I'm developing the plot for another novel project that I want to start, as I also work on finishing my main WIP. This new one would be at the middle-grader or chapter book level, with a similar word count and target audience as "A Series of Unfortunate Events" or the "Goosebumps" books. I'd like to have it open to being part of a series, although of course the first book will be able to stand on its own. The story is sort of inspired by Narnia, but instead of the other world being nature-based and full of talking animals, it will be AI-based, and the world's creation was done with computer intelligence. Basically, a top-secret group of very high level artificial-intelligence programmers figured out how to use technology to identify and connect different dimensions/worlds, and the "Narnia" other-world is a product of this. The main protagonists are two foster kids, one boy and one girl, who are either twins or very close in age in the 12-13 range. They've been bounced through different foster homes pretty much their whole lives, which were either dysfunctional or didn't work out - which would just be alluded to in vague terms, not in a way where it's dark enough to be inappropriate for the age group or would create an unpleasant tone for the novel. At the point of the novel's beginning, they just got placed in a foster family who's interested in permanent adoption. The new parents are uniquely intelligent -- the dad is a science teacher at the local college and invents things on the side (the house is full of stuff he invented), and the mom is a computer programmer/engineer who works from home and also is working on a "secret project." This family is perfect for the kids. Aside from the perfectly functional, loving and stable dynamic, the parents' intelligence is a perfect match for the kids, who are very smart and inventive themselves. One day, the kids are home alone and they discover this technical portal-like thing in one of the closets behind a bunch of boxes of crap. One of the kids, who is great with technology and ahead of their years on computer/engineering smarts thanks to early exposure to a special learning program years ago, figures out how to "code" it, and they are able to access the other world. The other world is sleek and futuristic, with the ability to do cool things like be invisible, fly, and instantly cure injuries/diseases. Whatever type of reality can be coded, can be done. At first it seems like a paradise beyond the wildest imagination. But they learn the AI-world has been taken over by a "worm," like a living version of the internet virus, and it's essentially a monster that replicates, takes over more and more sections of the city, and makes everything warped and dangerous. Its goal is to render the world unliveable and eat everything in it and connected to it, including the kids' new parents (who are connected with the world's creators). So the kids' main goal in the novel is to stop this and save the other world and their new parents. Can y'all talk with me more about this and help me flesh it out? It will only be about 25,000 words or so, so I'd like to get a really good sense of it and then knock it out in a month or less. Specifically I could use help making things more concrete with the types of damage the malevolent entity(ies) causes, why the antagonist put it there and his/her motive (maybe the antag is a member of the the elite programmer group gone bad), as well as what exactly the kids would have to do in order to kill/stop it. Thanks!
Wow, this is dense. It could work as a novel, but it's kind of overwhelming in a single post. Could you narrow down what ideas you want to focus on? (Also, are you actually familiar with coding?)
I've getting a very strong Tron/Tron: Legacy vibe here. As for what damage can be done, that depends. If the AI baddy is staying within the system, then all he can affect is the system so any damage is contained; unless he/she is virus-like and can leave to infect other systems? Does this malevolent entity have ideas about the physical world? Again, big Tron: Legacy vibe here, so be careful.
I love the plot its very creative but I feel like its missing some things, you might already considered it but I think you could connect to the other world a bit more if you had someone or friend(s) or something that you, your main characters and the readers connect with how precious the other world is, a friend (an android person, robot, dogrobot) who save then from be hit by a flying truck or something and shows them around which is a good person to get attached to, someone with a problem or defect (for example if it was a robot friend and he treated them as fragile cause they are only humans and is protective of them but is mistreated for being an older model) that would give you someone to care about from that world cause he lives there it makes you want to protect the world more. for your bad guy how about a smart kid (who lives in the futuristic world) who loses his way from just getting bored he makes the worm and it accidentally gets loose or out of control and he is trying to stop it too and he and the others stop it together and they all becomes friends or the kid (from the futureistic world) pretends to be an older badass hacker and makes the worm and lets it loose on the city because he hates it. hope that helps some
