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Well, I’ve been gone a long time haven’t I?? Oops. :-/
So I had this super weird dream. And it’s actually developed into a decent novel idea so hear me out. Ghosts are spirits trapped on the earth because of “unfinished” business right? So what if some middle aged guy’s past caught up with him (I’m thinking gang member as a teenager and then attempted to straighten his life out?) then died trying to set something straight but the catch is he didn’t realize he died and goes about continuing to live his life as if he were alive. Ideally the reader wouldn’t realize it either. But I’m stuck on how to make it interesting to the reader if they don’t know he a ghost. But if they do know a ghost… well I don’t have much of an element of surprise. Ideas? Objections?
(Bonus question:::::::::
Are ghosts as spiritual being not restricted by a physical form, restricted by time?? If a ghost wants to haunt a house, are they aware of 48 hours that pass between stupid teenagers wanting to check it out? Guys help before this turns into a full blown existential crisis.)For the bonus question, my guess would be they are restricted by time because that one verse about that angel in one of the major prophets that wasn’t able to do something because he was busy fighting the king of Persia or something like that. Yeah. That verse.
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Oooo, cool ideas! *rubs hands*
I would think even ghosts would be restricted to time, though it might seem to pass differently for them. Can they move fast? If so, maybe time would seem to pass very slow and they can get a lot of things done in a few minutes and then are bored. Or maybe they zone out if nothing is happening so it seems to pass quickly… Do they have watches? I don’t think they’d be driven by time like people because they’re already dead. They have all the time in the world. So any worries about time would probably be related to the people they’re haunting…or whatever they’re doing.
Ghosts are spirits trapped on the earth because of “unfinished” business right
Have you watched Once Upon A Time?
About making the story interesting without letting on the MC is a ghost…can he see or does he deal with other ghosts? You could make him think he’s somehow gained a special power during some accident so now he can see (and fight?) them. It’s not until the end that he realizes he’s one of them. He might not even know they are ghosts until part way though the book. And there would need to be some sort of exciting plot combined with the whole ghost deal. Something he has to stop or someone he loves will be hurt. And this can be tied in to his unfinished business. And maybe he has to fight ghosts too, to get it done…
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
Hey, this sounds good @Adry_Grace! I haven’t any genius ideas about not knowing he’s a ghost and all that, but I do have a suggestion on the time thing.
Actually, more like a reference.
To the only ghost story I ever read.
The best of its genre.
The only ghost story that ever inspired and impacted me in a positive way.
The only ghost story I could read again and again and again.
A Christmas Carol.
*cue Beethoven’s fifth*
I hope you’ve read that, cuz if you haven’t, well, you can’t call yourself a bookworm, much less an author. *severe glare*
Okay, okay, it’s not that bad. 😉 But if you’ve read it, you’ll remember that the story went in ‘sequence’ (as if confined to time) until the end, when Scrooge woke up and discovered that what had seemed three nights to him had only been one.
You might try that approach.
But I guess a lot depends on how you’re handling this story. A Christmas Carol was very much a fanciful (not to imply that it was light— yikes, far from it! 😛 ) take on ghosts— relying more heavily on ‘traditional ghost lore’ than on cold, factual existence of spiritual things. The ghosts in that story represented concepts, more or less. Moods. They weren’t actually dead people. (Except for one).
So you should probably decide whether you want to make this more of a fanciful take on ghosts, or a factual one. If a fanciful one, anything goes. Factual, stick to what @Daeus said. I don’t remember where that verse was either. Perhaps in Daniel…?Anyway, this sounds like it has a lot of potential. I have no objections— ghost stories handled well can be extremely powerful. I would just say be careful not to get stuck in today’s stereotype. That would ruin it.
Stories like this usually have a ton of potential to showcase how important it is to set things right while you still can. Focus on whatever theme you build off this and use the plot to further it, and you should do great.Let’s see…
@daeus I didn’t recall that verse so I google searched it and its Daniel 10 you must have been thinking about. (Good guess Kate!)
@hope I watched the first season of OUAT and then my dad got sick of it and made me watch another show. A ghost wearing a watch is a funny picture, but I think you’re right they wouldn’t be driven by time. But I suppose that if they can sense time passing, the man will still have that connection to time. Allowing to not realize he’s actually dead.
I really like the thinking he was given some sort of power idea (*Already muttering to self about how he would interpret that power and its source*)
@kate-flournoy Yes, I have read A Christmas Carol and must agree with you it’s the best. As for the fanciful vs. factual, I hadn’t much thought about that. It’d all depends, I suppose, on what my end goal with the story is. I suppose that with how it’s all starting to fit together in my head it would be more of a factual approach.@Adry_Grace okay, great. Best of luck. I’ve never written a ghost story and only read one (no prizes for guessing which 😉 ) but my gut instinct tells me the best realistic ghost stories are the ones that don’t make a big deal about the ghost being a ghost. I mean, don’t have a lot of ghostly things in them. If the ghost is still possessed of a thinking, reasoning mind, he’s gonna act like a person, not an-oh-so-scary ghost. He’s gonna think everybody else is crazy when they tell him he doesn’t exist, or when they run screaming when they see him… or wait. How are you handling that aspect of the story? Can other people see him? What about the people he was close with and who thought he died? How is that all going to work out, or have you even figured that out yet?
@kate-flournoy That’s something that I’ve been trying to figure out. I figure that if this guy is going to go around not realizing he’s dead, there’s going to have to be people who see him. Maybe I’ll have them all think there’s something somewhat different about him, something subtle… Perhaps there will be people who can’t see him, or who realize that he’s a ghost but they would have to be in the minority in order for him to continue on believing he’s alive.
As for people who thought he died, that is a good question. I’m working on that. Because if he died there’s going to be the body and some one sooner or later is going to have find the body… or do they? I suppose it depends on the circumstances of his death. If he’s murdered there would be someone trying to hide the body. And if there’s no body no one has any evidence he’s dead. If there’s no evidence, people could assume he just went missing or it could even happen in such a short amount of time that no one even realizes some abnormal happened.
@adry_grace The reason I asked about OUAT was that, in the last season they go into the underworld and end up helping some of the people down there ‘move on’ by completing their ‘unfinished business’. But I suppose that’s just a general aspect of ghosts. 🙂
What if the character thinks his ‘power’ is being invisible? At least to most people. I don’t know how he dies, but if there is an explosion (in a chemical factory?) his body might…well, disappear. And what if he wasn’t supposed to be there; he was undercover, perhaps. So no one finds him, since the whole building burned. And any friends or family he has thinks he’s on vacation or something…
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
@kate-flournoy I suppose that would be a possibility. Which would bring up questions? why wouldn’t he? Is it because he truly has lost all his family? Or has he cut himself off? Why would he do that? Is it because he’s trying to protect someone, or because of some past disagreement?
@hope The factory explosion would definitely be an option. But what was he doing there? Was the explosion on accident? Or was it set up? If so who set it up? Why did they want him dead?The floodgates have been opened. *scrambles for notebook and pen* Thanks so much for your help guys!
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