or is it pretty much the "Ghosts: do they or don't they?" status quo we enjoy here on earth-normal?

Unrelated idea: eye damage.

What if she was blinded or nearly blinded in an attack *by a Necrocide?* And she survived, of course, but something about the nature of attacker left a weird damage signature behind. Most of the cones and rods used in normal human visual range were damaged, but not destroyed. The resulting blindness was near total, but doctors determined that by shifting the spectrum to favor the undamaged photoreceptors ("not normally used in human vision" - b.s., but bear with me) using those special spook-ray specs, and after intensive visual rehabilitation therapy, that visual signal is strong enough a crutch to help her regular eyesight limp along, even get better as she goes. She still needs the glasses to see normally - but eventually she can see the Necroforms clear as day even without them.

Of course, the docs had no idea of any paranormal aspect to the damage. They were just working with what they could find to use. What they've done is boost the part of human sight that most people are blind to, or can barely perceive in flickers: sudden flashes out of the corner of the eye, gone in an eyeblink when you turn to see. Her vision is now attuned to rely preferentially on that wavelength. Kind of a breakthrough, really!

Something like that? Maybe? Maybe not?

Does she call them her "Necrospecs?" Ok, that might be a bit much.

Backtrack to previous topic: I always thought superdoers wore costumes just to help out normal people's general anxiety level. In a world where potentially anybody you pass in the street could do something obnoxious like pick up a car and THROW IT - nerve-wrack city! But a quick glance around can bring relief: as long as nobody's wearing a goofy circus outfit, you feel like you're probably ok. Naturally this wouldn't stand up to scrutiny, it's more of an honor-system courtesy move.

edited 23rd Sep '16 5:46:58 PM by dogimo

Monsieur, most people believe Necroforms do not exist and they treat Necrocider stories as urban legends.

This sounds like Pushing Daisies, but much less colorful.

Why you ask about it? Why is it like the Pushing Daisies but less colourful?

edited 23rd Sep '16 7:42:04 PM by Huthman

In Pushing Daisies, Ned uses his ability to bring back the dead for sixty seconds to solve crime. It's also got a gorgeous color-filled 1950s look, which your story probably doesn't have.

edited 24th Sep '16 10:51:44 AM by Sharysa

sorry to interrupt but, how can i write a half demon warrior queen who have been imprisoned in a book for a thousand years? like how would she react to the modern world around her?

(stupid question i know)

It is your character, not ours. How she would react depends on her personality, the nature of demons, the nature of her imprisonment, how she was liberated and much more.

thanks. i don't have much to say lately

A region might be helpful to, if this story would be set in our earth.

Amusingly, roughly a thousand years ago Cnut the Great became the king of England by default.

edited 24th Sep '16 3:06:13 PM by Matues

I've found myself rather enjoying the use of Does This Remind You of Anything? in a conversation between the main character and his best friend. Without prose for context:

• Friend: "What are you doing?"
• Main Character: "Nothing!"
• Friend: "That doesn't look like nothing. I saw you doing it."
• Main Character: "I wasn't-"
• Friend: "I know you do it sometimes when I'm not watching."
• Main Character: "Oh gods this is embarrassing."
• Friend: "Relax, it's perfectly normal. Healthy even."

The thing the main character was doing? Sketching. He was just startled by his friend sneaking up on him and looking over his shoulder.

edited 24th Sep '16 10:22:40 PM by randomdude4

yo, how can your write technobabble?

Pick a college-level physics textbook and pick words randomly from it?

BTW, what is the deal with all those questions?

Simple; just do the what the Star Trek scripts do. 'Laforge, I think if you tech the tech to the techtech, you can cancel out the tech and activate the techtech!' (No joke; that's seriously what they did.)

what do you mean?

You are always making questions on the forums, generally about things too specific to your characters for strangers to give good advice or concepts so wide we can't really help much.

Not only that, but recently I've noticed that for some of your questions you received advice you didn't really need, and it often seems you seek either attention or affirmation of your ideas when making so many questions, not answers.

While I can't access if I am right or not about your motivations, if I am I believe what you need the most is trusting yourself as a writer.