[stylist] a novel idea

[Applebutter Hill]

Hi Barbara,
I think you should take a stab at this. The answer to your "getting to the
point too quickly" problem is called "subplots." These people have things
going on in their lives besides this, and embellishing their personal
stories will give the book a bit more heft. Try to find something in the
surrounding world in which this is happening that connects with the
characters and the major plot in a way that can reach a climax just about
the time the main plot comes together. You could also have an outsider who
is onto the plot, and that person has problems and reasons for suspecting
the blind people, perhaps based on them having known someone who is blind
and having a greater appreciation for the capabilities of blind people. The
skills the blind people will need go beyond Braille, and doing some research
will unearth issues and details that will make the book more believable ...
And longer. They will also have inner conflicts with one another,
alternately side-tracking and marching toward their ultimate goal.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Barbara
Hammel via stylist
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2014 9:36 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] a novel idea

Hey, novelists who are looking for an idea, I thought of a grand one and I'm
not really a story writer because I always get to the point too quickly and
just am not a good story teller - though I put myself to sleep quite
frequently making them up.
Here's the deal but first I need to explain what a panopticon is in case you
don't know.
The term panopticon was made famous by the 19th-century British philosopher
Jeremy Bentham.  He originally thought it a great construct for prisons.
What you do is build a circular building with the guard tower in the middle.
All the cells are transparent so theoretically with even just one guard you
can watch all the prisoners.  Lights are placed on the perimeter so the
prisoners can't see each other or see if they are being watched.  Okay, now
broaden that out into the world we seem to be headed for where Orwell's "Big
Brother" concept is coming to fruition with the ways especially government
can spy on us all through phone records and computer usage.  This is the
kind of world the story would be set.  Now, in order to have a revolution to
right the world back to a time when individualism is highly valued and
people could truly be free to speak their minds without repercussions, we
need a group of people who can circumvent the current system.  The obvious
group to do this would be a group of blind folks because they can function
in the dark and they have this special code called Braille.  It would be up
to the writer to figure out just how the panopticon is gaining its
information  -- maybe microchips in light bulbs or something - so there is a
way that only blind people - and those sighted folks who can learn to
perfection our adapted skills, can carry out a successful revolt.

Barbara

Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.--Robert Frost
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