[Aisling90]

Can someone please help with the story writing?

I have to write something related to the village (let's name it Jones village - though I haven't decided on the name yet), where all the people in that village have the same name - Jones's... : S
And I have to think of a story to write that would have something to do with that...
And I'm not really good with those things...

Tried to write from few different perspectives, from the postman's point of view; about the newcomers to the village; and as if someone was reading an old diary of someone who lived in that village... But I always get stuck... What should happen? What's the story is really about? I can't figure that out, but really need to show up with something on Saturday. Doesn't really have to be something finished, just the scribbles... something... : S
Can anyone help me out? Any tips on what might be happening in the story?

[Wondergirl]

How long does it have to be?

Can it be a mystery? Sci fi? Horror? A western? You have a preference?

This sounds like what my writers' group does.

[Wondergirl]

Begins in 1690

Small, remote Italian village in the mountains of Umbria, Panicale

Umbria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Panicale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

village was started by two cousins, Paolo Eduardo Panicale and Paolo Saldino Panicale,
Who had married the sisters Maria Edda Tutti (now Panicale) and Maria Sabina Tutti (now Panicale)

Time went by.

As babies were born, boys were given the name Paolo with a middle name that was the name used socially. The same for girls--Maria with a middle name that was the one used, since none of them could be called by their first or last name without great confusion.

Most of them looked very much alike since they were inbred and no new genes came in from the outside.

Then there was a murder.

[Aisling90]

It can be any length, doesn't matter, don't even have to finish the story, just to start something, and any genre.
I don't think I'm confident enough to write about murder story, was thinking of something simple, fictional but realistic enough...
When I try to write I don't really specify the year or where this place is...
But thanks for the advice.

[Aisling90]

I'm new to this, and it's probably stupid to say, that on any other topic I could easily write, but this... This was chosen for me from the answers I gave to a simple questions, like my name, about my family, and this is actually real, my ancestors from fathers side did live in a village where everyone was names by the same surname... But there's no story in reality (that I'd know about) that would be worth writing down :S
Everyone else in my class wrote more or less biographical stories (not necessarily their owns, but someone from their family or so, and some wrote just two long paragraphs - as just a start of the story), so I was thinking about something something simple, a little dramatic, but probably nothing from si-fi, or horror...

[Wondergirl]

I think a village with many/all residents having the same last name could be interesting. Say, a stranger comes to town. He has to be careful what he says to someone, not knowing if the gossip or complaint he is spouting about someone else is the listener's mother or cousin or grandfather.

Let your creative mind go wild!

[Aisling90]

Well, now I startet writing about a certain person I knew as a child, who used to tell me all sorts of stories, about the adventures that he had had, about all the different professions he had , etc. And then tell about how his adventures has brought him to this village... wrote till here and got stuck again :)

For me its sounds a lot like Daniel Wallace book and Tim Burton movie ("Big Fish"), but... there really was a person in my life who used to tell me all these stories, he just never told me that one in particular... And when I read that book and watched that film, that main character always used to remind me of that one person...

Now I'm trying to think of what might have happened to him in that village, how did everyone took him in... Did he stay there... DId he met someone there...

Or... would it be a better idea to write it as it really was? How the letters without the first name written on them used to arrive and so everyone used to gather somewhere in the village to read the letter out loud so that they could figure out for whom it is..

I'm mostly strugguling with how to put all this in a short story...
No one says it has to be a short story, I just need to show up with something, might it be just 200-500 words of something, maybe just the beginning... But that's there the problem for me is... I don't know how to start writing without kowing how I will end it... :S

[Wondergirl]

Just keep writing! It sounds good so far. Try a couple of different ways that the story will go. If you don't want to write them out, just talk to yourself out loud.