I need the advice of my fellow writers!

Hey YWS!

So, I need your help.

I'm currently in the planning process of a new novel. Here's the basic outline:

The narrator of the novel is suffering from Alzheimer's. This in itself is a big challenge. There are plenty of novels about what it's like to know someone who has Alzheimers, but not many that are actually written by someone who is a victim themself. Also this character is about sixty, and writing as an older character is tricky when you haven't actually experienced old age!

Now, in order to make this story interesting I want to add a twist. I love writing horror stories and so why not shape this into some kind of phsycotic thriller?

AND THE BIG QUESTION: WHERE DOES YOUR MEMORY GO WHEN YOU SUFFER MEMORY LOSS?[/b]

This story isn't just about suffering from Alzheimer's, it's about the human mind.

Here are some possible scenario's for the novel:

1) Leon is getting old. He starts forgetting little things for example he forgets to iron his clothes, something along those lines. Further down the line he is diagnosed with Alzheimer's and losing his memory. But where does this memory go?
Elsewhere, another character who has no connection with Leon wakes up and has all of Leon's memories, thoughts, characteristics... He doesn't remember who his wife is or anything about his old life. In other words, [b]Leon's memorie's have left Leon's mind and been transferred to someone elses mind.

2) When you lose your mind you are still the same person and the memories are still there, you just can't access them. When Leon losing his memory he finds himself in a battle to find the key that will unlock his memories.

And this is where you come in, my lovely fellow writers! This is all very rough and basically I want you to do one or more of the following for me:
1) Let me know any ideas about how I can develop either scenario 1) or scenario 2).
2) Let me know your thoughts on memories and attempt to answer THE BIG QUESTION as shown above.
3) Let me know what you know about Alzheimer's e.g. experiences, views, opinions...
BUT PLEASE NOTE: Alzheimer's can be a sensitive topic and please don't write anything that will deliberately offend anyone. And if you do want to write about your experiences with Alzheimer's then you should be extremely proud of yourself. This is very personal and I really appreciate it.

So, please brainstorm below!! This is all purely research for my novel and WILL NOT be directly copied.

Thanks a lot!
Happy writing,
Sophie x

I like scinerio one. I think that it would make a very interesting story, but I think this should be your own ideas that go into this. However, I love the name Leon.

Write this, and post some of it on YWs. I would love to read it!

Kay

Thanks for the reply Kay!

Yeah I thought that the first idea seemed a bit more exciting. And it's fiction so I can be as creative as I like!

I've done some research on the human mind and developed the idea. It's early days now but I definately will post some onf it on here as I progess!

Sophie

The 1st idea is an interesting one, and I think that would be a great story. The 2nd one could be more of a horror kind of thing or a mystery thriller, and would be really... unusal and probably a little creepy. But I like both of those ideas.

I don't know if this will help your story or not, but this is my experience with Alzheimers.When a person I knew was diagnosed (she was in her eighties) she moved into a nursing home. So they can keep a close eye on her. Her memory went away slowly. She started to forget names, dates, and other things. Gradually through the years she got worse. She had it for nearly four years. From what I understand, Alzheimers is different for each person. It progresses at different paces.

I'm not quite sure if that helps you, hopefully it does at least a teensy bit. If you need any reviews and/or questions/help on your story feel free to ask me.

Thanks DeadEnds!

Yup, that was pretty helpful! I have no experience with Alzheimer's but I find the subject fasinating, that's why I'm working on the idea. So, hearing about other peoples opinions and experiences is really useful!

-Sop.

I love the first idea too. I think it will be easier for you to grab attention of the readers with the first one.
The second one seems kinda close to reality, I mean I study psychology and there is a theory of forgetting because you can't access the information because of lack of retrieval cues or because of interference of other information.
Anyways I recommend you to search for documentaries on Alzheimer patients as I don't know anyone who has had that.


Spikey!

You may need to do research if you want this to be accurate. I don't even know what alhmizers (I think that's spelt wrong) but you may need to look it up in some books or internet ect...