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Ackman
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10 May 2010, 3:02 pm

Okay here goes:

Since last June I've been writing a story involving Rose being shoved down a flight of stairs by one of her enemies. She lives of course, and is in the hospital from December 2, 1907 to February 6, 1908. Her twin sister Emily of course believes at first that it is all her fault, because she thinks that had she been quicker, she could have stopped the incident from happening. Emily behaves like this for three weeks. The day of the incident, Emily is hit with a violent stomach flu, which lands her in the same hospital, due to dehydration. Emily's time in the hospital is only a couple of days.

Question is, how can I make Emily turn into a bigger person than she was when the incident took place? Can I make her stand up to the girl who committed the crime? We could see the four "sides" of Emily emerge.

Any ideas? I've got writers block



computerlove
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10 May 2010, 4:45 pm

watch Spirited away


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wendigopsychosis
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10 May 2010, 5:38 pm

I think you might want to change the reason Emily's in the hospital. Give her a scenario similar to Rose's, where someone could blame her but it's obviously not her fault, so she'll understand Rose and stop blaming her.
Maybe have her mugged or raped, or hit by a carriage (noting the time period haha).


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Ackman
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10 May 2010, 6:35 pm

wendigopsychosis wrote:
I think you might want to change the reason Emily's in the hospital. Give her a scenario similar to Rose's, where someone could blame her but it's obviously not her fault, so she'll understand Rose and stop blaming her.
Maybe have her mugged or raped, or hit by a carriage (noting the time period haha).


I should have clarified, Emily blames herself for the accident. She is clearly traumatized. A 12 year old getting raped? that's an interesting concept.



wendigopsychosis
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10 May 2010, 7:35 pm

Ackman wrote:
wendigopsychosis wrote:
I think you might want to change the reason Emily's in the hospital. Give her a scenario similar to Rose's, where someone could blame her but it's obviously not her fault, so she'll understand Rose and stop blaming her.
Maybe have her mugged or raped, or hit by a carriage (noting the time period haha).


I should have clarified, Emily blames herself for the accident. She is clearly traumatized. A 12 year old getting raped? that's an interesting concept.


Well, it does happen, sadly enough.

Perhaps Emily can blame herself, but when she's in the hospital with Rose, Rose can talk her through it and help her understand things.


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10 May 2010, 7:38 pm

Just a thought here - the sisters might have quarreled immediately prior to the accident. Ownership of a beautiful sweater might be a thing teens would quarrel about. And since they are 12yo, hormones are starting to run amok. Emily & Rose both have screeching meemies all day, just like every other teenage girl. But when Emily keeps the sweater, Rose is flooded with rage and revenge and seething hatred. She might think or even say to herself, "I hope she falls down the stairs and kills herself."

And Rose falls down the stairs. Now *there's* guilt!

Stay with the guilt for a while, watch Rose become clumsy and accident prone, unable to sleep more than a few hours at a time, nightmares (it seems to me that the story might start well Emily sitting up in bed, wild-eyed, sweating, clutching pillow. Flashback to evil wish & accident.

Maybe make a thread running through the story about the same nightmare every time she shuts her eyes. Put the sweater in it - some evil form of same. We watch Emily's journey through guilt to forgiveness of herself and her sister. When she is in highest agony of guilt, she gets sweater cleaned and fixes it nicely in Rose's drawer. Guilt.

uhhh ... you asked how to end it. oops, sorry. it will have to end almost exactly the same way it started - with the sweater. Only this time Emily gets it back and doesn't want it any more.

Oh darn, I overdid it, didn't I? Sorry to ramble!



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10 May 2010, 7:44 pm

Claradoon wrote:
Just a thought here - the sisters might have quarreled immediately prior to the accident. Ownership of a beautiful sweater might be a thing teens would quarrel about. And since they are 12yo, hormones are starting to run amok. Emily & Rose both have screeching meemies all day, just like every other teenage girl. But when Emily keeps the sweater, Rose is flooded with rage and revenge and seething hatred. She might think or even say to herself, "I hope she falls down the stairs and kills herself."

And Rose falls down the stairs. Now *there's* guilt!


Love this!
It'd be better if Emily yells to Rose the last time they talk (argue) before the event, "I hope you die!"
And then Rose is knocked down the stairs by accident, say she trips or something, so it's entirely no one's fault, but Emily feels guilty. :)


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Claradoon
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10 May 2010, 7:56 pm

Great idea! And you could work it into Emily's prognosis - she *might* live, but then again, she might die. Horrors!



Ackman
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10 May 2010, 8:01 pm

There is jealousy, but not between R & E. It is Millicent King whom has no friends. This accident came after Thanksgiving where it was revealed that they were indeed related. There is mild resentment, but not with R, it's with her biological mother. The incident happens as Emily is talking with Rose at the top of the stairs.

Here is an excerpt...
"....Out of Emily's peripheral vision, Millicent King appeared. In a matter of seconds, the words "And now Rose Bukater, you will die." are uttered, and Rose finds herself tumbling down the stairs.Of course, Emily is powerless to stop gravity from taking over, and she watches her sister crash to the bottom with a sickening sound, then the blood starts to trickle out of Rose's nose and mouth. Emily turns back only to find Millicent had disappeared. Emily ran down the stairs with great speed. "Oh god! Oh god!" she said to herself, holding back the tears. She edges closer to Rose, who by now is breathing very shallow, and slow, the symptoms of shock. "Oh god, I better go get help." Emily said to herself in a sob. She got up from the ground, because she knew that crying wasn't going to help Rose in the slightest. After running at top speed, much like she did back home in Brattleboro she found a staff member, and lead them to Rose, whom by now had lost all consciousness...."



