Can't find a proper mood for a story

[rvm45]

Friends,

You wouldn't believe how much write anymore.

The thing is, my stories keep bogging down and either turning frivolous or dark and I delete them and try to start afresh once more.

I got to thinking:

What am I trying to capture?

Edgar Rice Burroughs was my all-time favorite author. I also liked Andre Norton as a boy.

What did I like about Their stories—and other "Lost in the Jungle" or "Lost on Another Planet" type stories?

When the atom bombs fall, when the MC steps through a portal to another world or dinosaur days or whatever, when the zombies rise or the plague starts or Tarzan goes back to the jungle—one more time…

Whatever else is going on—even if there is a lot of messed-up shit going down—there is an overwhelming and uplifting sense of FREEDOM!

Somehow, I seem unable to capture this sense of FREEDOM in my stories.

You know, I wanted to write a story about some dude living a sort of "Omega Man" type existence—perhaps in the form of his musings/journal…

And while life in the story wouldn't be safe or easy, the MC carries a sense of guilt because he ENJOYS living in the Post Apocalyptic World—at least that one—far more than he enjoyed his life before.

There was an old war movie where Victor Mature plays a member of the Dutch Underground in WWII.

He says something to the effect:

"I assassinate people, rob banks, steal cars and blow up bridges…basically, all the fun stuff that would get me arrested if there wasn't a war going on."

Sadly, that likable character ended up being a NAZI spy and traitor.

But THAT is the sense that I want to bring to my novels and I'm failing drastically.

Any help/comments/excoriations?


…..RVM45

[willc453]

Edgar Rice Burroughs with his Pellucidar and John Carter of Mars series, I enjoyed as a kid. Then there were books by Robert Heinlein. Later, it was Andre Norton and Isaac Asimov. Remember the Twilight Zone episode of the bank book keeper who survived a nuke blast and was quite happy to not only have survived, but now had all the time in the world to read all the books in a library...until his glasses slipped and broke. Doing a Omega Man sounds interesting, especially if the MC has no use for people to begin with. Or how about a basis on the original story where survivors who need blood to survive. How about they need X amount of blood to survive, other wise they become lethargic and if found outside when the sun is up, they die? Some animals might get drained pretty quick, at least in the big cities, but they'd get smart REAL quick. Have the MC hunting them down during the day and at night, has a mini fortress. Maybe he has a few dogs with him to let him know when these vampires or zombies are around? He doesn't need human companionship as he has these dogs with him. I think what you're looking for is a character with a complete lack of restraint. He can do anything he wants. Have you heard of Y:Last Man Standing? Something happens with EVERY man suddenly falling down dead except 1 guy in his 20's. Women aren't affected by this sudden and massive death toll. For some reason, he's gotta get to Australia(?) where his girlfriend is at. But there's 2 groups of women after him: one that want to breed with him so more male children will hopefully be born. The other want to kill him as it's a wrath of God thing against all males. Or the MC thinks the world's done and did it...WW 3 started/ended within 30 minutes. Actually, it was a War Of The World scenario radio program, but he didn't catch the ending where it's said all of this was a dramatization. So he hunkers down, doing his best to survive, thinking that due to wind direction, he was spared getting radiation poisoning. He starts keeping a diary, with somebody finding it a few years after he dies from a heart attack or maybe a tree fell on him that he was cutting down?

And people have simply disappeared or appeared somewhere without any explanation on how it happened. Was watching a Youtube video about a guy who was killed by a car in NYC. Man was dressed in Victorian period clothing including having money, etc. The man just appeared on a NYC street back in the 1930's or 40's. Isaac Asimov did that kind of story, though I don't remember the name of it. Guy in his 50's was out taking a walk and got caught in an experiment being done by some people at some college or business. Suddenly he finds himself several thousand years in the future. Then there's the movie Timerider with Fred Ward which is available on Youtube. Professional dirt bike rider happens to cross into an area where a company was attempting generate a field for time travel, with Fred finding himself back in the 1800's of the Old West.

One of the affected stories I started, but never finished, was about a man who got the ability to travel to other worlds. He was a salesman for some construction company, hoping to sell a lot of equipment in some south American country. He leaves his hotel to go to some restaurant down the street before some meeting, but as he turns a corner, suddenly realizes he's surround by trees, brush and grass. When he turns around, there's no city behind him, but more trees, brush and grass. He has to survive starting with what he's got in his briefcase. I had 8' long centipedes chasing him, then suddenly a spider the size of a Lazyboy recliner jumps out from the ground...you know, one of those spiders that use a trap door to conceal themselves. There's ruins of some city not far from him, so he's running like hell to find any kind of shelter/protection from these things.

And how about The Stand by Stephen King? Both The Walkin' Dude and Mother Abagail are drawing people to them, but one guys says you both can p*ss off. Of course, The Walkin' Dude doesn't take kindly to this rebuff and starts sending people after the MC. Who is quite happy to do major mayhem to and on them. A kind of anti-hero MC?

Hope this helps.

[castleman]

Decide your ending first, and then work your way backwards, that tends to help and lets you write dark or light as you like in between.