I've got a new novel idea and I would be grateful if you could comment on it; A novel about a young student in Berlin in the 1920's, during the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi party. The novel examines how the Nazis gained votes, and also shows the relationship between the young student and his Jewish professor.
As Cogito would say, ideas mean squat. Execution is what matters. But it sounds interesting, though I think Nazi Germany / WW2 has been done to death.
Sounds like it could work. You'll need to do a lot of research to get the facts and feel of the setting right. I'm sure you will get lots of advice saying it is the writing that counts, not the idea. Ideas are pretty easy to come up with and no matter how good the idea it still takes a good writer to make a good story.
any idea, no matter how silly, can become a bestseller in the hands of a master wordsmith... and any idea, no matter how great, can totally bomb in the hands of a poor writer...
I think if its written well, and with substance, anyone interested in that subject may want to read it. Not mutating into a History Channel documentary would be a start. And I disagree the subject has been done to death. Most stories (romance/aliens/zombie) are just slight variations on previous novels/movies/ideas. Even Nazi Zombies has been done
He's referring more to the rise of the Nazi Party than Nazi Germany or World War II. I think it's a good idea. You are examining history from a different perspective than is normally investigated. You'd have to include the war with the Communists and The Left, along with the alleged Communists. Another interested aspect would be some of the propagandists from the Nazi party. Weirdos, big time.
It could be good. I read a story (fiction) once about a young girl and her family in pre-war Berlin. And it started out with a lot of the pre-election tension as the Nazis were hoping to take control. It ws handled well with people arguing that the Nazis would never win a majority. People didn't know what to expect. Then the Nazis took power and people thought maybe things might not be so bad. It was very interesting. That being said, I once read a book about a corporate suit with MPD who liked to beat he crap out of other guys in basements. It was amazing, you may have heard of it. like Mammamaia said, a good idea can go downhill fast in the hands of a crappy writer. But a good writer can make a seemingly bad idea work amazingly.
Putting the nazi (Or National Socialist German Worker's Party for full name) background into a novel is very intriguing. How much knowledge of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi's, and Hitler, do you know to pull it off? That's a tricky era of history where several complex factors came together, a lot of them being repeated in the USA right now sadly, to get the world to World War 2. Sounds interesting.
The question is: has someone written those stories competently, or historically accurate? My global studies class in college was in the History of Nazi Germany, and the time from WWI, through the Weimar Republic, into Nazi rule through the end of WW2 is a fascinating period of history. How a party in decline, which it was, managed to take over a country is something historians talk about a lot. For those who like to study history, I'd recommend studying that period for a bit. It's eye opening the combination of events, which merged like a perfect storm, into the darkest chapter of human history.
The novel is about the relationship between the Nazi MC and her Jewish professor. Nazis hate Jews on principle. BAM. Conflict right there, on a platter.
Certainly the potential is there to use that plot, and some element of it certainly factors in. However, that need not be the only conflict, or even the central one driving the story. It's good advice. Identify the conflicts, and add more to develop the plots.
I would say, speculation about why something happened in the past is useless without some commentary (direct or indirect) about something in the present or in the future. If you find out what that commentary is, I think you might have something worth looking at.
