how to walk out the front door

[Giant]

Perhaps he hears about a mysterious treasure buried in the mountains. He sees it as a way to restore the wealth and power to his family. He may discover a great tomb, but he then finds the treasure is the girl not the coffin.

Or his family could have hidden many possessions (rare art, jewels, etc) in the mountains when they were overthrown. Now that enough time has passed, his family wants him to go there and retrieve them. Since he has never been to the mountains, and has only a map and a few clues, his journey could take him to almost anywhere.

I like the general idea of your plot. I think there are several good ways to get him started on his journey.

 

[Voldermort]

Now my problem is: how do I get the boy out his front door so he can revive the warrior girl in the first place?

Classically, you enter a cave and pull out a tangible, which is commonly your supernatural aid (I got that from Kal Bashir's work).

ALIENS: the salvage guys break into the Narcissus and pull out Ripley.

So, have your boy go into a cave for some reason, where he finds / wakes up the sleeping warrior chick.

 

[sashamerideth]

Classically, you enter a cave and pull out a tangible, which is commonly your supernatural aid (I got that from Kal Bashir's work).

ALIENS: the salvage guys break into the Narcissus and pull out Ripley.

So, have your boy go into a cave for some reason, where he finds / wakes up the sleeping warrior chick.

It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!

 

[arbiter117]

You could start out with the comical. Hero is exploring the vast unused, darkened chambers in his tenement house, and falls through the floor - and, of course, through the floor below that - and the one below that, naturally. Then he slides out the window, on, say, a canvas that's hanging there for no apparent reason (still in the vast, unused, darkened chambers), and he lands in the back of this cart. Maybe it's a dung cart - you know, if you really want to get him off to a good start. But, due to the banging and thumping he got on the way out, he's blessedly unconscious. And, of course. the cart driver notices nothing (or maybe he was out scooping up dung when our hero landed). Anyway, said dung cart starts up again and it's off to the country with the lot of them. The prince wakes up in the back of this dung cart, and he's disoriented, slightly confused (you know, because of the bump on his head), and when he gets the driver to stop, the driver thinks he's crazy. So he drives off without him. The prince, all stinky and such, sees a river nearby and dives in. (Maybe someone steals his clothes at this point - depends on how much you want to torture him.) Then, clean and soggy, he figures he has to walk back to the city. Deciding this is the Whatchamacallit River, he decides to follow it back to town. Unfortunately, he has no sense of direction and he ends up completely lost, entirely alone, and... well, cold, since night is coming on and he's still pretty soggy (unless you went with the clothes-thief option, in which case he's cold because he's naked). Then, just when he's sure matters couldn't possibly get any worse, the ground gives out below him and he falls into this cave. And apparently finds a girl frozen in time for a thousand years.

LOL!! and then the 1000 year old warrior girl wakes up and sees the naked hero. More comedy and a subplot of the relationship between the warrior and the prince not starting off very well! Dang you are good at this stuff!

 

[demented-tiger]

I like some of the ideas you guys have posted so far. The idea of searching for lost treasure or entering the cave on a dare sounds cool. However, I should note that in this culture, the dead are cremated. There are no purpose-built tombs. The warrior girl is under a magic spell where she is frozen in a block of crystal. One inspiration I had involved the girl's spirit communicating the boy in his dreams, but I don't know if that would be enough to spur him to get out to search for her, especially in an era where psycho-analysis and psychiatry are the new, innovative ways to deal with wierd dreams. I should also mention that telepathy and telekinesis are commonplace in this world and are incorporated into the sciences such as psychology.

 

[Graham Irwin]

Just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
no need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free!

 

[Anders Ämting]

I have a great idea for a story, but I do not know how to get it started. I won’t give it all away, but basically, the hero, a seemingly normal boy, somehow revives a warrior girl frozen in time for over a thousand years. From here, the boy and the girl he woke embark on one of those globe-trotting quests to fulfill their destinies and stuff.

Now my problem is: how do I get the boy out his front door so he can revive the warrior girl in the first place?

The boy is a city boy, though not just any city boy, but the crown prince of one of the most powerful countries in the world – albeit his family’s dynasty has been stripped of most of its power in the aftermath of a democratic revolution, leaving the royal family just above poverty (I may decide to have the royal family keep their titles and office, but be more like figureheads with only nominal power and still in the lower tiers of income). This revolution occurred over a hundred years ago. The world my story takes place in has just ended its industrial period and is settling into the early modern era, similar to the 1910s, giving the young prince many modern conveniences. There really isn’t an obvious need for him to leave the comfort of his urban surroundings.

The girl’s “tomb” on the other hand, is in the countryside – specifically a sparsely populated mountainous region. I am not sure how to get the prince to this region. Because the revolution was so long ago, the royal family has had time to adjust to their reduced status, and therefore have no reason to go into physical exile. My original plot called for the boy to be pursued by the forces of evil in the guise of thugs and corrupt policemen, but I found this approach to have too many holes in it to be believable and it was more trouble than it was worth. I suppose I could have the prince be on a camping trip, but I do not know how popular camping was for urban working class families in 1910. I could really use some help and/or suggestions.

The traditional way, I believe, is to actually force the kid to leave town.

He's beeing relocated to a safer place due to war or civil unrest, for example. (See also: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.)

Or he's being dragged to the family country home by his parents because The Boy Needs Fresh Air and getting out of the city for a while Builds Character.

Or he needs to move away due to some sort of catastrophic event, for example his city home burning to the ground, along with all of his modern conveniences.

Something like that. Point is, if a person has no particular reason, ambition or ability to leave his enviroment, then he needs to be dragged out of it kicking and screaming. And that's good, because most people don't undergo dramatic life-changes voluntarily.

I'm sorry but as harsh as it sounds, I feel that you need to figure this out on your own. I strongly believe in the power of the imagination in one's own mind. I don't think that anyone should ask for ideas if they want their work to be their own. If you are a writer, you should be able to conjure things like this in your head easily.

Bring on the flames, I say!

You know, while I realize you probably mean well, I honestly think this is the worst advice you can give to anyone who is actually asking for people's opinions.

See, I've been doing this writing thing for a while now. And sure, sometimes I run into an issue where I feel I need to ask other people for advice. Does that mean I always take the advice I get? Goodness no! Actually, it's more like the other way around; I only rarely come across advice that actually resolve my problems.

But you see, here's the thing: Sometimes it's a matter of figuring out what you don't want to do. Sometimes a suggestion might not resound with you completely, but give you an decent idea of which direction to look. Sometimes you already have an idea you believe in, but need to confirm it by comparing it to other ideas. And sometimes the advice you get is so plain wrong for what you're trying to do, it inspires you to think of something yourself. I've found that all of this is actually helpful most of the time.

But you know what was never helpful? People going: "You should figure this out on your own!" or "Just write what you think works best!" If it was that simple, I wouldn't be asking for advice in the first place, would I?

 

[sashamerideth]

Maybe he's out having fun with his friends, hanging out, doing whatever when a group comes along and attacks him and his friends. He gets his tail kicked, and his parents are afraid he will get hurt again. Being from a poor background, they can't get him weapons or training to defend himself with. So they send him away to live with his rich aunt and uncle in another city. Here his streetwise ways get him in trouble and help him break the mold of the upper class society he has been forced in to.