As of today, I have a small, hardly acceptable, sad excuse for a written plot, but I think the general idea might get me somewhere. It's about a teenage girl and a teenage guy, of course. The guy doesn't talk to people very often because he is trying to hide the fact that he can see glimpses of a person's future if he interacts with him/her too much. If he keeps to himself, he lives a pretty normal life. Because of a bad experience at school, his family decides to move to a new town. The story is in the point of view of the girl, whom he meets in school at the new town. The girl is well-liked (although she is best friends with a royal bitch who thinks she owns the place), and she is very friendly. (The bitch is used as the foil character in the story.) Anyway, the girl tries to befriend the boy, but of course he shuns her as he starts to see pieces of her future. Over time, this boy seems to despise her, even though she doesn't talk to him anymore. He's frustrated because he keeps seeing things, even though he doesn't interact with her. Finally they are forced to interact through a school project or something, and they fight because she feels he has no reason to be mad at her, and he can't tell her why he's mad. As they continue their project, he realizes that his visions of her are becoming more voluntary. If he tries, he can see things, but as he spends more time with her, the involuntary visions become fewer and fewer. They eventually become friends, then slowly more than friends, and the aforementioned bitch gets jealous and tries to drive them apart (not in a soap opera way though, where each of them believes everything they hear from the bitch). Is this too dramatic, unrealistic, or dare I say too overdone? This is just half of the plot, but I don't know what to add next.
It seems stereotypical, but how it's written would be the largest factor. I don't know if it's too generic or not... Regardless of my opinion though, if you like the idea, write it.
It has been done a lot - but you know what I like cheesy. I love it when the characters are likeable - I love it when the good guys win. And I like your blurb enough to at least get it out of the library.
I don't want it to be like one of those Twilight rip-offs. If you go into a bookstore nowadays, there's a whole section dedicated to Romantic Teenage Fantasy. The problem is that my plot would probably fit perfectly into that category. Any way I can add to or change it to make it not so stereotypical?
Find a good strong narrative tone that works - decide if first person would work better or third, what tense to use. Maybe a colloquial tone to it. Remember your characters are human, give them touches of humanity. Let them tell you the story - if they want to try something you didn't expect find out whether or not it works. Teen Romance has always been there right from when I was one. And if someone offers you a cheque as big as Stephanie Meyer's don't turn it down lol If you want to discuss plot and characters feel free to leave a message on my profile.
I have to admit, I do like Twilight, but now that everyone and their mothers have written similar books, that phase is probably about to pass. In the second half of the plot I want it to steer away from following in Twilight's footsteps, where the boy has to use his knowledge of the girl's future to save her life or something. I know they have to use that information somehow to create conflict (since the story isn't really about the girl and her best friend having drama, I need to add a bigger conflict). Maybe he finds a way to let her see what he sees, too?
I would find ways to make it seem less like he is stalking her - have them be great friends have fun together be more equal. I have never read Twilight but would pick up a book that has a healthy, fun relationship in it.
"...I don't want it to be like one of those Twilight rip-offs...." Why not? Just write it and do the best you can. If you do a bang-up job, you could overshadow all them and end up with the masses saying "**** is so great and original", while young writers will say "I don't want to write a **** rip-off." Meanwhile, the more snobish will say "What you don't realize is that he's basically copying an earlier series called 'Twilight'." Most "inovative" pop writers started out sounding a lot like the popular fiction of their day. So, just write in a style that feels comfortable to you. -Frank
I guess I have to start somewhere; I doubt even the best writers of the century didn't pop out an all-original best seller their first time.
