Thought to concept.

The next story I will be working on is.

Muse.

It will follow a character who throughout history who has taken different personas to inspire and motivate famous people before they were famous. The kicker is heartbreak is the biggest ruse.

I thought of this when reading about the song “Mr. Brightside.” by the Killers. If my memory serves me correctly, Brandon Flowers had recently gone through a break up and was super depressed. The Strokes had just dropped their album, and Flowers thought he couldn’t write anything to come close to that masterpiece. Reluctantly he went to the studio and recorded “Mr. Brightside.” Which is still on the Billboard top 100 songs since it’s release.

So I want to know the story of the girl who broke Mr. Flower’s heart. Did she know the creative epiphany she would inspire? What if she didn’t cheat on him? Does this excuse bad behavior?

Decision and indecision are still decisions. What if we all tie into something greater than ourselves. We unknowingly contributed to someone else’s mission?

For the story, I am thinking of following two characters at two different times. The silent generation and generation X.

Why those two times? Tragedy on a mass scale from the silent generations. Thousands of souls never had the chance to sing their song with the choir of life. Surely, some good must have come from it.

Thus makes me think of J.R.R Tolkien, a creative individual prior to the war. Yet, the horrors of war would craft him to be the father of the fantasy genre. He suffered tragedy at the loss of his friends.

In that section of the story what if the muse takes the place of a German soldier who hesitates and shoots indiscriminately into the opposing trench. The careless shot, hits Tolkien’s friend. Resulting in Tolkien immortalizing all the best attributes of his fallen comrade in the story he would soon write.

How would Tolkien and the girl who break Brandon Flower’s heart tie together? Simple answer is she is a lord of the rings fan, and the two meet at a bookstore.

What narrative, and point of view would this story be best told in?

Third person. Allows more world building, and shows don’t tell.

The perspective would be of the German soldier, then switches as soon as he pulls the trigger. From that point on it goes to the Tolkien character. When the final words are put to page, the story then flows to the girl. Who we follow until she takes a drag of her other lover’s cigarette.

How to end it? I think with those two examples, it reveals the lesson that we are all interwoven into each other’s existence. Thus we have the Flower’s character utterly crushed by the sight of his lover with another man.

He goes to bed, lays awake. Staring up at the ceiling. Describing the feelings of losing someone, but gaining the truth of their character, and the disaster avoided.

With the sun rising, he calls his friend to go to the studio.

Fade to black right as the count down to record finishes.

In the story, how will it be revealed to the reader that those sporadic actions are connected? You can’t write it like this.

The audience does not know the ending, or how it relates. Unless you do some 3rd person omniscient narration. It makes it easy writing, but not clever.

Teaser ending in the beginning? Start with the rock star Flower’s character sitting in the audience of the grammys he rises when his name is called from the envelope.

He begins his thank you speech. As he does that is when the flashback starts and we gain the perspective of Germany 1914.