An idea that seems big.

Do you ever have an idea for a story? Of course, this question is probably only relevant to people who have ideas. And I obviously have a point to this that I should really try to get to.

This idea that you have, does it feel way too big for your abilites as a writer? Or maybe you just don’t think you have the time? What if you feel like it is just too much in general?

I have multiple ideas like this, but today I really wanted to focus on one that I really like. I have so many ideas for what I could do with it too, it’s just the execution of the idea that concerns me.

Let’s start with the basics of the idea. I have heard it said, that if you can’t summarize a plot in one sentence, you need to work on it more.

The story follows a small college fiction-writing class that is taught by a powerful fae, who takes thier students on wild and dangerous magical adventures that follow the genre of the week.

Seems like a simple and straight forward concept right? It’s an appealing idea. A magical resident from the fae realm teaching mortal students how to write fiction. It’s any fantasy buff’s dream. I think.

Like my character sketches, and any good longer work of fiction, more context needs to be given. Right? It’s not just a straight-forward tale of a powerful magic user who can do almost anything, deciding to subject themselves to a career as a college educator.

There needed to be a reason why, right? I have one! For this idea, the fae seems to be detached outside of the classroom, and the students rarely see them outside of the classroom. Seems rather curious, yes?

Despite being a teacher, and a bringer of mild chaos, the fae seems to have the best interest of their students at heart, but it’s hard to tell with how dangerous things get for them. Some of the adventures seem purposefully risky.

So, we have ourselves a teacher.

Now we need students. Participants in this writing course. Can’t have too many people, because that would be too many people to keep up with. For this part, I came up with five.

1. A trans woman who’s going to school to be a screenwriter. She used to be best friends with the character below, but coming out muddied the waters of their friendship, and she holds a bit of a grudge against him for letting his family’s beliefs ruin their friendship.
2. A young man whose dad is the conservative mayor of the small town. He is taking this class as a way to be close to a friend he’s fallen out with and secretly hopes to rebuild that friendship. He likes to write short-fiction in his spare time, but doesn’t share it often.
3. An anime fan/Nerd. Every story needs one. The gender here doesn’t matter as much, as this character is probably the least developed. Who needs gender anyway! They are an illustrator who’s looking to pursue writing graphic novels.
4. A horror-loving lesbian. She specifically loves horror novels. Poe, King, Jones, Hendrix. They’re her favorite authors. She hopes to one day write something like their work. She has three novel-works in progress from her high-school days. She’s never been able to finish them.
5. An athletic person of undetermined gender. They’re also an active activist, who sometimes works to protest the decisions of the city’s mayor. They also specialize in short form fiction. They always has some sort of deep anti-capitalistic theme in their writing.

It obviously has a lot more to it. Some main plot mystery, there is some animosity between my first two characters because of some past occurrences. I also have fun ideas for wacky and magical situations that our five characters can be dragged into by the fae. Situations that are supposed to inspire the stories that each character writes.

For example, Fantasy week could feature our characters in a larger than life DnD game led by the fae. Romance week involves a bunch of love spells and sparks between the characters. Action might involve a high stakes game of cat and mouse or something like that.

But the most intriguing part of the project would be the stories that each character writes for each assignment. There are five different writing styles that need to be conveyed; six, if you count the fae’s.

I’d love to do something with this one day, I am just not entirely sure how. You know what I mean? And there’s still so much fleshing out that needs to be done.

So, yeah. This has been rattling around in this lil ol’ chee brain of mine. And it’s not the only one. I have too many ideas. TOO FUCKIN MANY. XD It’s fine though. One day, I’ll write them all. Just not today.