Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I love them too! The Arlington’s names are honestly what makes them come alive to me, haha… and I love Indi!.. and everyone else, now that I mention it.
Anyway, thank you, and I agree 🙂
Ooh, those questions are super helpful and thought-provoking! I’ve thought of some of them before, but I’ll definitely use them to keep the plot churning!
(And if you ever think of more, please don’t hesitate… the further I get this, the better!)
Equally important second things second: my YA fantasy.
I’m not even writing this one until NaNo (for now I’m focusing on the above story and editing past ones), but I want to start getting comfortable with the idea and turning ideas around in my head. I want this to be a trilogy, and I don’t have enough story for that yet, so I’d love anything you can give me.
Jarek, the MC, is a hero. I want to get that out first. He’s desperately broken, but despite his brokenness, he is still a good person at heart. I think of him as a 17-year-old mixture of Kaladin from the Stormlight Archive and Jean Valjean from Les Miserables.
When Jarek was a boy (I’m going back and forth between 12 and 15), his village was raided, all of his family was killed (possibly before his eyes), and he was sold into slavery. He lived a tough life for a few years until he and the other slaves owned by a certain man found a way to escape, but Jarek stayed behind to help the last boy get out, and he was retaken. Because he tried to escape, he was beaten almost to death and left by the side of the road to die, but another man came along to help him. That man (I don’t know his name yet), his wife, and their family nursed Jarek back to health, but while he was there he had a chance to see the atonement child.
Every year, a human child (called the atonement child) was sacrificed to the god of the land to satisfy the ‘god’s’ thirst for blood, and this girl (Myra) was to be the sacrifice that year. So Jarek left the only peaceful home he had known since his real home, took Myra, and fled the country.
After that, I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I do know that at the end of the trilogy, Jarek sacrifices himself for Myra. Jarek is the MC and the main POV character, but his story is also seen a bit through Myra’s eyes and in flashbacks. (I’m going to start Jarek’s story right in the middle of the action, so I plan on revealing the story of his slavery slowly throughout the first book.)
As you can see, this needs a lot of work XD. Once again, anything – anything! – you can give me would be much appreciated. Thanks a ton!
First things first: the middle-grade contemporary.
Indium Grace Arlington lives a pretty normal life for a 10-year-old… except for her crazy family, whose escapades are generally the talk of the whole town. (Not that the town is that big, of course.)
Okay, so maybe her life isn’t all that normal.
I mean, they were kind of doomed from the start when their biochemist father, Flint Arlington, gave each of his 7 kids the names of elements: Indium (Indi), Krypton, Thorium (Thor), Francium (Fanny), Cerium, Cesium, and most recently, Osmium (Ozzie). But when Indi’s parents pull them out of school and begin homeschooling, she finds out that her family can be even crazier than she thought.
That’s the blurb I came up with on the spot, haha. But it’s a pretty good descriptor. I have the bare-bones outline (which is all I want) for the first 5 chapters of the first book (I actually need help with two), but I really need help discovering and outlining the rest of the story. The main problems in the first book are the following: Indi and her family are trying to figure out homeschooling, Indi doesn’t have any friends, she wants a dog, and, of course, their unusual family.
By the end of the first book, Indi’s connection with her brother Krypton will be far stronger (he’s her best friend), they get a dog (named Astatine), and she begins forming friendships with other people, as well as growing to truly appreciate her family. This story is supposed to be funny, so each chapter so far has been dotted with humorous mini-stories.
In the second book, I know even less. Astatine (the dog gained by the end of the first book) plays a huge part in it, and I want the ending scene to be Indi dancing with her dad at a father-daughter dance, but I don’t want rebellion to be a theme in either of the stories. The purpose of this story is to be completely clean, sweet, and to show that there actually are some good, albeit flawed, families out there. Indi is 11 by the second book.
So that’s about all I have, at least for now. I’d appreciate all the help you can give me with possible ideas, how to tie in all the problems (and create some for the second book), and… yeah. Pretty much anything would be great!
WOAH.
THAT WAS INCREDIBLE.
Seriously, that was great writing. Now I wanna read more!
I’ve only skimmed what other people have said, but I do agree with them for the most part. If you feel like your character needs to be white, that’s totally fine. Don’t push anything on your characters that feels unnatural; trust me, I’ve tried it. Just go with the flow and what feels right for your story.
That being said, my family is in the process of adoption, and my Mom recently discovered how few books on our shelves feature people of different ethnicities/skin colors. We have more than two thousand books, and while I don’t know the exact numbers, the ratio of white MC’s vs. other colors is… well, staggering. Thinking about my future siblings, I don’t want them to feel left out or unincluded because of their skin color. But I think that, if all they read are stories about white people, they will feel different. And honestly, that scares me.
