This is what I like about it:

• Provides worksheets
• Worksheets help me set goals
• Helps me build a story by focusing on the overview and progressing towards the finer details
• The Website KarenWiesner.com provides supplemental materials to the book

I am still working on writing a novel but I have used the knowledge gained from this book to write some short stories. I did this to become familiar with the guidance of the book.

Anyway, I have found this book useful and I wanted to put in a good word for it for any wannabe writers, like myself, that need some help on putting a good story together.

I previously wrote a flash fiction story titled, “The Ghost Beyond the Attic Door,” which deals with the overactive imagination of an eight year-old boy. That story neither confirms nor denies the existence of a real ghost in the story, just that the boy believes there is a ghost.

The concept of a ghost story without a ghost is an odd concept, I realize, but it is not an original idea. Both Sherlock Holmes and Scooby-Doo use the formula of a supernatural mystery, which results in a natural resolution. While I must admit that I have neither read nor watched many Sherlock Holmes stories I have watched a lot of Scooby-Doo episodes.

Scooby-Doo Ghost-Less Mysteries

Most Scooby-Doo episodes portray a mystery about a ghost, goblin, or monster which rarely turns out to be a real ghost, goblin, or monster. It is usually a couple of crooks trying to trick local town folks for personal gain.

The crooks masquerade as a ghost, goblin, or monster to scare people away from a location that the crooks plan to rob. In some episodes the crooks have stolen loot hidden in a location they want to keep secret.

The idea of writing a ghost story without the ghost may seem like a peanut butter sandwich without the peanut butter but it is more like having a peanut butter sandwich with wheat bread. White bread is tastier to most people. Using wheat bread makes it more challenging to have a tasty peanut butter sandwich.

The Challenge of Writing a Ghost-Less Story is Fun

The fun in writing a ghost-less story is the challenge of making the story interesting. Scooby-Doo episodes manage to be entertaining without supernatural foes.

The challenge is to persuade the reader to believe that the ghost is possibly real. Then near the end, reveal the truth of there being no ghost to the reader. It was all just a hoax played by the villain in the story.

A Haunted House Story Without a Haunted House

Even more challenging would be to write a story about a haunted house without a haunted house. Again the fun in writing the story will be the challenge of making the story interesting. A story with a real haunted house, dare I say, would be easier writing than writing about a supposedly haunted house that is later revealed to not be haunted.

While someone may argue that it defies the expectation of the reader to start a story about something supernatural then near the end of the story reveal that there was nothing supernatural. I would have to answer with, “so what?”

Most ghost stories are mysteries. What does the ghost want? Why is the house haunted? The ghost-less mystery is about determining what the villain will gain by generating a ghost hoax?

Therefore, the ghost-less story is a mystery about the living. There are living good guys and there are living bad guys. Yet in this mystery the bad guys are generating a ghost story to gain something of value. The good guys have to solve the mystery and stop the bad guys.

It has been said before and I shall say it again, “That is an excellent question.”

Since the dawn of the Internet with millions of people taking advantage of the freedom to broadcast their writings online, it is true that originality is lacking.

When I write, I know that my ideas are not original. Almost every story has been written before.

So why write?

I write because it is perspective that makes a story original. Each person has a unique personality that adds uniqueness to a story.

The phrase “We see the world as we are, not as it is” is a great human truth.

The fuel for writing is out there but the fuel has been used several times. The fire, however, is the individual personality of the writer that adds the spark of originality to the fuel.

What does that mean?

Right now, as I type this rough draft for a blog, I am sitting outside typing ideas into my laptop. I am drinking my morning cup of coffee with a splash of Splenda for sweetness, when I notice the young blonde lady across the street coming outside. She walks towards her car. Evidently, she is going to work.

She notices me staring and gives a friendly wave. I wave back. Then I refocus my attention to my notes on the laptop, realizing that she will probably tell her husband later that the weird guy across the street was staring at her again.

Anyway, that was the event. That was the fuel for a story. I think about “what if”. What if this lady and her husband are serial killers who have changed their identities to escape the authorities.

And no I don’t think about “what if” in a pornographic sense because I don’t write pornographic material. I only watch it. Sometimes. Not a lot. Accidently, I have seen pornos. Moving on.

I decide that the hero of my story just happens to be outside surfing the Internet on his laptop when he comes across a story posted on Google News about a Serial Killer Couple still at large. The pictures of the female and male look similar to the people that live across the street. As the hero looks at the picture of the female in the news photo, the female across the street steps outside, waves, gets in car, and drives off to work.

My imagination generates a scenario that is similar to the scenario in dozens of movies, stories, and television shows, which is, “An innocent person recognizes a criminal from a news photo.” That story element is not original.

So why write it again?

I write it again because my version of that story element will be different from all of the other scenarios before it. I will have my unique perspective of that scenario.

I add my personality to the scenario by having the event take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma because that is what I know. The hero is either a Web Developer that works from home because that is what I know or he is a recently laid off employee because that is also what I know. There will also be other unique elements to my story because of who I am and what I have experienced.

Therefore, the incident of a person recognizing criminals from a news photo is not an original idea. But the details I add to that incident make my story original. No one else is going to write about that incident the same way I would. My sense of humor, my hopes, my fears, and my life experiences blended together create a unique perspective of the world.

My final note is to acknowledge that the theme I discussed in this blog post are not original. I have advocated the primary principle every instructor in every creative writing class advocates: Write what you know.

For example I used to have a job where I had to drive a lot. And no daydreaming was not dangerous to my driving. I would simple think of some wild adventure in my mind and think about that adventure during my long drives. Each drive had a different adventure.

There has been times when I have had to stand in long lines for an hour or more. The stress of just standing for such a long time would be unbearable if I was not daydreaming.

Daydreaming can take me on adventures to places I have never been or that have never existed. Many people keep a pen and paper on their nightstand to write down dreams that they have had. The author of Twilight, Stephenie Meyer, reported in an interview that she got the idea for Twilight from a dream.

My wife suggested that I start writing down some of my daydreams. Perhaps some of those daydreams are worthy of being mention in a blog or in developing a story. So I have decided that she may have point.

I will set forth as a mission to write about daydreams, movies, books and other items of interest.