I have an idea for my story and all my characters planned in detail, but I need to expand. It's basically about a young teenage girl and her little brother and sister who are taken away from their parents who have been arrested for using drugs, drinking, having too little income, and abusing the kids. They are sent to a foster home where they are treated poorly (not as bad, but still fairly neglected). I need a conflict for this! It's a simple idea and I need something interesting to happen. I can't decide if I should make it a realistic story, or maybe there's something special about them. I know nobody wants to give me a whole plot, but if you can, please send me an idea! I can't get rid of this writer's block. Thank you!!
It is your respnosibility to come up with a twist strong enough to get the story off the ground. The plot, the how of the story, is something left entirely to your competence. You are not going to make it far if you can't come up with the first how, as there are going to be many of those hows throughout the story. Imagine those siblings in the foster home, imagine their everyday life. Anything can happen. Anything. From the mundane, natural to the supernatural. Play with their psychology. It is up to you to decipher what that anything is. Good luck
Give it time. If you keep thinking it over, the ideas will come. Try thinking about the first and last lines in order to give yourself a direction. Like @Hwaigon said, anything can happen. Don't worry about making it perfect, just write something. You can always change it later.
Here is an interesting website, filled with personal stories of real children that were fostered ...both good and bad experiences. Do some research like this, and you may well come up with some ideas you wouldn't think up on your own. It's always a good idea to get this kind of input. Might be a good idea NOT to borrow heavily from other fiction in this regard. Go for the true stories, and see what you dig up. http://www.layouth.com/stories-by-foster-youth-2/
Rip-off? I once saw a Canadian series Are you afraid of the dark -- and one of the stories was about a pair of syblings in a boarding school where most of the tenants are human-lizzards. Great story.
You throw around some quality, for-reference-websites. I checked the other one about psychopaths. This one seems so interesting I'm pondering writing an inspired-by story myself.
do the parents fight to get them back? do the kids stay together or get split up? are the kids happy they are away from their parents or do they want to go back? do the kids all feel the same way about the situation? if no, do the kids fight because of this? do they feel like this new situation is better than before? do they trust their new family to treat them well or are they scared they will be abused there too? does the eldest try to be a mother to the little ones? if yes, how does this effect her life at school and her relation with the foster parents if no, why? what about school? do they get moved in the middle of the school year? if yes, how do the other kids react? are they bullied? do the kids have anger/trust issues from the abuse? as for plot twists: maybe the littlest kid tries to run away back to their "real home" maybe the parents are out on bail and try to kidnap the kids back maybe one of the kids acts out in a way that seriously hurts someone else maybe the foster parents decide to get rid of them because three kids is too much work maybe there's a car accident maybe the kids settle in okay and just have normal kid drama, broken arms, making friends, crushes, mean teachers, etc... I think its totally up to you if you want to bring magic into it but I don't think it needs it to be an interesting story. EDIT: You might consider reading Pictures of Hollis Woods as a reference.
