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Some Inspiration?

I'm going to start writing a 150,000 word novel about a plague that comes through the world and has startling side effects. I know there'll be sickness (of course), no electricity (dead people can't operate power plants), and a total loss of life. The main character is 19 year old Andromeda, who struggles through all this. But are there any original obstacles that I can add to the storyline? Anything anyone can contribute?

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Permalink Reply by Callie Leah on May 18, 2010 at 11:00pm

Well, Andromeda could be forced to go to a work camp so she could support her family after she ends up being the only one in her family that DIDN'T get it, but she has to travel all the way to the quarentine camp after work to pay for her family's rooms because she has to live on her own so she doesn't catch it, and then when the place she works at gets shut down she has to go without food for a few days to pay for her family's housing, but when she runs out of money, she has to find a way to get it. Even if it means stealing or even murder. Then she gets it and dies. Or (if you want a happy version) they finally find a cure and fix her family (after losing a sister, just for good measure) and her parents come back to work running a power plant for energy and everything ends up fine! I hope that helped some.

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Permalink Reply by scribbler on May 19, 2010 at 10:54pm

Why don't you put Andromeda in a wheelchair or have her break an ankle? Give her some kind of physical challenge that makes what would be tough for an able-bodied person much harder. I'm sure that would create many obstacles. Or she could be diabetic and running out of insulin shots because there's no pharmacies open or hospitals staffed. All would be closed with there being no electricity.

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Permalink Reply by Dairenna VonRavenstone on May 24, 2010 at 12:44am

You can have her be a citizen of a remote town in the middle of absolutely No-wheresville...with her only means of travel being either walking or a bicycle. The closest town could be like...some obscene amount of miles away. Google maps actually helps a lot when determining the distance and time it takes between two points (I'm using it constantly right now with the one book I'm writing, I swear it's just going to tell me to go away one of these days...lol).
I really like Scribbler's diabetic idea, that could really be fun to play with. And the work camp is a good idea too. I'm not really good for much outside of fanstasy/sci-fi....I don't think I've written anything that didn't have some kind of 'mythical' aspect to it...lol.

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Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on May 27, 2010 at 6:55pm

All the ideas are great and I especially like the idea of not having a fast form of transportation too! Not only is that hard because of logistics but because a car's a form of protection. She can lock the doors if she's attacked or sleep in it more safely than she could just outdoors under the stars. It's an iron cocoon. (Hey I like that phrase! *makes mental note to use that in something.*)

Dairenna VonRavenstone said:

You can have her be a citizen of a remote town in the middle of absolutely No-wheresville...with her only means of travel being either walking or a bicycle. The closest town could be like...some obscene amount of miles away. Google maps actually helps a lot when determining the distance and time it takes between two points (I'm using it constantly right now with the one book I'm writing, I swear it's just going to tell me to go away one of these days...lol).
I really like Scribbler's diabetic idea, that could really be fun to play with. And the work camp is a good idea too. I'm not really good for much outside of fanstasy/sci-fi....I don't think I've written anything that didn't have some kind of 'mythical' aspect to it...lol.