PLOT HELP
I've been stuck for the past few days on how to progress my plot
basically, my main character is the owner of a bookstore
he needs to realize that certain words/sentences/paragraphs in some of his books have been changed or have been completely removed
how the hell do I get him to realize this and begin his descent into madness as he combs through his books again and again?
looking for some suggestions/thoughts/inspiration pls
I guess if anyone else is having trouble moving their story forward they can post here too
buckle-up-borges-roos
ego-scrubber looks-up
Let him start a well-known book but redo or erase the first sentence. Then let him keep on reading while he ponders what's wrong with this copy until he gets it, but then he gets another copy of the same book from a different publisher and find out it's missing too. Maybe make poeple tell him there's no such sentence (the one he thinks it should actually be) and that its "that made-up sentence" or the second sentence of the book.
>>7701364
"buckle-up borges-roos"
Going to steal your plot premise, thanks.
buckle-up-borges-roos
>>7701364
How about starting with something a little more obvious, like books out of place, that he would blame on customers misplacing, then he'd notice the title on one famous book (a collection of poetry would be good, I think him knowing some poems by heart would be more believable than a novel) being misspelled, and leafing through it he'd find some more mistakes, but just discards it as being defective or whatever.
Then a few days later, a customer misquotes something in front of him, he wants to check it to prove him wrong but in the book it is still different.
Then he notices other titles being wrong, starts to freak out, checks the back of books and finds other mistakes etc.
>>7701364
Just have him read through the damn books.
"Anon was a lonely shit in his shitty bookstore no one visited, so he pased the time rereading his faovurite books on the chelves, and one day he noticed something different."
bee blocks our groups
our pork-glucose ebbs
>>7701403
>>7701423
yeah but there's two problems:
1) how is anyone even going to realize a few words have changed/been removed?
2) how do you go from realizing that one instance to finding more instances?
>>7701419
book out of place is actually quite a good idea--I'm going to incorporate it in, thanks
>>7701406
np, I don't mind
>>7701447
You've never memorized favourite poems/lines from books?
>>7701364
Buckle-up-borges-roos
Also read Calvino's If On A Winters Night A Traveller
"buckle-up borges-roos"
Make him re-read a book he read during his childhood, from which a particular sentence really stuck him. Then he'll notice that sentence is changed or missing.
Sorry to derail, but how tall was Borges by the way? I can't shake the feeling that he was around 5'6". Though reading him, he seems larger than life.
>>7701447
Start with someone incorrectly reading out a famous line from a book, then he mentally chides him for misreading a famous line
Later after he realises something is amiss, he goes back to check the book and finds that it's wrong
This is like... extremely basic stuff, like you're supposed to do this over and over until you've ironed everything out as much as is possible. You're not going to be a writer if this is difficult for you
>>7701364
Buckle up Borges-roos
>>7701447
Have a scholar or student call complaining about a misprint in a really well-known work. For example, a student could call in saying that this edition of Hamlet is flawed or that a translation of Inferno is incomprehensible. The bookseller could call the printers and publishers but they would deny that their editions have any misprints and they were shipped in pristine condition. He could even send in the incorrect copies but the printers would return the misprints as is. The bookseller would then reread books that he's read before and the story would begin.
buckle-up-borges-roos
>>7701364
>my main character is the owner of a bookstore
