Do You Think This Is A Good Story Idea?
Okay, I have a book (well, three), I’m not done yet, but it’s about high school kids, and basic high school life, but 1) The kids are genuises, and 2) some of the kids have powers. The first, and most complete is about 2 girls who become popular, and then are ditched, basically, and no one likes them. Then they meet these guys and make friends with them (They sit next to each other in alphabetical order, so…). There are alternating chapters between these four, and also three others, who go to another school (They’re not genuises.). One is super-popular, and the other two are, well not so much. One is mentally insane, but no one really knows, and the other, is well, just normal. The insane one is the second in command girl at the first school’s step-brother (No one really knows until the second book, though.) It gets complicated, though. I think it’ll either be a hit, or not, because some people who like magic books don’t like cliquey books, or romance(has that, a little). So…
What you have here is basically a lot of information about a lot of characters. There is no plot, no conflict, nothing – just characters. And there are too many of them even. You need to limit the number of characters you are focusing on because 1) it’s difficult to keep track and 2) it just complicates the story. Some of these characters need to be pushed to a back story or two.
But before anything else, you NEED a good outline that includes some serious plot and conflict/resolution.
All I see here is basically the Power Rangers go to school and one of them gets there via the short bus. Umm – I almost hate to ask, but what are these special powers and what do they use them for?
Also, right now I dont think it would be a good time for a mentally insane character but no one really knows about it. That’s a little too close to home after Va Tech.
Also – you would have to define mentally insane for me. A person could have a mental illness like ADD or BPD or OCD or something like that and not be “insane”. Insane is a pretty strong word and I think if you were truly “insane” most people would know about it. They sure as heck knew at Va Tech and Columbine but nobody did enough about it. You would have to do some heavy duty research on mental illness to write such a character. What I see of it now, you are cheating your readers with a catch – all diagnosis of mentally insane with no basis for it. That’s a literary cheat and most readers would nail you for it – if it even got past an editor which is highly unlikely. Any editor worth their red pen would slam you for it. Having a mother who is a psychiatric nurse is NOT the same as doing research
Sorry, it’s just not enough. You need to do a lot more than come up with cute names and decide who is popular and who isnt in order to write a book – much less THREE books. It just doesnt work. Pax – C.
Sounds interesting. There’s this site, http://www.elfwood.com that is great for getting critiques of your stories from other members. And they don’t even have to be complete stories, you can upload them a few chapters at a time. Membership is entirely free, too, you just have to pass an easy quiz about Elfwood rules and copyrights.
I say go for it. You have a great plan, go ahead and give it a shot. Good luck!