Day by day I wait for Simon or one of his friends to pluck me by the sleeve and say "Hey, what about telling them about so-and-so". Meanwhile, "Every single day" is a one-off, a fill-in. The central character is a street kid called Daniel, and, yes, to conform to EA rules, he does get his balls cut out.

The plot was suggested by all sorts of things and there are three themes:

a) Street kids are vulnerable. and those who go off by themselves are the most vulnerable of all.

b) There are evil men who prey upon, and corrupt, impressionable children. Many are never caught.

c) There are regions in the world that are dominated by fundamentalist religions and traditions from a bygone, brutal age. Here the common laws of humanity do not apply.

My original ending recalled W Somerset Maugham's "A Handful of Dust" in which the central character is detained without hope of escape in the Amazon rain forest. This was too gloomy even for me, so I've added a postscript.

All this will be ready in about a week!

C van D

C van D (imported) wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2011 1:45 am Day by day I wait for Simon or one of his friends to pluck me by the sleeve and say "Hey, what about telling them about so-and-so".

That's exactly how the best stories are created. The characters themselves take control and write them. I have been in contact with Sander, and he tells me that he's waiting for Logan and Joshua to speak to him again so that he can continue the Holy Nutters.

.

Indeed, nice when characters demand action from a writer.

For me, the thing that works (not having a carry-over character) is something that happens every time for all stories I've written (for here and other boards;

Naps.

I have my best, most vivid, almost crystal-clear dreams during naps, the best coming if I'm sleep-deprived and only able to lie down for half an hour. I wake up from these naps sometimes with fully-formed ideas, ready for writing; If I have the time right then, I have to spend the next several hours bashing it out, editing it, and usually finish it off completely in one sitting (hence my inability to write more than about 25k per story!).

Anyway, now that I've babbled on about me...

Thanks, C van D, for writing again! If what it takes is your characters poking you, I shall grab some sticks from under the tree and ship them off post haste to Simon et. al.

I (and many others!) look forward to it!

C van D (imported) wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2011 1:45 am My original ending recalled W Somerset Maugham's "A Handful of Dust" in which the central character is detained without hope of escape in the Amazon rain forest. This was too gloomy even for me, so I've added a postscript.

Thanks you for that. I appreciate it when the victim/hero of the story manages to get the better of the villain, rather than just lie down and accept his lot.

I wonder what sort of adventures Daniel could get into in Geneva or back home ... assuming HRT isn't available or acceptable to him, and the adventures meet site guidelines... but the story as it stands is quite satisfying.