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10 May 2010, 8:32 pm

I don't know, let me think on it a bit.
p.s. those whoms should be whos.



Ackman
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10 May 2010, 8:39 pm

[img][650:800]http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/130/2/7/Emily_has_a_fit_by_PeterCreedon.jpg[/img]

Here is a picture of what Emily's life is like back with her adopted family in Vermont. I'll leave you to interpret it. I guess it could show one of the 'faces' of Emily.



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10 May 2010, 8:48 pm

Image

One girl sacrificed a human and from the flesh and blood invoked one of the Old Ones, Cthulhu, who descended from the Mountains of Madness, who then raped the other girl


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10 May 2010, 9:05 pm

computerlove wrote:
Image

One girl sacrificed a human and from the flesh and blood invoked one of the Old Ones, Cthulhu, who descended from the Mountains of Madness, who then raped the other girl


:thumleft:


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Ackman
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10 May 2010, 9:12 pm

Ackman wrote:
[img][650:800]http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/130/2/7/Emily_has_a_fit_by_PeterCreedon.jpg[/img]

Here is a picture of what Emily's life is like back with her adopted family in Vermont. I'll leave you to interpret it. I guess it could show one of the 'faces' of Emily.


In case you were wondering what it is a picture of, it's a picture of Emily having a tantrum whilst being carried back to her room by her adoptive mother and governess.

[img][650:800]http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/130/e/a/Trauma_by_PeterCreedon.jpg[/img]

possible cover, but not sure.



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12 May 2010, 12:57 am

With what you've told us and no idea about the direction of the story or the motivations of either sister, the possibilities are virtually endless. It's as if we'd been presented with a noun and a verb and asked to give you an idea what sentence you were trying to write. The sisters could switch places, for example. Which girl is it about? Is it about each equally? Then each should have goals that depend upon one another or fit together in some way. Is it just about Rose, really? Then suppose there is something she knows that only she can take care of, and asks Emily to stall for her until she can get away to handle things? What if it turns out that Emily pushed her? What if Rose is hallucinating, and only thinks someone pushed her? Or is it Emily imagining someone else did it to block her own shame? Is there a third sister, stillborn, haunting the "twins" and only they can see her? Suppose the pusher means to finish the job? Suppose the pusher means to go after Emily next? Is the pusher someone who seems like a saint to everyone else? Was it all an accident and Emily has to grapple with admitting this to others despite her anger? Does Emily have to see the pusher? Weekly? Daily? All day, at school? Is the girl who did the pushing after more, their lives, their friends? Is she mad, does she want to take Rose's place as Emily's twin?

If my ideas sound sinister, it's just what I got from your beginning. As to the middle and end you seek... I've admitted before that I don't get middles well. But I can come up with ideas.

The technique you might try is the one where you write a word in the middle of a piece of paper, something you want to expand upon, and then draw lil lines out from it and write whatever comes into your head, no dwelling on any and no stopping until the paper is full. This just gets you out of a rut if you're finding you can't seem to find a direction from where you are. It also yields a lot of good ideas.

Change all you like. Nothing is set in stone until the story is in print.


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Ackman
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12 May 2010, 8:20 am

irishwhistle wrote:
With what you've told us and no idea about the direction of the story or the motivations of either sister, the possibilities are virtually endless. It's as if we'd been presented with a noun and a verb and asked to give you an idea what sentence you were trying to write. The sisters could switch places, for example. Which girl is it about? Is it about each equally? Then each should have goals that depend upon one another or fit together in some way. Is it just about Rose, really? Then suppose there is something she knows that only she can take care of, and asks Emily to stall for her until she can get away to handle things? What if it turns out that Emily pushed her? What if Rose is hallucinating, and only thinks someone pushed her? Or is it Emily imagining someone else did it to block her own shame? Is there a third sister, stillborn, haunting the "twins" and only they can see her? Suppose the pusher means to finish the job? Suppose the pusher means to go after Emily next? Is the pusher someone who seems like a saint to everyone else? Was it all an accident and Emily has to grapple with admitting this to others despite her anger? Does Emily have to see the pusher? Weekly? Daily? All day, at school? Is the girl who did the pushing after more, their lives, their friends? Is she mad, does she want to take Rose's place as Emily's twin?

If my ideas sound sinister, it's just what I got from your beginning. As to the middle and end you seek... I've admitted before that I don't get middles well. But I can come up with ideas.

The technique you might try is the one where you write a word in the middle of a piece of paper, something you want to expand upon, and then draw lil lines out from it and write whatever comes into your head, no dwelling on any and no stopping until the paper is full. This just gets you out of a rut if you're finding you can't seem to find a direction from where you are. It also yields a lot of good ideas.

Change all you like. Nothing is set in stone until the story is in print.


The pusher is a fellow student and the District Attorney's daughter. She thinks that since her father is the D.A. then she'll get away with anything. She is wrong, oh so very wrong. Her father makes her go to jail for what she'd done.

As for direction, Emily just wants to be accepted, and is a nonviolent person. Rose is a friend catcher, and befriends many of the other students. Overall, their relationship with one another evolved greatly since the day Emily stepped into Rose's house at the beginning of the summer. At Thanksgiving, it is revealed that they are indeed related, with Emily being the older of the two, by a minute and a half.