Hi everyone, I signed up here a few days ago to read some of the stuff other people are doing. Some really great work out there and it's been an interesting read. I'm quite a creative person but, being a graphic designer, I'm more about visual things than words. I recently had the idea to write a book after watching 'Goal' the movie. I thought it was a pretty good movie and it was great that someone tried making a serious movie about football but the 2nd and 3rd instalment of the films weren't as good. I want to write a novel similar to Goal but my own take on the 'rags to riches' story. I was hoping some of you guys would be able to give me advice on storyline, what narrative to use etc, it'd be great if you could! I'm not under any illusions that this is going to be in all the bookshops or anything like that, I just want to write something for myself that I can maybe get a few copies printed for friends and family. I know a lot of people that are big football fans that don't read but perhaps something like this will get them into reading more. So, I worked on a plot which spanned his entire career, but I'm not sure whether that's too much to write about, will it end up looking like a Forest Gump style epic? Here's the plot: Part 1 (Growing up) Lee Madison is the main character. His parents are fairly poor which means he only gets into playing football in his early teens, by that time all his school mates are playing for the local junior team. He gets a job at the local TV/Electric shop so he can get some money to buy some boots/a ball etc. The shop owner, Jimmy is from Liverpool and tells Lee lots of stories of how he used to play for Liverpool but Lee just thinks he's making them up to be entertaining. Lee is from Bolton but his dad didn't really get him into football as he once tried to be a professional when he was younger and he doesn't want Lee wasting his time, so Lee didn't really support a football team 'til he met Jimmy who got him into supporting Liverpool. Lee's not a very confident lad so he doesn't tell his mates how he's getting into playing football as he fears they'll laugh at his attempts so he resorts to playing with a tiny football in his house. When Lee tells Jimmy about how he wants to start playing football, Jimmy offers to help train him a few nights every week at the park. It's the summer holidays so Lee has quite a lot of spare time to practice and he progresses quite well. Jimmy says he should think about joining a team but Lee asks for 1 more week of training. Jimmy doesn't turn up one night and it turns out he had a heart attack earlier on in the day and died (he was rather big in the belly which was one of the reasons Lee didn't believe any of his stories about playing for Liverpool). Lee then gives up on football for a short period of time due to the loss of his mentor, but Jimmy's wife comes round to see him with a box full of Liverpool memorabilia to give to Lee, which includes pictures of Jimmy playing for Liverpool. This inspires Lee to join his local team. His lack of confidence leaves him very nervous in his first training session and he plays as badly as his friends expected. His best mate, Andy, isn't very supportive and the two fall out. Lee decides that the best thing to do would be to join a different local team where he won't be playing with people he knows. He joins another team and does really well in training and gets in the team. He meets a new friend there called Michael who helps him and is more supportive than Andy was at the other team. At school his rift with Andy means he doesn't want to sit with him at lunch which is how he meets Olivia, a new girl that's moved up from London, sat on her own. Lee helps Olivia fit in at the new school and the two form a close relationship. Back to the football, and after a few matches for his team, they come up against the team with all his mates in, including Andy. This time, Lee is determined to show them his skills and he thoroughly outplays Andy. It gets to the end of the season and his team don't manage to win the league but they do get into the final of the cup. They lose the match and Lee later finds out that there were several scouts there watching. He's devastated as he thinks he's blown his chance but he later gets a call from a scout (Justin Locke) offering him trials at Wigan along with Michael and Andy (and a few other's from the final). In the summer, Lee and his parents move to Manchester as his dad gets a job there. Lee doesn't get a chance to say bye to Olivia. During the Wigan trials, Andy's jealousy of Lee is clear and he puts in several bad tackles on Lee during the training sessions. Justin (the scout & reserve team manager) offers Lee and Michael professional contracts, but doesn't give one to Andy due to his occasional recklessness on the field. Lee & Michael play in the reserves and impress Justin enough for Justin to tell the Wigan manager (John Gavin) that it's worth giving them a try in the 1st team but John refuses saying they're too inexperienced. Lee decides to tell his father about how he's signed for Wigan, but it doesn't go down well and the two fall out at first. Lee decides to move out into his friend Michael's apartment. During the season, local millionaire Brian Western purchases the club and promises to plough money into Wigan in order to get them into the Premier League. This works well as John Gavin buys some foreign players and gets Wigan promoted into the 2nd division (2 leagues below the Premier League). But at the start of the next season, a poor start leaves Wigan Owner Brian impatient and he sacks John. Alan Mackie takes over and he's much more happy to play youngsters in the squad and he plays some of Justin's reserve players, including Lee and Michael, in the Auto Windscreens Trophy (a cup for teams below the first two tiers). They do well in that trophy and get to the final, so they go out to celebrate. They bump into Andy who reluctantly congratulates them and later on Lee meets a girl who he kisses only to find out it's Andy's rather frisky girlfriend and the pair have a brief fight which leaves Lee on the floor with a bust nose. Wigan boss Alan Mackie thinks its time to play the youngsters in a league game but the club owner Brian tells him not to, as he wants Alan to use the expensive foreign players that previous manager John Gavin bought. Before the final of the Auto Windscreens trophy, Brian tells Alan to play the experienced players as he wants to ensure they win the cup, to which Alan agrees, putting the likes of Lee and Michael on the substitutes bench. Lee's dad visits him at the ground before the match to apologise and tell him how he's been watching his progress. Lee informs him that he's not starting the game but his dad ensures him that he'll be needed. The experienced players do well and go 2-0 up early on, but start to get complacent and eventually the game goes to 2-2. Alan puts Lee & Michael on and they make an immediate difference, setting up several chances to score but the strikers don't score