I've started writing a book and have some ideas in mind, but I'm having a hard time piecing things together. I've always written fanfiction, so my stories were based off of already written plots and already developed characters that I simply elaborated on. I'm finding it quite exciting to sit down and create something entirely from scratch, however I've recently hit a few road blocks. My idea is loosely this: An average girl in her senior year of high school has a strange gift for drawing and seems to see things others can't. She doesn't live with her birth parents and was adopted by them when she was an infant and her birth parents are a mystery. After an argument with a teacher, she storms out of the school and walks toward town. After seeing something strange following her, she runs in panic to a store and, once there, sit's to catch her breath. Soon, a man is seen walking towards her across the street. He is tall and and unruly in appearance and is trailed by a large black dog. He catches up with her and they have some sort of argument. She escapes him, though he is very insistent that she come and talk with him. She works a part time job (haven't decided what yet) and he shows up one night during one of her shifts. Again, he tries to persuade her to talk to him and she finally agrees. They meet up (not sure where) and he knocks her unconscious. She wakes up to find herself inside a treehouse-like cottage, alone except for the giant dog in the room with her. She tries to leave but the dog wont let her, blah blah he's magical and she's in some sort of magical world. I had this idea that the land is ruled by a king or queen. I was playing with the idea that there was a king before who died and the lead male, who I've half-heartedly named Deszo, was his right-hand wizard/knight/thing.. WELL the king and queen had a daughter but shortly after the birth of the child, the queen went mad. The fae in this land are given immense powers. However, without training, their body can only withstand so much magic. If the body isn't trained and the wielder cannot control the magic, it begins to consume them. The queen tried to perform some sort of spell that backfired and she became insane and withered. The king was then left to rule by himself. The only heir was the daughter, and after that, a niece. The niece was power hungry and killed the king and got rid of the daughter in order to rule. Deszo caught onto her plan and tried to stop her, but she pinned the murder and disappearance on him and banished him. He was known as the most powerful wizard in the land, but is now seen as a murderer, a joke. He lives just outside the kingdom, in a thick wood and after his banishment, he performed a taboo ritual - selling his soul to a demon in order to be able to harness its power, thus making him stronger. He goes in search of the girl and finds her in the human world, living with a family. This is where I've gotten, but obviously it needs work and I have no idea where to it should go!
Looks like a fairly well developed plot to me! Are you having a more specific problem? It'd probably help us help you. For instance, are you stuck on developing the story past a certain point? Are you struggling on ways to cover a plot-hole? Are you struggling to get character X to location Y so that a certain event can happen? Are you stuck on explaining a certain phenomenon in your novel? Let us know and hopefully we can help you better!
Well, it sounds like the ultimate goal is to run off (or dispatch) the mad niece-queen and put your main girl, the rightful heir to the throne, back in power as well as cleanse the name of the wizard and put him back in his place, too. If that is so, there's got to be plenty of teaching involved in preparation for this. There might be an adventure to gather allies and/or magical artifacts to help. They might try to turn the people against the false queen by advertising that the rightful heir has returned but this would alert the false queen to her presence and a witch hunt would ensue. It's not covert but if the masses rise up against her there's little she can do. There's also going to have to be a point when your main girl decides whether she's going to become queen or going to go home. This is a heavy decision. There's a lot of glamor involved in being a queen but there's also so much work involved. There are plenty of ways to go from where you're at. Just focus on that point between your girl showing up and how she regains the throne (if that's actually the route you're going to take of course). There are, of course, a number of other ways to approach this. Maybe your girl helps her cousin or tries to make her a better person so she can continue ruling as a good queen. She could overthrow the false queen and teach these people democracy (or some other governmental form). There could be an episode where she demands to go home, is able to, and later has second-thoughts and seeks out her home. There could be another heir hidden away somewhere or your girl could find someone she feels is more worthy of the throne than herself or the false queen and then puts this individual in place once the false queen is dethroned. The possibilities are literally endless! There are a few problems (ones I would consider serious) that I see in what you've written so far. I can list them out, as well as possible solutions, if you're interested. If not, then that's fine.
Do you have an idea regarding the ultimate ending of the story? It seems like you've already got a pretty good handle on things, at least as far as the beginning's concerned. What does your MC want? Does she want to take her rightful place on the throne, or just meet her biological family? Or is she more interested in just getting back home? Figure out what it is she wants and then set obstacles in her way. That's where the story will happen. And remember, what we want m may not be what we need, and our ultimate goals often change.
This is all setup, which is an excellent place to be stuck. You're probably stuck because you have so many places this could go, and the number of choices is making it hard to pick one. I think Heal41hp already hit on what your basic end point probably is--put the girl in her rightful place as queen and clear Deszo's name. As for a middle, I was wondering: is the girl fae? If so, she's probably going to have some issues with magic shortly after Deszo kidnaps her. She grew up untrained, so she should have trouble controlling her magic, right? Which would put her at risk of the same fate as the withered queen? That's a plotline right there, which could easily put you in the end place you appear to be trying to go. If that's not the kind of main plotline you want, keep it in mind as subplot. If you leave it out, it'll become a huge plot hole (unless the girl isn't fae, in which case ignore me). What I like to do when I hit this point is, make a list of all the possible places you could go with this, and how you can get there. Just a few sentences for each plotline. Then I pick the one or two that got me the most excited. It'll get you going even if you don't use that plotline in the end.
Forgive me, but at the risk of sounding rude, it smells a lot like the chicken sandwich version of the Harey potter burger. If that is the road you want to go down, there have been many to successfully do so. forgive me for saying as well,I think your story needs a wider scope. otherwise you may just write another fairy-tale. I am NOT saying your Idea is bad. its just that the more your type of story is done, the more epic your writing AND storytelling needs to be.
