Unfinished stories and ideas

I've had a lot of good ideas for stories that never got finished, either because I didn't consider myself a good enough of a writer for the job, or else because I saw the story heading for an ending I wasn't interested in. On the off-chance that some other writer can salvage something from them, I present them here.

If any of these ideas interest you, you can do one of three things: use the idea and give me credit, use the idea without giving me credit, or collaborate with me to finish the story. If you wish to use the idea and you plan to give me credit, I would like you to e-mail me your story before you put it online (see the address implied at the bottom of this page). I'll give you feedback if you'd like, but the main reason for this is so I have some control over where my name is used. If I don't like your story (and you don't like whatever corrections I suggest), then you can go ahead and put your story online--just don't credit me. This way, if your story offends someone, I won't get flamed. As for collaborations, I've tried to make it clear with each idea how interested I am in doing this.

Here are a few of the ideas for stories I've come up with so far:

The Secret of NIMH

This was a 1982 animated movie by Don Bluth Studios about a family of mice who appeal for help to a group of über-rats.

• "For the Record", in two parts, a prequel and sequel to the movie. Luckily, the sequel works without reading the prequel, because the prequel is relentlessly depressing. The reason I abandoned the sequel is that I had far too many ideas going at once, many of which were rather silly. The most ridiculous idea of them all was the plot, which is why this story is up for salvage. I think some of the ideas are quite good, which is why I've put this online. The best option for anyone wanting to work with this story is to prune it down to one or two ideas and run with that. I've spent some time developing the characters for this story, so feel free to write me for advice on how to handle them. Here is what I have (best to read in order):
• The Prequel (incomplete).
• The Sequel (incomplete).
• Notes on the Characters. Along with this is a description of the early life of the future Mrs. Brisby, coupled with a character analysis for Mrs. Simmons, as well as a character study of Plummet, who actually doesn't appear in the story as it is written so far.
• The document I used to assign the parts for Antigone in Part Two.
• There are two works that form the underpinning of "For the Record": The Plague by Albert Camus, and Prometheus Unbound by Percy Shelley. I started Part One with a quote from The Plague, and the character of Gina is reading Prometheus Unbound, which forms the basis for her behavior at the end of the prequel. The Plague is also discussed by some of the Rats in Part Two. Here are my notes on The Plague, and here are my notes on Prometheus Unbound. For those who haven't read The Plague yet, you can get away with renting the movie version. As for Prometheus Unbound, my notes include an extensive summary of the first half (which is where I stopped taking notes)--the only way I could get my hands on this work was by buying the paperback collection of all of Shelley's poetry and prose from Amazon.com ($ 16).
• Here are quotes I picked up from various places that might be useful. Some represent my themes, while others resemble the personal philosophies of some of my characters (chances are, if one of these quotations offends you, then it is supposed to represent one of the villains in my story). One story I read was so interesting I quoted the whole thing: "The Door", by E.B. White. Actually, some of these quotes are quite thought-provoking, so read these documents even if you aren't interested in my story. The last two thirds of the quotes came from reading The Masks of God, a four-volume work by Joseph Cambell that is the definitive source for anyone who wants to add mythological content to your fiction.

Darkwing Duck

Darkwing Duck was an animated series that played on the Disney Afternoon in the early 1990's, about an egotistical crime-fighting duck.

• "Gosalyn Mallard and the Skull of Doom". This story puts the character of Gosalyn in a dream world where no one is who they seem. I'd written less than a third of the story before running out of ideas. I would love to see this story finished.
• Here is all of the story written so far.
• Here are my notes (which mostly cover what not to do with this story).

This page maintained by McPoodle43 @t Gmail.com. Last updated on June 12, 2003, when I added a quote for "For the Record" and fixed typos in the prequel and Plummet's character sketch.