So, ever since them, I’ve been trying to fit more color into my stories. The MC of my last book is white and will always be white, but I changed some of the side characters to look black, Filipino, and Asian. Most of my MC’s are white, but I’m trying to change that as much as I can.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that diversity in stories is best because the world is diverse, and statistically, writers have a tendency to only write MC’s of only their own color… but it shouldn’t always be that way. If only white works for your story, that’s fine, but in my opinion diversity is best.
Ooh, thanks for the encouragement and suggestions! *brain starts churning, then realizes that idea is WAY too similar to the last book she wrote, haha*
Yes!! If I can get picky readers (like me and, apparently, you) to go past the blurb on the back, I’d consider that a solid win! This idea is now officially on the list of ones I hope to write sometime… when I’m done with all my other pending ones.
Like that’s ever going to happen.
At least for me, even though I haven’t read a ton of stories with fake character deaths, I’ve read enough to know that it cheapens the plotline. I feel like killing MCs and resurrecting them is a common enough thing to do that when you do it, people don’t take you seriously. It takes away from the power of the MC’s death, especially when his death was for sacrificial purposes.
I’ve read multiple stories in which a character dies and multiple in which he dies and then comes back to life. You listed a great example of a character death that was incredibly impactful, and the Wingfeather Saga wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for the powerful imagery and beauty that came with that death. On the other hand, you have The Staff and the Sword series by Patrick W. Carr. Even though this is arguably my favorite series of all time (seriously, it’s SOOOO good), a character in it dies and then comes back to life. This character died sacrificially, and coming back to life again took away from the story tremendously, in my opinion; honestly, it’s one of the only things I didn’t like about the series. You can’t know what it was like until reading the book (and I am NOT giving away who died), but in my opinion, you should only kill a character (with very few exceptions) if you have no intention of bringing them back to life; otherwise, it cheapens their death.
And, if still in doubt, just remember this: if it hurts you, it will undoubtedly hurt your readers. Your passion bleeds over onto the page. If in doubt, kill them off.
Wow, that sounded bad. Just kill them off…. kill them all!! Mwa haha…
I’ll be praying! Keep us updated!
Oh, gotcha. Thanks for the comments, and I appreciate the encouragement! I’ve officially added it to my many ‘to-be-written’ WISemi-progress XD
And, just out of curiosity, why did my story idea remind you of ‘Mark of the Thief’?
Haha, yeah, I get that. I’ve never written anything cliche on purpose, but I can totally see my brother and I doing that some day…
@joy-caroline
Honestly, I didn’t really think about that… but you’re right, cliches can be enjoyable (and there are several huge twists I could put on the story that would make it very unique). Thank you so much for the encouragement; I appreciate it more than you know!
Aww, thank you so much for the encouragement! (Huh. Funny, but you’re right: Chosen Ones are all over the Bible and almost every government is at least a bit corrupt, so I guess cliches and tropes really are based on real life. Interesting.) Anyway, I appreciate the time you put into it, and you made me feel way more confident about the story!
Thank you all so much! I so appreciate it, and I can’t wait to write this story now!
That’s amazing! *brings out the confetti and chocolate*
I’m so excited for you! I’ve heard so much about this book… unfortunately, I’m not really investing in books of any kind right now…
*tears*
but I’m so happy for you and I can’t wait to see where God takes you! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. I love mystery and unraveling secrets… ugh, so good.
2. And then when you add deceit in there, it becomes a winner. Anything suspenseful like that is the best.
3. And then when you have a clock ticking and they have to solve said mystery soon… *shivers with delicious anticipation*
But…
1. Circus world as in a planet that is completely a circus? The genre is rather vague, as well as what the ‘circus world’ is. (Although getting trapped in it, whatever it is, is pretty cool…)
2. Your entire pitch is rather vague. I need more detail!
3. Who are Ara and November, and how did they become trapped in said world? Although you don’t have to reveal everything, just a little more information would be nice and serve to draw me in more.
Oy, well, this took a little longer than I thought. *glares at loathsome procrastinating self, my LPS* I had meant to answer A LOT sooner, respond to each of you individually, and definitely NOT wait almost a full month before responding.
As you can see, that didn’t happen.
But thank you all so, so, so, SO, SOOOO much for the stories! I’m totally using quite a few of these, and you got my creative juices flowing, gave me some room for thought, and actually got me in a humorous mood to write. Really, I can’t thank you enough. This story is going to be so much better because of these, and I can’t wait to see where the ideas and characters take me now that I have so much to go on! Y’all are the best! And I have to say, I’m so sorry. Seriously, some of these… *pats you on the back sympathetically* *offers you chocolate* *tries not to laugh*
@trahia-the-minstrel @anatra23 @annabelle @autumn-rebecca @koshka @keilah-h @joelle-stone @powerWhoop-whoop! That’s so exciting! Hopefully, if I do end up joining in August, I’ll see you there!
