I intend to write a 40 to 50 page book on science fiction. I have a couple ideas that i'd like to endulge upon, however i lack purpose. I want to write about a group of characters, each with their own personal moral struggles, that have somehow bestowed upon an aquatic utopia. My orginal idea was to have the characters crash into an island after taking off from somwehere in florida. From there they would somehow be rescued by the aquatic villagers and taken under and into captivity. But then again i lack purpose. Why would they be captured? Can someone please help me polish/critique my thoughts. This is my first novel and im finding it difficult to find somewhere to even start. Any advice is greatly appriciated.

Thanks!

are you looking for a reason why the plane crashes? Or why the villagers would take the other characters into captivity? Or both?

Mainly the latter. I need a purpose for the captives to be there. What good would the story be if they simply found this unknown world and just decided, "hey, maybe i'll just live here instead." Perhaps it could be they need to escape. Or maybe they decide to join the underwater people and attempt to overthrow the people of earth.

I could come up with a reason for the plane going down.

There are always tensions between the arriving people and the people that have lived there for a time.

Perhaps the aquatic people simply don't like the change of having to deal with outsides, and the new people are hurt by the fact that they can't get the aquatic people to like them.

Can you give more specifics. Who are the people that crashed, and who are the people that live there. What kind of society are they from, and what kind of society is the aquatic place?

Here's what i have about my protagonist so far...

Trent grew up without any religious background. He was raised in a middle to higher class family. He has always enjoyed reading and learning, but whenever he read anything, it was about some unique uncommon fact. He never enjoyed learning about the usual things most teenagers did, he was into discovery. He was always one of the smartest kids, even in the one AP class he took, but his un-enthusiastic demeanor limited his capabilities. He wanted to learn, but not about algebra or health. He often wondered, as many kids did, when A squared plus B squared equals C squared would ever be useful in a real world situation. He passed with above average grades, yet he never studied. School was too easy for him. He was looking for something that grabbed his interest. Nothing he came across before had lured him into wanting to discover. That was until he discovers an uncharted underwater fantasy land.

The world in which Trent lives is our world. It's a modern time piece, although i may decide to set it ten years in the future in order to add validity to some of the new technologies i might decide to bring in(after all i am writing science fiction). The newly discovered city, however, has gone it's own path. Without any communication with life above the waves, the a forced to create new forms of government, abstract living quarters that we would never see here. I still don't know how this place could have come into existence. Pleas help by listing your ideas (as abstract as they may be).

I'm trying to create a place that I can concieve; from my own imagination and ideas.

How does he find this magical land? He could:

Find a map.
Stumble through a gate that most people can't find.
Fall overboard.
Get magically transported.

How is it that he's the only one that's stumbled upon it though? This is sort of an important point, because it's the one that most writers tend to overuse plots on.

First, I'd say he just stumbled upon it. Perhaps the gate rusted shut.
Perhaps it's just been rediscovered.

This is an important point, so do you have any ideas about it?