Hi I am very new to this as I just registered this very hour. I hope my thread is int he right place and done correctly. If not please feel free to tell me, I am here to learn and to become part of the community. I have been working on this very story ever since I 7 years old and since then everything has changed. What started out as a pirate story ended up being the story of a terror organization trying to take over the world, to eventually become a space opera. The plot for this story is finally finished as I am now 19 years old and I have come up with material for about 16 books. The only issue is that the only thing I have managed to accomplish of this is the skeleton and I am vaguely trying to add flesh to it by making up ideas and writing dialogue and character creation and what not. The point of this post, is to get a bit of help with filling up ideas to put in my pilot. To give some background, out in the super cluster of galaxies there is a war waging for conquest. This war eventually leads to Earth as an alien race swiftly conquers Earth. Eventually this group of advanced planets who never participated in the war decided it needs to end, it does and Earth is liberated after about 20 years. A few years after that, nation states and geopolitical blocks have once again been created in the vague memory of those who existed in the "post-contact era", however Anarchy still rules in some parts of the world and crime is at an all time high for Earth. Now that is the background for the story. The pilot is essentially about this Mafia in Eastern Europe that is trying to counterfeit worth trillions of European bills by stealing the right paper and the right plates etc to make them. This of course does not go unnoticed and the European secret service tries to figure out what is going on with the help of the North American secret service. The two agencies eventually corner the mafia responsible and just as they are about to catch the big Don he commits a dramatic suicide. The agencies are shocked and think it absurd that the top dog of the Eastern European underground would do something like that just before capture. They get a lead that the mafia was working for the secret crime syndicate that rules Earths entire underworld, Garnia. Now that is pretty much the plot of that pilot book, it ends with the agencies getting the lead and then in the sequel they learn more about Garnia and what exactly they are up to, which of course is world domination. I was always very inspired by the term that if crime was a country then it would be the 4th richest in the world or something like that, well that "country" or entity at least, is Garnia in this case. There are many attempts to conquer the world later on but I am starting out with simple counterfeit of money by an organization connected to "the big bad". Now I do not know how to make that subplot interesting, I am thinking of fighting with police, bank robberies, car chases etc but other than that I dont really know.
I think the first thing that may be leading to your frustration is your aim to make it such a super interesting super awesome book. I'm not saying that it can't be (I mean, from the plot you gave I know a lot of people who would want to pick that book up and read it, myself included). I'm just saying that trying to write something after building up that much hype for yourself is nearly impossible! Let yourself have a first draft. And a second, and a third, before you start being too nit picky. I'm finally allowing myself to work on a novel (my third) after years of just writing a few poems and short stories (double major with two minors is a real time suck). It SUCKS. I'd be really really embarrassed if someone were to read it right now. My time-line is ever changing as I think of new ideas, my POV has changed three times, and I have very little dialogue because I am so worried about "telling" the story to get it out there, that "showing" the story has taken a bit of a back seat. And I know that a lot of other writers plan a lot and are probably cringing that I'm not fixing all of these things that I know are wrong NOW, but I need to suck first. I need to make the model of the bridge out of q-tips and not to scale before I can move onto craft sticks and blue prints. Maybe you do, too? So, in summary from my slightly-off topic response is just sit at your desk and start writing or typing. You're not going to get to go in a fix your story until you sit and write it. Also, I know how emotionally attached people can feel towards names (and this might just be my weird mind), but I'd look into finding a new name at some point along the drafts. I can't read Garnia without thinking about Narnia and it's a bit distracting.
Garnia is a strange name. If they are from eastern europe why don't you have some slavic name? Also, how did this criminal organization escape notice all this time when this organization isn't air tight. (This counterfeiting operation needs a reason to be the first one to go south.)
Don't get ahead of yourself. You're already planning 16 books and you haven't even started the first one. One step at a time
Hi. Well just to explain, the person behind the organization the "big bad" is from Spain. Those who are Eastern European are merely the mafia that is working under Garnia. Garnia itself is global and they have the Chinese Triads, the Yakuza, the Mexican cartels, the Russian government and many more on their pay-list. The thing about the pilot book us just a way to introduce people to this strange world and I thought that a subplot about a counterfeit operation by the Eastern European mafia would be a good way to do that. The thing about the organization is that it has because of its influence, been able to keep its existence a secret, but it is right after the end of this book that word about them reaches the authorities and that is sort of what leads to the sequel. What I am just wondering about now is what makes up an interesting heist/counterfeit secret agents vs mafia kind of story and maybe what sort of elements and ideas i can put in.
Also you and blenderpie are exactly right. I have many plans for this and I might have gotten myself hyped, I know it sounds stupid but I am serious when I say that I have been working on this since i was a kid, so I guess waiting so many years to gain the maturity and ability to actually start putting these ideas to life makes me very hyped. But starting the first one and taking the first step is exactly what this is supposed to be, making a pilot book and thereby slowly start developing my story and moving on with is what I want, but like many people I find the first step difficult especially in my case where the pilot book doesnt have much to do with the main plot. That is why I am asking for ideas.
It doesn't sound stupid to me. I've had a story simmering in my mind awhile as well. I would avoid creating an entire book just to introduce your main plot. If you write it well, the reader will simply accept strangeness and become immersed. Research Magical Realism and Versimilitude. Not to say this counterfeit idea is bad, but if you don't know what happens in it, prehaps it only needs to be a chapter. The big question, bigger than the plotting, is you characters. Who are they? A great story won't engage people if its filled with hollow characters. (A problem I've been wrestling with myself.)
It's not stupid. I wrote my first novel at 15. And trust me, it should never be seen by anyone! But, I'm glad that I did it because now anytime writing seems like an impossible task, I know it's not because I've already completed something. Instead of being afraid that you aren't whatever enough, try to push the thought away because it will only hinder you. So, my suggestion is to start writing this. And, if at the end, you think it deserves a drawer rather than an agent, just know that you needed to write it to discover what did and did not work well. Then, on your second try, you come at the plot with more experience and more of a chance for success. Remember that no novel was written in a first draft.
Thank you very much for the nice words and support. Also Mithrandir, maybe you are right. I guess introducing the main plot that late is a bit risky. Regarding characters I definitely got something to work on regarding the protagonists as I have spend by far most time on defining the villains and the antagonists. Also to blenderpie, I sort of made my first "novel" of this in 2005. Other than it being short and poorly written beyond belief, it was a treatment of what I want to be the plot of the book that comes after this one. So that is why I feel like being at a dead end. Now are there anyone who knows any material that would be a good thing for me to digest upon writing this? Any good heist movies or counterfeit movies that you thought were cool or anything in the likes of that? I do not, repeat, do NOT want to be a person who ribs off and who doesn't care about making his own original content, the only thing I wish for is inspiration.
Flawless (2007) a is heist movie that I enjoyed, but a simple google search should produce a plethora of movies and books of that genre.
Thank you. I am currently looking at a few movies that could be good examples. I don't seem to be able to find nearly as many movies as I hoped but every step along the way helps. The amount of friends that I have that are interested in stuff like this is very limited so being part of this community is something I feel has been a good decision. So again, thank you very much for listening.
