Hey, Ya'll. Glad You Took The Time To Click Onto This Thread. I'm A 14 Year-Old Kid, But Have Decided To Just Jump Right Into Novel Writing (Or Whatever It Is Properly Called). A Huge Task For A Small Kid, Yes? My Friend Suggested It A Few Days Ago Because I Complained Of Boredom. I Need Help With A Plot, I Already Have The Very Basic Out Line Of A Plot, But I Need Some Detail, Flavour And Color. The Pull Factor. I'm Going For The Cliche And Overused Hero-Archetype? (Not Sure If It Is A Hero-Archetype, My Friend Said It Was.) Like, Some Magical World Is At War With Some Evil King, Blah Blah, Then In Desperation, The Good Guys Summon Some Kid (18Years-Old) From Our Normal World, The Boy Is Supposedly Gifted In Magic, Blah Blah Blah He Is Trained, Taught About The Magical World, etc. They Go Out And Kill The Baddies, The End. I Don't Want To Be So Monotonous And Just Do That. I Want Something Else To Work With The Hero-Archetype, So That It'll Be More Interesting, Fillers Work Too.. I've Only Written A Prologue, And 3 Chapters So Far. Any Help Would Be Appreciated, Thanks.
Well, could you please have a look at how you post. Only the first word of a sentence needs a capital. Just for next time, okay? For the plot question, work out what the important events in the story are, and how they ineract with each other. Once you have an idea of how they work together and what order things happen. If anything, work on building up something a little different just from a different standard person goes to different world because of a prophecy. I'd look at an ancient transporting into this person, I'd look at the tone of story you want. Writing a story is a big job, for a person of any age.
Okay. There's nothing wrong with your basic story idea at all. Even if it does seem hackneyed, the truth is that there are only about seven types of story in the world, and the difference comes in how those stories are told. The story itself can be simple, such as: two men are rivals for the same girl, or, a person wants to find a piece of treasure, whatever. The trick is in how the two are rivals, and what will they do? or how the person searches for the treasure, and what is going to prevent him from doing that? That means you need conflict and obstacles in the way. These can be physical conflicts or obstacles, or they can be psychological ones. So, the treasure could be up an inaccessible mountain, or the treasure might be just across the street, but main character might be afraid to go outside. What this also means, is that your characters should have to change and develop in order to progress the story along. So in your case, the person who is brought to their world from Earth to help them fight, might have the potential to use their powers, but he might also be a complete coward. Or he might be a criminal, who only cares about himself and doesn't see why he should have to help them. Once you know that these are the things you have to come up with, your story should develop from being a simple tale, into something with an intriguing plot. There's a famous quote about doing all this by the way: 'chase your character up a tree, and then throw rocks at them' Al
The thing your friend's talking about with the hero archetype refers to the hero quest, which is more or less the basic standard for how a hero will go about his saving the world. Let's talk star wars, because it's a really easy hero quest. Luke Skywalker is a farm boy. He is called to arms from a random circumstance (the robots landing on his planet) and somewhat via coincidence (he should chance to buy the robots meant for his late father's former trainer). He initially refuses the call. Circumstances change (his aunt and uncle die) and he accepts the quest. Along the way he battles lots of stormtroopers. Eventually he reconciles with his father, Darth Vader. He brings peace to the world, fulfilling the prophecy that the last jedi would. Or whatever. To be honest, I don't like star wars that much. But it's exactly like any other hero quest. Here's a diagram:
Wow, both extremely helpful. I don't like Star Wars either. xD Hmm.. If I've decided some complicated "Physics" of this magical world, does it make it more interesting or does it make readers more confused and likely to stop reading? Is it okay to let the beginning be him learning nothing special about the world. Like, first, he socializes with some people and is told about his teacher or master, then only towards the mid-beginning, taught about this magic? Or should I dive straight to magic?
Your story, your ideas, not ours. As I see it, accidentally having him arrive in this other world is a much better start, as you can pull readers in, and not only that, your main character is trying to learn/work out how to get back home. As for the magic thing.... I suppose you could have him arrive in the world, and have people basically scream 'mage' or 'wizard' and get their pitchforks and torches ready. Somehow get him out of that situation, and in touch with a 'proper' wizard, and start his education that way. Perhaps even have him summoned against his will into the other world.
The complicated physics in your idea (regardless of what they are) is one of the things which makes your story different, so you should definitely not trash that unless you get a better idea. 'A man, summoned to save a world', is a story, but, 'A man summoned to a new land, who has to overcome strange and confusing rules of physics in order to save a world.' Now that's a story with an interesting plot. With regard to either diving straight in, or covering his first interactions with the people who are new to him., that's really up to you, and it depends on what your character's development might be to some extent. For example, you've probably seen the comedy horror movie Army of Darkness (the third of the Evil Dead series of spoof horror movies). The 'hero', Ash, is primarily concerned with himself, and generally speaking he is a miserably self-centred person, but is capable of rising to a challenge if he can see some benefit in that challenge for himself. Because of that, and the comedy value it offers, it is worth the movie concentrating on his initial interactions with the people he is summoned to help. But if he were a regulation lantern-jawed cardboard cut-out hero, such as Conan the Barbarian, then cutting to the chase might have more justification, since we know he will kick ass without any prompting, and there'd be little point in dragging things out. Al
Not really, the first Vlad Taltos book I read, by Stephen Brust I believe started with the follow lines. It was Dragon from memory. 'Memory is like a whatcimacallit. No ****, there I was.' No set up, nothing, straight into the story, with the characters comments about how no self respecting assassin should be in a battle. It worked, and you don't have to open any story in a particular way, each story has it's own beginning, you just need to find the words to get the most effect. One of mine starts with a person attacking a hidden pirate base, on an isolated planet in the far future, another is a nightmare of a person flying towards a city which a cerberus has decided to move in on, while another is the thoughts and regrets of an old soldier, wishing for one last time to see the Earth he knows, not the Earth that exists. They work for the stories so far, and they seem to be good points to bring people in.
