Hello everyone!
I am in desperate need of assistance with brainstorming for one of my stories.

Hypocrite
Misunderstandings cause strife between Kagome and Sesshomaru. So caught up in his distaste for humanity, Sesshomaru saw their every action in a dark light, his eyes blind to the light that shone brightly from Kagome, until she was able to open his eyes to the truth. Can love flourish after such a shaky start?
Rated MA!

Basically, I have no idea where I am going with this story, plot wise. For MONTHS I've sat on possible ideas, but for some reason, nothing is coming to me, so now I am begging all of Dokuga's wonderful members to help jog my muse with plot ideas on how to continue with this story.
Feel free to PM me if you don't wish to reply on the forum. Any and ALL help would be most welcome and much appreciated.

Hn...how about everything she does to improve herself he takes it as a means of her trying to leave him. Like trying to lose weight, getting her hair and nails done, going back to school, etc. Sesshy could be portrayed as selfish paranoid guy who's also very obsessive where all it takes is one bad incident to destroy his relationship with Kagome. It could be a terrible argument landing someone in the hospital. Then you could expand on the many trials and errors he has to go through to win back her trust.

There!

I hope that helped a little. *_*

Such a sweet story! I found myself teared at some parts, especially where Sesshoumaru was distressed.

I think this story's pace would best go slow. Sesshoumaru's constant need of touch from Kagome has to be constantly written IMO. He'd learn that his touch and well--maybe private time with Kagome; talking or stargazing or something, will make her pleased, and he'd yearn for something more intimate as his feelings to her grows deeper although the concept of love is foreign to him. If you could, relate it to the past where he saw his father being attentive to Izayoi, and the difference of Inu No Taisho's behavior towards SessMama and the hime. Here he began to wonder if his feelings were similar to his father, and don't forget the struggle he'd feel whether he should accept it or kill it because of his awareness of Kagome's love to Inuyasha. Should he accept it, he would proceed and tread carefully as he steers her attention to him, maybe begin a... pre-courting (?) like giving her gifts or something as youkai's law stated.

Now, about Inuyasha. I know that he is somewhat a jerk sometimes, but he is not stupid (at least). He will go jealous and angry when he sees his half-brother and Kagome so close (and touching!), thinking that Kagome likes Sesshoumaru better than him (as always), unaware that his behavior would irritate and, at some point, hurt her. To make him more understanding and, a bit mature, maybe, force him and Sesshoumaru into a situation, preferably caused by Naraku where Inuyasha is forced to see that his brother genuinely cherishes Kagome as she deserves it, and he realizes that he can't love Kagome because he could only see Kikyo in her.

The rest of Inutachi would settle as you see fit. LOL.

I hope that this will inspire you to continue your story. I am sorry that I just went skimming the whole chapters because I need to see fast what you'd need for help. I'm gonna read it more thoroughly next time

Good luck in writing that! Writer's block is such a--well, you know...

-dee

The thing that came to mind for me: habits if mind are tough to change. Both Sesshomaru and Kagome have some habits to change.

Sesshomaru has already decided on his, but he's probably got a lot to sort through in his mind and heart as he works through his centuries old habits and attitudes. Right now he seems to be in that nice euphoria-like state that accompanies new resolutions; how long will that last before he backslides? Will it be a large or small backslide? Probably both - and more than once while he forms new habits. No one is perfect, not even Sesshomaru (though we like him to be ) What will the consequences of his backslides be?

Kagome still hasn't figured hers out yet, but actively realizing that Inuyasha doesn't love her the way she wants and needs (and he never will) and then learning to let to of him will be a tough adjustment too. No one wants to admit that they've wasted their time in a futile endeavour; generally people prefer to persist in their behaviour rather than admit that it was futile and change. She could come to this realization a little more gradually than Sesshomaru came to his, but it's got to happen for any other romantic relationship to follow. Even then, she's likely to follow some of her habits for a while afterward. What will the consequences of that be on her relationship with Sesshomaru (either friendship or romantic)?

Frustration, anger, confusion, and misunderstanding will probably abound between them; they've got such different mindsets and grew up in vastly different circumstances, so how could they not? But there is so much potential for them both to grow into stronger, more flexible, more resilient people!

Unless you're looking for a really unique outside-the-relationship plot, it seems to me that the character changes could be enough to keep things driven. Habits are best formed through our everyday lives, and their everyday life right now is hunting shards and Naraku. Will the Inutachi run into more or less crazy with Sesshomaru hanging around with them...? After this point, the story wouldn't even need to be a day by day account. Changes take time, so we could drop in on the group every few weeks or months to see how things are going...

Hope something in that set of thoughts helps!

You know...now that I'm actually wake I realize that I should have probably read the story first before dishing any advice. I had based my earlier scenario just from reading the summary given above alone.

Sorry if it causes any confusion!!

I'll return with another idea once I've caught up on the chapters you already have.

Thank you all for your help ^^ Hopefully I can get my muse in gear and continue with this story. It is harder than normal for some reason O.O If anyone has more suggestions that will help me, I am all ears!