Story and a Favor

[realisticenamel]

So, I am not new to this site. I've been here....maybe six months, and do most of my role playing on private messages for my own sanity. Writing is definitely a hobby, one that I wish I had more time to do but am content to not let be the focus of my life. That honor belongs with school, work, and an upcoming family of my own.

Outside of this site, I am a registered nurse at a hospital, the only male nurse on my wing's night shift. I'm one of three RNs, so most of what I do is paperwork and leave the room to room activities to the CNAs and STNA's. Desk duty is also where I do a lot of my role playing, since my WIFI is down until it gets repaired next week. My boss-also an avid writer- could care less what I do so long as the work is done first and I'm not looking at porn, and it's a pretty good compromise.

Before I get into the meat of this story, though, let me set the scene. I work in children's oncology. Which is, let me tell you, the hardest, saddest, most heartbreaking place to work sometimes. And yet other times I come home from a shift feeling like the world couldn't be a better place if it tried. Just depends on the shift, as anyone who works in the field can attest to.

But this last shift that I just got off of-I work swing, 4pm to midnight- we had a lot of our aides call off, which meant all hands on deck for room duty. Thank God it was a quiet night, or I don't know what we would have done. But I was answering call lights-which, for anyone unfamiliar, is the light above a room that a patient can turn on when they need help-, and I stopped into one of the rooms where one of our first nighters are.Those are the hardest, because they are almost always afraid, and if the parents aren't there it can be hard to calm them down.

This child-for HIPPA privacy I am obviously keeping gender, diagnosis, location, prognosis and name hidden- was one of the ones we hate to see. They are going through a really painful treatment, and the first night can be the worse. So I stuck my head in to see how they were doing, and was immediately startled to find them visibly upset. When I asked them what was wrong, they told me that they were writing a story but were having trouble getting into it because the hospital was scary and they were afraid. Which, to a pre-teen that age, is a very common thing to here.

So I told them that I was a writer, and that I knew a whole bunch of writers, and did they want some help with their story. And so, with the permission of a very sick child-and their parents, who think it's a sweet idea and are very nice folks-, I am posting a story idea, and I need help. I want to make a role play sort of thing, just get some characters, and write a version of this story that they can read in the hospital. I need posts appropriate for a child between 10 and 13. I know it's hard if you have a lot of role plays going on right now, and if you just want to post a message I'll print that out when the story is done. But if you can spare the time to help a very sick kid, there's more then one person who would be very grateful. I'll also post this in the interest checks, but it seemed like an appropriate place for both.

Story Idea (almost word for word what they told me):

There is a town in a far away place that is getting attacked, like, a lot. Always getting blown up and stuff, and having to get fixed. So then this scary guy comes and says that if the hero of time can go to the top of the mountain and bring back the snow that doesn't melt, it will stop all the fires and everything will be totally okay again. He can bring his friends and stuff, but he has to carry the snow or it will melt and they are all going to be barbequed for ever.

(P.S- Yeah, they're a video game fan. Don't hold it against them.)

Thanks for your time,

RealisticEnamel

[Ruby]

I'm either a ditzy girl, or just tired. Either way:

Could you please clarify what you want us, the other writers on the Guild, to do?

Are you asking we flesh out the setting and the plot and the characters so you can take it and present via story?

[realisticenamel]

Yeah, basically. Just...ideas and suggestions and characters this kid can have, or plot twists, or anything. Something they can have in the hospital to look over and spin ideas from and just get their mind off of what is going on.

[Ruby]

Yeah, basically. Just...ideas and suggestions and characters this kid can have, or plot twists, or anything. Something they can have in the hospital to look over and spin ideas from and just get their mind off of what is going on.

And because I've got too much experience as an Editor not to ask...when's the deadline that hasn't yet been mentioned? ^_^

[realisticenamel]

Umm...Tuesday or Wednesday? *sheepish* I want something they can have in treatment, if at all possible.

[Ruby]

I've always been a fan of 'dying worlds.' Places that seem destined for extinction and the forgotten, places remembered best for former glory. Combine that with a world wide shortage of water and the idea of a 'walled city' said to have water. Sure, raiders would continuously attack the city believing it was an oasis of a drying planet. Bandits are dealt with in one of two ways; force, or bribes.

Say the Bandit Chief, said scary mofo, makes the town a proposition: water or destruction. Wisemen of the town point to the nearby mountain and stories of 'ice that never melts', of water that lasts to this day. In a water starved world 'ice that never melts' would take on a sort of magical meaning I suppose.

Structure the plot around a group of young adventurers that go off to the mountaintop to save their city. Make it Potter-esque, in that the most important thing is the belief in each other and the friendships therein. The kind of story where that loss of faith seems like the worst thing that could possibly happen. (Even if the cynical adults in us know better.)

Is that the sort of 'fire-from-the-hip' plotting you had in mind? Collect as much of it as you can so you can sift through it before picking and choosing which elements work best?

[realisticenamel]

Exactly. Just whatever comes to mind. I'll give everything I get to them, and let them pick and choose what they like and don't like.

Thanks so much.

[Ruby]

Exactly. Just whatever comes to mind. I'll give everything I get to them, and let them pick and choose what they like and don't like.

Thanks so much.

I'll try to expand and flesh it out a bit before the deadline. I do love me some plottin'. <3

[Lillian Thorne]

I would love to help out, Let me think on it. I'll post a link to this in my OOC to let my players know. I have some people who would probably love to help out.

[realisticenamel]

That would be wonderful, thanks so much.