Story Idea Results – and Ray Bradbury

First I would like to recognize that one of the Sci/Fi grand masters died today. Ray Bradbury died at the age of 91. If you are not familiar with his work, and you like sci/fi even a little you should look him up. I promise that at least some of his books will be available at your public library. I suggest in his honor that you might want to try to write something new today.

I would love to be able to say something really profound about how his writing changed my life, but unfortunately I can’t. It is not that he was not a master of his craft, or that he did things I didn’t like. I enjoyed the books of his that I have read, but I just didn’t read them at the right time in my life for that I suppose. The best I can say is that so many of my very talented friends and some of my favorite authors were inspired by him, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Before I begin, please recognize that The Princess Bride is a copyrighted work. You can’t write and publish anything based on it without the express written permission of  the copyright owners.  

This is an example of Fan-Fic, where I play with one of the characters with no intent to write or publish anything based on this outline, without first getting the permission of the copyright owners.

This morning I posted a writing idea, and said that I would try to come up with at least something about it by this afternoon. Well here is my something. I will warn you that it is very dark and Inigo is not the character that he is in the movie.

As a quick note, I don’t know why a lot of my stories have been leaning toward the dark side of things lately but the more I write lately the darker things seem to get.

This is just a quick outline so there is a lot to work out here.

• The 6 fingered man comes and demands the sword at 1/2 the promised price. Inigo’s father agrees.
• Inigo infuriated at the man’s gall and his fathers lack of dignity rips the sword from the man’s hands and stabs his own father with it.
• The 6 fingered man, surprised but still wanting the sword, over powers Inigo takes the sword and teaches Inigo the Lesson giving him his trademark scars.
• Inigo weeps over the death of his father for a little while, but still angry at the whole thing, decides that his best route is follow after the 6 fingered man and learn everything he can from him and then take his revenge. So he catches up with count Rugan and begs him to become his apprentice.
• Jump 20 years ahead. Inigo is the kingdom’s undisputed sword master, count in his own right, (a gift from the king) and count Rugan’s hired “gun.”
• Despite his situation and elevated status in life he is sick at heart. He blames his father’s weakness for his plight in life. He tells each on of his marks, “Hello. My name in Inigo Montoya, I hate my father. Prepare to die.”
• He has waited for his day to come when he can kill his rival but Count Rugan knows of his hatred for him, and always manages to make it impossible for Inigo. “I have no gift for strategy.”
• Inigo knows that the Prince’s wedding is coming up, knows that there is a man out there trying to steal Buttercup away.
• He hires Vizzini to kidnap the princess, and lead the Man In Black eventually back to the castle, where he can either use him to coordinate an attack on Count Rugan, or cause enough of a disruption that he can trap and kill The Count.
• The Man in Black bests him with the sword, and leaves him unconscious instead of killing him.  Which of course is out of character for both of them. Inigo has never left a victim alive and “The Man In Black” is the Dread Pirate Roberts who leaves no survivors.
• At First, he swears revenge, but the more he follows the man in black the more he feels that maybe he has been going about it all wrong.

That is as far as I have managed to get. I know, no ending but…