Well, not to mention Rashomon does it so well, a lot of people refer to such a tale as a “Rashomon story.” But I don’t think it’s been out-used yet. You might even think of a new twist. There are at least two you find out that at least two (IIRC, in one case all, but I might have nodded off a bit) are multiple personalities of the same essentiality. There’s got to be an even better twist. How about that there are several camera videos from different angles, and someone tries to reconcile them? Can he (she!) or can’t he?
I had the idea once for a novel featuring a group of laid-off circus performers who open a PI business. A strong man, an escape artist, etc. Kind of Mission Impossible inspired.
I’ll give you a frame story, if you want a docudrama. It’s a Jewish story-- maybe it even counts as a UL, haven’t done the research-- but it’s probably apocryphal; however, it’s a wonderful story, told all over synagogues, and it goes that around 1975 or so, a couple present their first son for a bris, and the mohel asks the name they have chosen. They reply “Christian.”
The mohel reacts with shock and wants to know why on earth they would chose that name.
[here is where you cut to the main story]
The couple reply that he is named for King Christian X of Denmark, who saved his country’s Jews from Hitler-- including {one of} their {doesn’t matter which}, parents.
I’m glad you felt encouraged. Writing is important.
I wrote a book over the course of six years that included everything from forced sex work to sexual assault to rape fantasy. It’s an ultraviolent science fiction thriller romance between two people with serious flaws. It was like my subconscious had a lot of shit to work out and I just unloaded this incredibly dark story into the world. It was incredibly cathartic to write.
I know that if I ever publish it, it’s going to piss a lot of people off, and I know it will be misunderstood because a number of beta readers didn’t get it. (some people really did get it, and loved it, so it’s not like it was obtuse, but I was not smashing anyone over the head with a moral, that’s not my idea of good writing.)
This is the first book in a trilogy. I love the characters and the complex issues raised in the story (this is all set within the context of a civil war and a fledgling revolution trying to get its shit together to self-govern.) I don’t want to abandon the world I created.
But given the themes involved, I have begun to seriously question whether it’s irresponsible to publish, and I asked a friend for her input. She said maybe that first book I wrote is the inspiration for subsequent books but itself may never see the light of day.
Truly the second installment in this trilogy is so far significantly less unhinged, though it still has pathos and trauma and difficult subjects, I just feel more in control of the narrative and less emotionally gutted in the writing of it. And the protagonists are much more likeable and decent. I think it would have much broader appeal than the first one. (It’s about the leader of said revolution being forced out of his movement due to his inability to manage the trauma of a previous imprisonment, teaming up with a foreign woman who crossed enemy lines to find her missing adult son, who turns out to be a revolutionary spy.)
So I will say sometimes you write something because you had to write it, but it wasn’t necessarily for other people. And that may be the case with my first book.
I wouldn’t do that, because if the book caused a stir and then it was discovered that the book was distributed under false pretense, THAT could cause quite a controversy. Better to write a thoughtful forward confronting the matter.
My never-to-be written comic novel is based on my time as Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia in the 1990s, where I worked with dozens of smug American businessMEN who were breathtakingly sexist - I could draw on a lot of real experiences, like them jokingly telling me to put pics of naked women into our magazine so more people would read it, snort, yuk yuk, guffaw.
I have a whole plot worked out involving hiring a young American male intern who is a jerk at first but becomes a much better person after getting a local woman pregnant and growing up as he faces the mess he made.
The book is called “Suffering Fools” and of course the title can be taken two ways - the usual way, in that Our Hero must put up with the idiot guys she works with, but also trying to see the fools themselves as three-dimensional humans who, despite their shortcomings, are real people who suffer disappointment and loss too.
After I imaginarily achieve fame and fortune with my hilarious novel, my second book will be called “Tempting Fate.” I don’t know what it is about yet, other than that its title can also be read two ways - people doing stupid things that are just asking for trouble, and yet the possible upside is SO tempting.
I’ve thought about writing Twelve Happy Men, a satirical play about a jury in a capital case initially deadlocked 11-1 for acquittal before the one convinces the other eleven to convict. In the course of deliberations, various personal motives come out, which, when confronted, magically melt away accompanied by a change of verdict. The play would expose (cliched) liberal attitudes towards Justice as a way to ridicule conservative/racist/sexist/classist, etc. notions of liberal ideas. It would end on a note of satisfaction that all jurors had done their civic duty by sending some poor minority dude (who is probably innocent) to the death house.
Its potential unpleasantness has always been enough to repel my further interest.
Thanks for posting this thread, I had been thinking of posting something similar but I wasn’t sure that people would be interested and didn’t want it to boil down to a Vanity posting on my part.
Mine is a mystery, even though I generally don’t like mysteries. It is far from fleshed out and I have zero intention of ever putting any serious effort on it, but this is stuck in my mind due to my occupation which I’ll get to later. Anyone who wants to take this and run with it (probably not) be my guest.
