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| "Let me know if you get to 60" |
We're going to keep going, basically. Life is like that. You go on, and sometimes you get to a point and it's like, "huh, that's neat," and then you keep going while you can.
Stories aren't like that. They end, for good or for ill, while things are still more or less interesting. The prince and the princess live happily ever after; Pinocchio becomes a real boy; the cat and the mouse aren't friends but they both live to fight again tomorrow.
But "Happily ever after" is whitewash; nobody can really be happy and nothing else forever. The old king must one day die, leaving the prince to become King in his place, which is all kinds of tragedy and drama. Further, the former prince has to govern the kingdom and struggle with the demands of his new role. This is a totally different story than what has preceded, but equally important to the characters and potentially equally interesting to the reader.
I want you to take any well-known story - book, movie, legend, fable, limerick - and begin a new story that begins after the end of the original. What does Pinocchio do once he's a real boy? How does the Frog Prince deal with the psychological after-effects of his condition? What goes on in Candy Castle?
You can do anything you want with your story, introduce any new characters or plot points, even aliens. Just begin where another story ended, and come back Sunday for the linkup!
