oddities

[Dante'sJuliet]

OK, general setup in a story I'm attempting to write:

So there's this school. This school, to all outward appearances, is perfectly normal.

But then you go from an outside parent to an inside student, and the world changes around you. This place is *strange*. Examples? There's a ghost in the attic. There are books in the library that won't come off of their shelves. There's a gargoyle in the garden that moves if you don't watch him closely. None of this is, in fact, real. It's all the Teachers; they drag chains across the floor at night and have hidden doors behind bookshelves.

So why, you ask, am I asking for help?

Simply because I can't think of anything else for the Teachers to do. I can't think of anything to make this place seem more strange.

All that I've got so far is:

Ghost in the attic (Teachers wailing and dragging chains across the floor at night)
A moving gargoyle (which only moves because the Teachers move him)
Hidden doors (When the Teachers bought the school, they hid around one in every three doors, either behind tapastries or paintings or by building bookcases over them.)
Hidden rooms (sometimes they'd just hid all the doors to a room)
The Keeper (the girls think it's a monster roaming the grounds at night. The Teachers say it's only there to keep them safe. What is it? A dog.)
Forbidden / Haunted woods (Why do the girls think they're haunted? Because the Teachers have started rumors and "accidently" left "very old, reliable" books laying open to pages about haunted woods.)

And that's it. It isn't nearly enough! Will someone please help me think of other things that could be odd about this place? I know it's pathetic of me, but that's all I've got! HELP!!

[aberration]

Have you thought of a motive for the teachers to do all this. If you can give them a reason im sure it wouldnt be too difficult to come up with new things for the teachers to do. Maybe they're doing all this as a psycological experiment or something like that. If that was the case you could have the teachers slip LCD or something into the kids food/drink to heighten their fears. Then they would see things that not even the teachers would dream up :)

If you've thought of the motive, or any other part of the story, post it and I might be able to help.

[blp]

Perhaps it's what you want, but a lot of the imagery is tiringly familiar now from the goth/Harry Potter/horror/Tim Burton handbook of iconography. I'm sorry if I seem harsh, but have you really got anything here? Sometimes it's best just to leave an idea on the shelf and go on to other things. If you end up coming back to it - or it ends up coming back to you, perhaps there's something to it. But there are plenty more pebbles on the beach.

[Dante'sJuliet]

I'm sorry, I didn't make myself very clear, did I?

I've already got a plot. It's rather long and complicated, so I won't use up time and space explaining it. The "oddities" for the school are merely a device, a bit of fun details, not the plot itself. I've been working very hard to make all of the little quirks for this school completely original, with no influence from HP or Garth Nix or anyone else.

Thank you for your help,
~Juliet

PS. Just so you know, the Teachers cannot do anything too mean. Why, you ask? Simply because the principal is me. The other Teachers are four of my best friends. As awesome as slipping LCDs into drinks would be (that really would add a ton of strangeness . . .) I just can't write it, simply because I would never in a thousand years be able to do such a thing myself, nor would any of my friends.

-J.

[dejosc]

you could have beds that move in the night they could be on hidden castors or something and the teachers just move them, that would be pretty odd

[Dante'sJuliet]

Bweeheeheeheeeeeee!

I like that one. Thanks!