Hello All, I just joined yesterday. I'm working on a story and would like feedback on the plot. Plot: A young man who grew up in poverty in a small town in southern Washington, graduates university and seeks employment. Due to his major, International Business, he could not find gainful employment in his small community. Additionally, the meth epidemic had taken over his hometown, claiming the lives of both his parents. With a passion for photography, aspired to become a professional photographer as well. He decides to move across the US to New York City to try to find his place in Corporate America and in the world of photographic arts. With $3,000 to his name, he has to make it in New York. Living in a flophouse amongst working people, addicts, and ex cons, he has many encounters with less than motivational elements. One day he meets a professional female photographer who is struggling with the loss of a friend who overdosed. They meet in a coffee shop and instantly hit it off. Him counseling through her grief and her helping him to navigate the world of photography.
Seems quite hipster to me. There's a market for it, people would enjoy it, but I don't think I would. Photography is fine. The Orphan plot is fine. But why would a broke photographist be in a coffee shop with this lady? What would she even have to teach him that he wouldn't know? What would he even be able to tell her to counsel her through her grief?
That back story begins when he is in his hometown trying to determine what to do. He applied for many jobs internationally, but received no replies. He decided to take a chance on NYC, as he had a passion for photography. The story begins when he arrives in NYC from a cross-country -train trip and checks into the flop house.
He was an amateur photographer, with no formal training. It was a coincidence that they were is the same coffee shop, with the same camera, which started a conversation. He had no formal training and being from a small town, no idea how to network in the world photography. He had lost people close to him, and found ways to cope with the grief. As she had just lost her best friend, she was depressed, when the kind voice took her mind off her grief and they started talking about cameras.
You don’t have to figure this out now, it may come to you as you are writing. But in the back of your brain, start thinking about how much his life is going to suck FOREVER if he doesn’t get the photography gig going. Adding those kind of stakes will make the story much more dramatic. And he doesn’t actually have to make it as a photographer. Treasure hunter stories have a trope where they don’t get the treasure at the end, but the relationships they develop are much better than the treasure they were seeking.
