welcome to the story.

I'm always playing around with ideas for a book. Nothing much ever really comes from these ideas of mine. I start writing a few pages or so. And then I quit. For no apparent reason other than I lose my interest in the story line or the characters. And if I can't stay interested, I can't expect any readers to stay interested. Another main reason, although I would surely deny this if asked face to face, is that I have a tremendous amount of trouble transitioning from a "story telling/narration" mode into the actual dialogue between the characters. For example, its much easier for me to write a paragraph about a boy and an affable light than it is for me to write a dialgoue between the boy and say his friend who lives in his tree house. I never know when to us "The boy said:" or "his friend in the tree house replied:" Does that make sense? With all of that being said. I think I may start another story. An idea that soon may fall apart when I have to make the characters talk. Keep in mind a Wes Anderson film or Leminity Snickett's kind of fantasy world as the subtext. But the basic characters are a former astronaut who peaked at the age of 28 and had to retire for unknown reasons that will play out later in the story. His brother who used to be a famous oceanographer and personal photographer for Jacques Cousteau. These two have struggled to be friends, let alone brothers. The astronaut has always been jealous of his oceanographer brother. But his brother loves him and desperately wants them to be best friends and go on adventures together. But its to complicated for the astronaut. There would be an Italian soap maker who makes his own soap and sells it. Probably two other characters that have yet to be defined. Maybe a 14 year old Indian boy, who speaks little to no English. They would all, with the exception of the oceanographer, all live in a somewhat old hotel on the beach in India, that used to be the most glorious hotel in all the world but time has worn it down. So they all live in this kind of parallel place that almost everyone else has forgotten about in this old, forgotten resort where only a few locals actually vacation too and many people just live there. And I don't have any ideas for what the plot is to be. Or could be. I like the characters have a lot of ideas on how to develop them and give them a lot of color. I just don't know what their adventure can be. I have a few ideas. But nothing that jumps. So . . . I need help. Does anyone know what their adventure can be? Any ideas on characters? Does this sound stupid? You'd have to watch The Royal Tenebaums, The Life Aquatic, Big Fish, and A Series of Unfortunate Events before you can get an idea of the world I want to create. A blend of those worlds as far as the context. I don't know. I'm reading the Silver Chair from The Chronicles of Narnia so maybe I will just end up writing about a boy and an affable light.