I don't exactly know where I am going with this story exactly, but I have a list of about 10 characters and their reasons for being in the story. I was wondering if the plot I am currently going to go with is too much or is even any good. This idea is this: The story starts off in the middle. The narrator, a 30 year old man named Danny Murphy who is second in command to one of the most powerful drug lords on the east coast of America, is in an interrogation room with a DEA agent named West. Danny and West make a deal where if Danny eliminates or helps West bring in his employer and the other drug lord who has kidnapped his brother, Danny can get off free. The story then goes into the past by Danny telling West the story of the past few days in which his friend who is fresh out of prison and his protector go and attempt to save Danny's brother from his mess (also explains how Danny's brother got into the mess) with the aid of his employer and his employer's brother who, like his employer is a father figure to him after his father, his employer's attorney, was murdered. Then it goes past where we are at in the beginning where Danny attempts to again get his brother back, but this time isn't by complying with the rules of the kidnapper. Mayhem ensues all throughout. I apologize for the poor explanation, so much is running through my head about this, so much that I couldn't even figure out what I wanted to write about on paper (so much runs through my head that I feel just letting myself write works better than attempting to map things out).
I'll be honest with you, I read that and had to read it quite a few times to even get a remote grip on what was going on. You need to explain it in chronological order, and then perhaps after that suggest the order in which you intend to tackle it. As it stands, reading it, I was going: 'so we go back, then back again then forward, he does this, what?' and the plot completely went as I just tried to figure what the hell was going on in terms of the timeline. Al
The problem might be how I explained it. It doesn't open up in the middle per se, but the bulk of the story occurs in flashback form. I did start off where the story actually started in the beginning, but I felt the interrogation and him telling the agents the story had a better feel to it, I may take the interrogation scene and cut it, just start from the beginning in chronological order. But, I'll try again.. The story opens up with a man in an interrogation room with some DEA agents. After the DEA agents and the man strike a deal, the man tells the story (flashback) to the agent of how all of this came about (a confession in a way, as well as his testimony about who was involved. The agents don't want him, they want his employer and in exchange, he gets off and when they bust the guys who he gave up, his brother gets off as well). After his confession and testimony of how he got there, he goes out on his own to find his brother, without the agents help (which would be the end). The flashback includes the bringing in of characters and finding out who they are and why the cops are after them or why the narrator is involved with them. I threw way too much information out on the first go around, I should have kept it simple. My brain just wanted to throw out ideas while I was typing, haha. Hopefully that is easier for you to understand, without the complex nature of the original post. edit: completely forgot to thank you for the feedback, how rude of me.
So will your story be mostly flashback? The reader might get a skewed sense of time, though I've seen largely-flashback stories done before decently.
That was what I was going for, but after sleeping on it and thinking it over, I think I'm going to cut the flashback idea, and just have it go in chronological order. I think I'll be able to use the flashback thing with a different/better plot.
