I'm working on two novels that i need help with. My first story follows a newly turned 18 year old who just graduated out of high school and now wants to embark on having the wildest and craziest summer of his life before he goes off to college. One that he and his friends will remember FOREVER! Many plots in the book involves them doing random crazy things over the summer from stealing for money, getting locked up, throwing parties, getting drunk, getting robbed, etc etc lol just a bunch of random crazy things over the 2 months of summer they have. The ending of the book is basically when the summer is over and the aftermath of everything they been through. I want to say its a Project X meets Hangover. The problem im having is what is the book genre? and what is the "Story"? If someone was to ask me what my book is about, i will simply say "My book is about a high school graduate and his friends whose mission is to have the wildest summer of they life" I feel like its not "right" for some reason Like if someone asked me what is "Taken" about, ill say "A man who daughter gets kidnapped and he goes off to save her before she is sold off as a sex slave" Idk maybe im over thinking, but if someone can help me out and see what im missing or not mentioning
The "story" is just what your book is about - your high school grad and his friends spiel describing the events. The story is what actually happens. "Genre" refers loosely to the story's traits and trappings and themes, and things like setting and target audience. Quasi-medieval setting with magic and a chosen one? Probably fantasy. Futuristic setting with robots and laser guns? Probably sci-fi. Protagonist is under ~18? Probably YA. Taken is an action movie because it focuses largely on cool action sequences and has a badass mc. Yours sounds like some sort of slice-of-life adventure type thing - I only know enough to know it's not the kind of genre I have experience with, so I can't help much with defining it, I'm afraid.
The logline (the summary you gave us) sounds more like a movie plot than a book. It's great for The Hangover, because people don't mind sitting through two hours of that, but who'd want to read it? You need conflict, or a defining reason for the plot. WHY do they want to have a wild summer? Is the MC going off to the military? Is he going to be inducted into a monastery? Is one of his friends dying of cancer and they want to give him a great sendoff?
They all going to separate colleges so they wanted a wild and crazy summer they will never forget together. lol Hangover had conflict and a defining reason for the plot. Hangover defining reason was one of the guys was getting married and before he got married they wanted to go off to Las Vegas to party. The conflict was they took some kind of drug and woke up and couldnt remember anything the night before cuz now they friend who is getting married is now missing. The defining reason in my book is the group of friends want to have a wild summer together before they all go off to different colleges. The conflict is they get themselves in constant trouble that can jeopardize they future.
I'd call it a road trip book. There's a bunch of them out there, from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to Paper Towns. I really like the premise, likely because I love slice of life stories, but for me I'd expect amazing characterization and smart dialogue. I'd be more interested in how the characters react to the events than the actual events themselves.
This is premise. Investigate strong premise writing. Try this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/2ml5y5/before_you_write_a_script_make_sure_you_have_one/?
I'm not familiar with Project X or Hangover, but... Going by your description, I'd say it's a coming-of-age story. Of course, that assumes that by the end, the MC has had to dig deep and find the strength to overcome an ordeal that changes him from a 'boy' to a 'man' (whatever those words imply). Also, it should fit neatly into the New Adult category (if that's still an active genre/classification).
