I've been toying with the following idea for a novel for a while now, and decided it's time to introduce some broader opinions to strengthen the concept. Please note the following plan is very much a work in progress, and still needs much more development before committing to it. My plan is as follows: Concept The novel would be written from various perspectives (mother, father, daughter, friends of family), and explore the impacts of various events on each person. Characters • Mother o Cheating o Successful? o No remorse o Reaction to rebellion? o • Father o Hard working o Loyal o Rebellion o • Teenage Girl o Starting to see boys o Experimentation (alcohol) o • Outside party - Family friends? o Perspective of family o Friends to both mother and father – impact? o Events 1. Intro cheating mother 2. Intro hard working, tolerant father 3. Intro teenage daughter 4. Events a. Distancing of mother – impact on father b. Success and growing and ongoing adultery – impact on mother c. Changing feelings and experimentation – impact on daughter, and parents (both on themselves, and between each other)
A story concept means nothing. I can tell you now, it has been done before. What matters is how you write it, the characterization, the flow, the imagery, all of it. There's no point to asking what other people think of the concept! They'll either say,"Sounds great," or, "it sounds like a ripoff of..." If the idea stirs you, write it. Then ask people what they think of the final story. After they tell you what they don't like about it, revise it, usually several times, until you're happy with it or until you throw up your hands and say the hell with it. Please read this thread about What is Plot Creation and Development? (and yes, this is a template post, which should give you an idea of how often this comes up.)
Thanks for highlighting this, however, I feel the need to defend my initial post. Although I see your point, and completely agree with it in principle, the purpose of my post was not receive cliched "OMG that's a great idea LOL" replies in response to the higher level concept. You'll notice I made brief mention of impacts on characters; direct reflections of plot events. I feel this would fall loosely under the column heading of plot development, and it was this purpose my post originated. I don't mean to mock your comments, nor insult yourself or the forum; more so, my aim was to expand on the original aim of my post.
However, you really didn't provide anything to work with. The link I placed near the bottom points to a thread which may help, but unless you have a specific question or problem in developing the plot, I don't see how anyone can give a meaningful response. Is there something specific you want us to help with? I'm not trying to silence you, but reather get you to think about what it is you're looking for.
I do believe Cogito is exactly right. No matter how you outline the book the story has been done before. Until you bring yourself to it and then it becomes something new. The thing you might fear is that it might turn out badly, or might not turn out at all. Both options are incredibly possible, but that is what practice is for.
all i can do is echo that!... they're right... there's nothing there for us to comment on... it's as if you posted the alphabet and asked us what we think of it... it's just an alphabet... a series of letters that don't mean anything at all, till you put them together in words and then sentences, paragraphs, pages, completed works of one kind or another... and only after you do that, can we give you an opinion on the result... do you get it now?...