so the match end;s up going to a penalty shoot out. The Wigan players score all their penalties but so do the other team, and it goes into sudden death, with the other team missing their shot, meaning Wigan won. Lee and Michael celebrate on the pitch, and later Lee meets up with his dad again where he tells Lee of the time he had trials at Bolton. I wont post the next parts as it'll be too much for people to read but basically, the 2nd part has him playing against Andy again this time at professional level..and Lee gets wound up by him and ends up getting sent off. The manager loan's him out from Wigan to Carlisle as a bit of a punishment (his friend Michael gets loaned out to Everton). In Carlisle he meets a girl called Imogen so that's his 'love interest' in the 2nd part (Michael also meets someone in Liverpool. He plays really well for Carlisle and goes back to Wigan just in time to play in the 'play-off's' which they win meaning they get promoted into Division 1 (just below the Premier League). Part 3 starts with the Wigan manager being replaced by a recently retired Man Utd player, who was a great player but quickly shows he's not a great manager. He brings more foreign players over to Wigan with only one of them being half-decent (Lorenzo Bellucci). Lee's best friend Michael gets signed by Everton (after impressing them whilst on loan) so Lee's closest friend in this part is Lorenzo. He meets Lorenzo's sister (Antonia) who is a bit of an 'It' girl and has a thing for him (I introduce her into the story here but she pops up more later on). Team owner Brian Western's son gets preferential treatment and plays a lot of games even though he's not very good. The pressure to get results means Lee neglects a lot of the things in his personal life including his girlfriend Imogen and they end up splitting up which reminds Lee he has to spend more time with his family and friends. He goes to see Michael and discovers he is getting married to his girlfriend, Chloe, at the end of the season. The Wigan manager quits as the team are struggling and he doesn't want a relegation on his CV and the reserve manager (the one who spotted Lee in part one) takes over as boss. Justin helps turn around the teams fortunes along with some good performances from Lee (and dropping Brian's son from the taem) and they avoid relegation. Michael and Chloe get married with Lee being the best man, they attempt to invite Olivia (the girl from his school in part 1) but she doesn't live in Bolton any more and they can't track her down. Then, at the start of the new season, Wigan play a friendly game against Liverpool to show off their new stadium and it turns out, ex-Wigan manager Alan Mackie is the assistant manager at Liverpool. He puts in a good word to the Liverpool manager and they're impressed with his performance against them so they offer him a contract. Part 4 is about his time at Liverpool and it starts of with him moving in with Michael and Chloe temporarily..then I was thinking of having a storyline where Chloe has to confide in Lee about something regarding Michael..not sure what yet. Anyway, Lee works his way into the first team but after a night out he gets photographed at a party with girls and gets some negative press. To stay away from the press attention he moves back with his parents for a few weeks in Bolton and visits his old school only to find out that Olivia is now working there as a teacher (he couldn't contact her in part 3 because she was studying teaching down in London). Lee is now more confident and asks her out, she's a bit reluctant what with him being labelled a playboy, but she's happy to let him show her otherwise. Lee was dropped from the team after his drunken antics but his relationship with Olivia helps him get his form back and he eventually gets back into the first team to help Liverpool qualify for the UEFA cup (finishing 5th in the league). Then in part 6 I have him going on loan (again), this time to Fiorentina as Liverpool have a new manager, Raul Bellucci (father of Lorenzo, his friend at Wigan). I was thinking of having Raul make Lee house-sit for him in Raul's house in Fiorentina only for Lee to find out Raul's daughter (Antonia, the one that had a thing for him) staying there. Raul then tells him how he's got to look after her and take her out for a meal, leading to them getting their photo taken. Olivia gets shown a gossip mag by a colleague showing Lee having a meal with Antonia which causes a bit of a problem but I haven't filled in the gaps for that yet. So yeah, I was mainly wondering if I should bother fitting his whole career into a story and also whether to write it in 1st or 3rd person? Thanks for your time! Ric Edit : Added in a little more of the plot from the rest of the story..
I'm not much in to the sport anymore, but I did play for 7 years when I was younger. I personally think that what you have is pretty good. You could actually do this in either POV. Write a few scenes in each and find out which one works better for you. This is a decent concept, but it's all about how you write it. I'd actually give the end product a go if you ever decide to button down the hatches and finish it.
Start writing it you may decide to end it midway through or continue. There will always be a market for well written footie stories.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read through it and for the help. I started writing the story in 1st person but it didn't feel right. I think it's because I was writing as if he was looking back at his career and it didn't seem right going into loads of detail about things that he wouldn't really remember if he was telling the story. So I started again in 3rd person and it's coming out a bit easier now. cjs0216: I don't play much any more either but I played for a couple of teams when I was younger. I read a lot about Football and the culture that surrounds it so I'm hoping to involve bits into my book that have happened in real life like how the media plays a big part in how a player is perceived. I was thinking of having the main character get mis-quoted in a newspaper, or maybe he could fall for a 'kiss and tell' girl? I also thought about his rival Andy and how there could be a point where they don't shake hands before a game (players from both teams usually shake each others hands before the game) like in real life with the whole John Terry and Wayne Bridge saga.
those are all decisions you must make on your own... i suggest you go to the library and take out a few of the best books that are similar to what you want to write and see how they've been done... that should help to figure out what will work best for you...
Yeah that's a good idea. I looked on Amazon and found one called Striker which seems similar to what I'm writing about. Then there are the more popular ones like The Damned United and Fever Pitch, not the same as what I'm writing about but both Football themed so there will be something in them hopefully. I'm thinking of asking for a couple of them for Christmas Cheers, Ric
