Sorry it is a bit long. I find myself coming up with great scenes I want to include but then having trouble trying to put them together and build up a strong main story line. Character background: Kate a 16 year old girl who grew up in a high class life style, she is fed up with her life, all her parent’s rules and their high expectations. Adam is a 19 year old boy was raise by an alcoholic and abusive father. Adam ran away from home a few years ago and met up with Jake a 23 year old thief. Jake gives Adam a place to stay if in exchange he helps him with his heists. Adam agrees and the pair becomes a good team; Jake is the brains behind the operation while Adam does the dirty work. Adam has a secret that no beside his father knows about, he telekinetic powers and can moves things with his mind. Because of this Adam likes to work alone. All so, Jake and Adam don’t always see eye to eye, Adam likes to get in and out of a place with out a trace, while Jake is more violent and would go in guns a blazon. Plot: The story starts with Kate seeing Adam for the first time at a restaurant or a train station (not sure yet). He is there with Jake. Kate only seems him from across the room, but she finds herself drawn to him because he seems to has everything she wants, carefree life style, independence, and not a nagging parent in sight. Adam on the other hand doesn’t pay any attention to her and only glace over in her direction once, which Kate abruptly turns away The second time is the museum. Kate’s father is the museum’s art collector and he just opened the newest exhibit, a priceless artifact. Kate sees Adam at the museum gala studying the artifact in the case. Kate builds up the nerve to go over and talk about him. They exchange names and share small talk about the artifact. Adam seems shy and doesn’t do a whole lot of talking. He is really there to scot out the place, so he can come back later and to steal the artifact. Some how Kate ends up at the museum at night, she is mad at her parents for treating her like a child. Kate gets caught up in a crime which Adam commits. But due to Kate’s interference the robbery goes horrible wrong and the police show up. Adam takes off with the artifact. The police only catch Kate at the scene of the crime and think she stole it. Kate panics and runs after Adam, police hot on her trail. Adam tries to barricade his path but Kate manages to squeeze trough before the door is blocked. The police on the other hand can’t, so they roll tear gas under the barricade. Kate gets hit with the gas is knocked out unconscious. Adam escapes home free, but when he sees that Kate is no longer following him he goes back in for her. Kate awakes only to find herself on the back a motorcycle, her arms are wrapped around Adam’s waist and her wrists are bond together. They are traveling down an old deserted highway in the middle of the night. There is fresh snow on the ground the road is a bit icy. Kate freaks out thinking that she has been kidnapped. Adam tells her to shut up, because he is trying to concentrate on the road. The rest of the trip is traveled in silence until Adam announces that they are here. When Kate asks where here is, she gets no reply. Adam pulls into an old rundown mote. He leaves Kate outside the office while he goes in to try and get a room. The clerk studies Adam, then Kate and refuse to rent them a room. Adam gets mad and storms out; Adam giving a little display of his powers causing the office window to implode, sending glass everywhere. The Clerk and Kate are freaked out. Adam leads Kate back to the motel rooms were he picks to locks of on of the rooms he scenes is vacant. Once inside Kate accuses Adam of kidnapping. Adam laughs at her crazy idea, and tells her this was for her own good. Then he pulls out a pocket knife and cuts away the cloth bonds around her wrist. Kate finally manages to get some sleep and the next morning they are on the road again. They stop at a truck service station for lunch. While eating, Kate tries to ask Adam question about the happenings of yesterday, but doesn’t get much in the way of answers. They go to Adams house which is a small apartment above a Chinese take out restaurant. Adam shares this apartment with Jake. Kate spends the next few days here. Her and Jake don’t get along, their personalities just clash. Jake doesn’t understand why she is her anyway. He tells Adam to just forget about her and let her take the blame for his crime. Adam and Jake get into some sort of argument and Jake shoots Adam in the leg. Adam wakes up in a hospital and freaks out because he thinks the doctors will learn of his powers and want to do experiments on him. He tells Kate about is powers and she helps him sneaks out of the hospital. They go back to Kate’s house. Kate apologizes to her parents for running off like that. Kate and Adam are able to frame Jake for the museum robbery and he is sent to jail. After Kate straights things up with her parents Adam leaves and says he might try to do the same with his father.
Hi sonyzoo It seems to me you have a good summary of what you are planning your story to be like. A few years ago, I did an outline too, then off I went and now I've got a 95,000 word novel with no clear structure. Here's what I wish someone had said to me a few years back: At the start of the novel, you need to set up the story situation more clearly. Begin your LEADS's main story line and make the goal she is pursuing obvious. Really shout it out--'This a story about Kate and she wants...' (Kate will probably have a 2nd subplot too, kind of hidden agenda internal stuff. Make that clear also). Make the other MC's goals and roles clearer, earlier on. Make sure you balance out action scenes with quieter, reaction scenes, don't have it all action (but of course action will be more). I think you should make sure the lead's scenes are at least about 2/3 of all the scenes. But don't spend too long planning and polishing or you'll never get round to writing the novel--like me! Good Luck!
A story concept means nothing. I can tell you now, it has been done before. What matters is how you write it, the characterization, the flow, the imagery, all of it. There's no point to asking what other people think of the concept! They'll either say,"Sounds great," or, "it sounds like a ripoff of..." If the idea stirs you, write it. Then ask people what they think of the final story. After they tell you what they don't like about it, revise it, usually several times, until you're happy with it or until you throw up your hands and say the hell with it. Please read this thread about What is Plot Creation and Development? (and yes, this is a template post, which should give you an idea of how often this comes up.)
I didn't even read your plot ideas, just the first line summarizing your problem--I find myself coming up with great scenes I want to include but then having trouble trying to put them together and build up a strong main story line. And that's just it. A novel is not a bunch of scenes you connect to make a plot or story. It's a story in and of itself, which just happens to consist of scenes that are already connected, it's only up to you to figure out how. So of course if you come up with disconnected scenes, you're going to have trouble forcing them to fit into a coherent plot. Because that's usually not the way a novel is written. Try thinking of a novel as a whole, otherwise, yes, you're going to end up with just a bunch of scenes that don't belong together. How do you do this? You'll figure it out, if you want to write a novel.
Hi sonyzoo, have you already thought about giving your characters a concise proposition? I.e. describing in one short sentenc what their experience will be over the whole story, like for Kate "finding freedom leads into danger" or for Jake "being overly brutal will bring you into jail". That might help in getting a bigger picture of the character's development and where the story needs to go. Have you made up a more intimate description of your characters yet? How would you describe Kate, Adam and Jake to a good friend if they were also good friends or family members? If you get a deeper connection with your characters, they'll become alive and start their own subplots. Maybe Jake is, behind his aggressive behaviour, rather lonely but unable to socialize with anyone for long, which reflects in his conflicts with Kate. If he's ruthless enough, he may even try to make out with her and blackmail her once Adam's away for an hour or two. What always seems to work well for me is to lay out the above basics, nail down which scene should be the climax of the story, then to decide on the inner conflict that I'll use to carry the suspense over the whole storyline. After that it's mostly filling in the scenes and checking not to loose any threads along the way.
