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First of all, I am by no means a professional, but I love to write. This story is my baby, and I want to see it live.

I'm writing a novel (currently unnamed). It's mainly suspense, terror, and psychological horror. I have the opening scene drafted. I have three main characters so far. I have an idea of where I want it to go. I have a plan for two of three main characters. Here's what I have so far, in brief:

William Silas Hill, 35, is a doctor. Or, rather, he was a doctor. Now he's an inpatient in the darkest wing of a dilapidated and under-funded mental institution. He was originally admitted for mild psychosis, but it's steadily gotten worse. His hallucinations have become more real, almost to the point that they're more real than his reality.

The new head of his wing (lost my train of thought completely here, forgive the boring words) is an older doctor who had never heard of his case before. Hill has been a patient for eight years, and the old man is determined to help him. Unfortunately, after a few visits with Hill, the old doctor ends up dying of a heart attack in his office.

He doesn't stop coming to see Hill, though. Hill knows the doctor's dead, and he knows that a dead man shouldn't be able to come into his room and carry on a conversation with him.

Here's where my first plot hole is. I'm about to introduce another character here. The character is a journalist (as yet unnamed; I've just been calling him the Unnamed Journalist), and is drawn to the hospital due to his need for a good story. He's heard of the crazy things that go on here (which, ironically, are the hallucinations of Hill made real, which Journalist doesn't know) and thinks he might be able to get to the bottom of it.

For some reason, Hill ends up committing suicide. No idea why, yet. Hill and the doctor appear to Journalist somehow.

This is where my imagination and idea trains collide, explode, and disintegrate. I think I know how I want to end it. I'm having problems tying Journalist into the mix, though. It's as much his story as the others', but it's not meshing as well as I'd like.

Any tips or feedback would be highly appreciated.

It's a good idea. Would also make a good movie, help the genre as a whole out a bit..(Dunno how many more ******** teenage slasher flicks we need. And how cliche'd ghosts books/movies are.) If you keep cliche's out of it, come up with some original plot twists, to keep the reader reading, and on the edge of their proverbial seat...Then you'll definitely be onto something, and id be first in line at the book signing. Do some research, find out what really screws with people's brains, and maybe use that as a basis to some of the "psychological" aspect of it.

Also, see if you could go to an actual sanitarium, observe the premise, doctors, patients...It's a lot of work, I know, but if you put a lot of work into this "baby" of yours, then I do believe it would be a big hit. I mean, when I think horror of this sort, Stephen King comes to mind...Maybe you could blow that old whale out of the water with a fresh hand grenade that is Ren.

Also, come up with an extensive background of William Silas Hill, a name and background for the Journalist.

Is this from multiple perspectives? Is it written in First or Third Person? Keep me updated on this, I would like to know more.

-Nikolai Krane

...Nik, have I told you lately how awesome you are?

That aside, Thanks! I've been using 4chan's /x/ as a window into the human mind and what causes fear for the past two years, and I've written three reports on fear, horror, terror, and the human mind. I've been trying to find a cheap copy of Jacob's Ladder so I could avoid inadvertently copying something someone else had done.

Unfortunately, I've ended up nearly hallucinating things from sheer terror before. Too much research on things like this mess with my mind something terrible, and it affects my mood.

Since I'm not going into a medical profession, it would probably end up being a hassle to get access to any doctors or anything. However, I may be going in for an evaluation soon (family history of clinical depression), so I could ask questions then. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get this thing off the ground.

So far I've only got a little on Will. I know he was a doctor, and that's about it. I'll work on him some more.

Journalist is the unnamed Journalist I talk to Pixie about sometimes. He's been without a name for almost two years. Nothing I come up with seems to be right. His background's not too hard to delve into, though, so I can work on that.

I'm pretty sure the parts without the Journalist will be in third person, switching to first person when Journalist enters the story, as it's his account of the events from then on.

I'll keep you updated, Nik. You can count on it.

I love your story idea it has really intrigued me and I would like to join the ranks of your future readers. smile

Would it be too much of a cliche to have your journalist investigate the asylum because he had a friend who was commited - maybe for a mental breakdown, maybe for a severe drinking problem or something? This would be the 'in' you need.

Perhaps the reason that Hill commits suicide is because he believes the hallucinations tell him too, or more believably to escape the hallucinations.

If this asylum is badly underfunded might the authorities be using dodgy drugs or practices to fund the place? You know join in a dubious research project for money. That might be one reason for all the weird goings on.

I don't know how much this will help, but if Hill commits suicide, driven to it by the doctor's replacement's torturing techniques, then you could write Mr Journalist into the story by: having him enter the ´Doctor's replacement's office and having a load of poltergeist stuff (I haven't really thought this bit out that well!). The 'Doctor's Replacement' runs away, and the Journalist is led away by Doctor and Hill.

As an aside, you could have it that Hill is not dead, and only imagined his suicide.

I'm actually keeping a notebook out and my pocky box pencil case nearby, just in case I get ideas. I'm tempted to force something out, just to see if the creative juices flow afterward.

I discovered something infuriating the other day when searching for the original draft of the first scene. All of my papers concerning this story have mysteriously disappeared. Not only is the main draft of the story gone, but all my diagrams of the hospital and all of my character sheets are gone. Luckily everything but the name of the older doctor is fresh in my mind. I even have the layout of the hospital memorized.

I've decided that Hill will be the enigma here. The Journalist and older doctor are simply drawn in. I'm thinking of having some sort of familial connection between Journalist and the Doc, or even something like the Journalist's father was in medical school with him. It would give a reason for Journalist to be there. Perhaps the Doc makes a call to his old friend, only to get a hold of Journalist.

Journalist will initially interact with the Doc over the phone, and at the very beginning of his interviews with Hill. The Doc dies of a heart attack after finding out something particularly disturbing about Hill and his hallucinations. Undeterred, Journalist will carry on his investigation into what may have made Hill the way he is, getting drawn further into the madness. He begins seeing the dead Doc.

I'm not planning on revealing Hill's suicide until the world's started to go even more insane than before.

I'll make a note to keep you informed.

I'm flattered. =D

I think I've solved my dilemma about getting Journalist in. I do need to name the little rascal, though. I think Hill might commit suicide to escape the hallucinations, but I'm unsure as to how to have him do it. Ideally, it would be with a revolver. In his situation, though, it would be something much less theatric, and much more opportunistic. I know it's going to be horribly bloody, though, and probably not at all a quick and painless death.

The asylum is old and dilapidated. It's fairly modern on the surface, but things go to Hell when you head downstairs into the ward for the criminally insane and those that are a danger to themselves and others. The entrance is a door opening onto a flight of stairs. The stair trails down into the darkness of the first basement level, where some of the worst criminal cases are kept. There are eight cells, four on each side of the hall. They're roughly 12'x10', with10' ceilings with recessed fluorescent lighting. The fronts of the cells are done in thick plexiglass--think Lecter's cell in Silence of the Lambs, but with less furniture and more mold. Any person walking through this way is advised to keep to the center of the hall and stay quiet. They are also advised to bring a candle and matches, as the lights automatically go off at dusk. At the end of this wing is a spiraling stair that descends into the outer area of the isolation cell, where Hill is kept. I'll spare the description of his cell.

Perhaps the hospital is taking money from less-than-dependable sources. This remains unseen, to me.

I think I've got my timeline the way I like it, I think, but those are decent ideas. Thank you so much for the input.


Thanks to all who replied. I'll keep this thread updated with my progress. I think I'm going to go name hunting for Journalist. Ta, dearies.