There is a death in a hospital the vicitim is an elderly woman in hospice care who is not responding to therapy and the doctors gave her two weeks to live, but her family and nurses said she seemed to be holding her own for now until she suddenly died. There was a suspicious visitor seen leaving her room that night.
Was it just natural causes or something more sinister going on? But who would want to kill her when all they would have to do is wait?
Maybe its that new nurse who is in over her head and can’t psychologically handle the suffering of some of the patients. She strongly supports death with dignity is she taking matters into her own hands?
Investigating this one the progaonist identifies other mysterious deaths. Interestingly, they are all part of the same clinical trial. Maybe the new treatment is having a sudden negative impact? But no, all of the deaths come from the control arm of the trial where the patients have been given standard therapy.
The owner of the hospice is trying to stymie the investigation. Is he trying to cover something up or is he’s just trying to avoid scandal?
Solution:
The fact that all of the deaths come from the control arm is itself a clue, since one might expect that some would come from each arm of a trial. The truth is that the researcher in charge of the trial has found a way to break the blindness protocol and see which patients are receiving his new therapy and which are receiving the standard one. There is an interim analysis coming up that will determine whether the trial will continue or if it will be shut down early because the drug isn’t showing a strong increase in survival.
The results are currently borderline and the researcher sees his life’s work and financial future about to go down the tubes. He is sure that his drug is effective it just needs more time. The problem is that even though the conventional treatment is failing for a substantial number of patients, they are clinging on to life and so their deaths won’t be counted in the interim analysis. If he just hastens the inevitable for a few of these patients he’ll get the study back on track and save thousands of lives long term when his drug is approved. Its really very little harm for a much greater good.
This is probably way to esoteric for a general audience, but as a statistician for the National Cancer institute,I like it.
nm Ninja’d by RivkahChaya.
I don’t think this is too unpleasant. It sounds like a great satire.
Certainly will never write this, but I have thought of making a murder mystery where the weapon was one of those horrid corporate floor mats where the bottom is covered in spikes
That’s priceless.
I actually wrote, in the late 1990s-- 98 or 99, but never sought production of, a play that I had no idea would be ahead of its time-- albeit, by now it would be cliché-- the time for it probably would have been about 2015, but my son was 9 then, and I had my hands full. When I wrote it, I not only didn’t have a kid, I wasn’t even married yet.
It took on a lot of issues around being transgendered, as one of the characters is a trans woman, who works through some of her issues in the course of the play. She wants to get surgery approved, and needs to get to a point in therapy where her psychiatrist approves it (a real thing when I wrote it-- don’t know if it is now).
The main character, though, is a woman, who is stuck in an apartment in Alphabet City with a semi-employed guy (he thinks he’s a producer/agent) she broke up with almost a year ago, because in NYC in the late 90s, neither of them can find another place to live.
The woman is also dealing with having been seriously abused by her mother, to the point that her mother was arrested for felony child abuse, and she was in the hospital for over a week when she was 16.
She meets the trans woman, and they develop a mother/daughter relationship-- something neither one thought they’d ever have.
And the woman finally gets out of the crummy apartment.
It was actually a sort of comedy, though-- I put a lot of snappy lines in it. It was a comedy like The Lion in Winter is a comedy, as opposed to, say, a Neil Simon play, where the whole plot is usually ridiculous, if that makes sense.
If I still had a copy, I might try to resurrect it as a novella, or even a longer short story, but if I still have it, it’s on a hard disk in a drawer that runs WIN98, and uses the Word program developed for WIN95.
Gawd, who remembers when Win95 was cool?
I want to write a good murder mystery. Part of me wants to make it a serial killer deal, but another doesn’t like “glamorizing” them. I have a few scenes sketched out on paper, but no main engine or character just yet. And of course, I’d love to write a novel or even an issue of favorite comic book characters even though that’s not a novel. Are graphic novels allowed?
A shot rang out.
The lights flickered.
A woman screamed.
A door slammed.
And my pizza was delivered.
Pepperoni.
I’d like to write a comedy murder mystery screenplay. Like really broad silly comedy like Murder By Death, but without the surreal ending. I have no idea where to start, though.
It would be hilarious (or not) to do a team mystery story. One chapter is a comedy, the next is a chilling murder mystery, then you keep alternating. 
My magnum opus would involve my 20+ years working as a physician in prisons.
It won’t happen, though. Too much hassle from folks accusing me of violating HIPAA (even though I wouldn’t be committing any such violations, as patients and other confidential info would not be identified in any way).
I still think you could write a hell of a story, even if it was fiction for the reasons you state.
You just have to do a “James Herriot” and fictionalise it all.
but the anonymized truth is far, far stranger and more interesting.
¯_( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