Muse seeking inspiration

[HomerJSimpson]

As you all know I've had a couple of articles published by GM and it has whetted my creative juices. There is an old adage that everyone has a novel inside them and I'm keen to get mine out into the cold light of day. I want to write something golf related, but apart from a book based on anectdotal incidents or maybe a diary of a golf club year (special chapter for Clubchamp and his incidents in the bar earlier this year!) I am struggling to pin down a concept or plot and so I'm hoping my fellow forummers will be able to provide that creative spark.

All ideas welcome!

 

[Ken_A]

Tails of a wife swapping fourball.
Satanic green keepers and their pin positions revealed.

Or perhaps a book with great user nemes like Harry Putter (well I LOL'd when I first saw it)


OK only kidding, what sort of style are you going for - grey and sober, funny and light hearted or qwerky and dark?

Come on give us all afew ideas of whay direction you would want to start.

BTW all the very best - I hope you have plenty of time and energy, you will need more than a granola bar and a litre of coke.I can only imagine it like playing a par 8 with 3 clubs and a head wind - stupidly tough, but so enjoyable when complete.

 

[TonyN]

What about the Nomad that joins the private club, he's snubbed by all the regulars and ends up saving there backsides in the regional finals because no one else is available to play.

The match tied against the opposing clubs captain a wayward shot on the 18th lands him in trouble and he duffs out into a bunker. He has to get up and down to win the match but leaves a nasty right to left 12ftr.

Everyone loves an underdog!

 

[Ken_A]

I think you could make a good book out of the bigotry, sectarian, racist, selfish and pompous arses I have met while playing at different clubs. You could also mention the internal power struggle among committee members, captains and hierarchy.

I once turned up to a club(BIL's local Muni) with the BIL - we were paired with 2 Burybury clad lads, Donnay 'clubs' in hand. They were probably two of the best natural golfers I have ever met - but I simply had to walk in when they asked me if I wanted to share a splif - as they pulled it out of an inside pocket then lit it up. I was honestly disgusted - but it seems they are not and will not be the last.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

TonyN

I'm sensing a real life feel to this story!!

 

[TonyN]

Idea comes from a book I read at lympstone about a Marine recruit (at lympstone) who joined the sbs straight from his training. His corporal was forever giving him a hard time and really hated his guts. It turns out that the corporal had been trying to get on the same course for years and they ended up on the same one. The corporal was really jelous that this wet behind the ears marine got straight on. It turns out the marine saves his corporals life in the end.

That was a true storey!

 

[AliB]

Homer
A pretty big question! You could start by avoiding the likes of this
http://secretgolf.blogspot.com/2008/02/first-golfing-bonkbuster.html
But seriously, the answer has to be write about what's important to you (in a global sense)using golf as the vehicle, so if you want to show injustice,pathos, humour or redemption, just go on and make it happen on the golf course (let's face it, it's all there!)
If you haven't tackled a novel before, make sure you have more than one idea to hang your story on - a novel needs sub-plots, lots of stories that contribute to the over-arching theme. It's easy to think you have a great idea, but a novel needs lots of ideas. you also need an extended train of events (if you were telling someone the plot, think of it in terms of having lots of 'and then')
The other approach (and what I have thought of doing myself) is to go for a series of linked short stories using different characters but all members or whatever of the same club/society- more like an up-to-date PG Wodehouse. this will sell as a novel but can be more of a collection of stories.
Yu may find when you begin that you are a natural short story teller, or that you instinctively write to length and want the satisfaction of the long haul. Whatever you do, enjoy it - that's the main thing.
Hope this makes some sense - we are talking voice of experience here!
Once you get under way, feel free to PM me. Writers need all the support they can get!

AliB

 

[cm_qs]

What about a gripping adventure tale about the underground resistance movement who wage guerilla warfare against the evil Golfstapo.

You can recount the brave incident when a heroic freeedom fighter left his shirt untucked on the course or the daring raid on the bunker which left the rake askew.

You can recall the heroes' ardous journey through the scarred battlefield of trenches dug by our brave Tommies who have a bit of an issue with hitting fat shots and the craters left by the enemy who don't have the decency to repair the pitchmarks of their bomb shots.

Of course the valiant heroes will triumph in the end when the AGM votes out the committee en masse and replaces them with sensible, forward thinking types.

I'd read it!

 

[AliB]

Craig - sounds like you could write it!

AliB

 

[vig]

Homer

Cut and paste all your posts on here. Contact Brazil in advance to plant some more trees cos it's going to be a bloody thick book.

On a more serious note how about one persons struggle in striving fro perfection. The endless hours spent on the range followed by the outpouring of despair with their cyber friends.
The days sat at work dreaming of that perfect shot whilst the world passes by.

 

[toyboy54]

Ali B,get the impression that you are published??If so,what?

 

[toyboy54]

REading all the posts,have the answer Homer we should all chip in a page,2 pages,chapter each,we all have our stories be it humourus,sad,real life,crazy,whatever.I'll give you my chapter and you can keep the intellectual copyright!!Hows that??

 

[AliB]

Ali B,get the impression that you are published??If so,what?

If only, (though not for want of trying!) Apart from some stuff on the web and a memorable (?)contribution to GM a few months ago, fame/publication has eluded me. Keeps me busy, though. Full story documented on htp://debutnovelist.wordpress.com (currently having an overhaul, but most of the info is there, somewhere).

AliB

 

[toyboy54]

Thanks Ali will give it a look (but must go and do the dishes 1st,plays hell with the skin,must use the cream more!)Cheers.......jim

 

[viscount17]

Homer, I would commend to you a mighty tomb entitled A Golfer's Companion (ISBN 1-85291-111-5), published in '92 so possibly hard to find - through your library perhaps.

This is a collection of over 100 short stories/articles, from such as PG Wodehouse, Henry Cotton, Seve, Henry Longhurst and Peter Alliss (to name a very few).

If you can't find inspiration there . . .

 

[RGuk]

I think it's got to be a (rather predicatable) story of washed up pro done good. Not Tin Cup style, but hopeless pro turned teacher finds and nurtures talented kid. Falls for the mum (a la horse whisperer) but resists to re-find his game and beat the booze.
Include some Alien abduction, a few Stephen King-eske bedroom antics, and a bad boy billionaire American developer trying to take over the land....and BINGO....utter trash, but it never stopped Jilly Cooper.