What do you want in a story? (Teens)
- Thread starter Jack®
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I woudl like something exactly like Twilight only.... well... DIFFERENT. Like it would be cool if like, say, instead of a vampire they were like some sort of greek mythological thing which sucked the energy out of you.
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Seriously, though, get thee to a bookstore.
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Seriously, though, get thee to a bookstore.
I want...a good story, with characters I love, and a plot that's so awesome I can't put the book down. 
Um. To be a bit more helpful, I'll tell you what I definitely DON'T want to EVER see, and that is: no preaching, no shoving of life lessons down throats, and no denial of the fact that teens drink, swear, and have sex. If it's not in the book, okay, but I don't want to hear the 18 year-old thug character say, "Gosh darn it, I stubbed my toe." At least, not without a good reason.
You know what I mean?
Um. To be a bit more helpful, I'll tell you what I definitely DON'T want to EVER see, and that is: no preaching, no shoving of life lessons down throats, and no denial of the fact that teens drink, swear, and have sex. If it's not in the book, okay, but I don't want to hear the 18 year-old thug character say, "Gosh darn it, I stubbed my toe." At least, not without a good reason.
You know what I mean?
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i think a lot of people only read twilight for edward, it was like a perfect fantasy for peoplemaybe? teen girls? but what like would be, a book that really shows what youth are, have different orginal charecters, parties, and good all female rivals, they are awesome, (memoies of a geisha, Hutsumomo vs saiyuri) ( Blair vs serena) evry teen book should have it
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I found Twilight was a lot like eating Funyuns. I mean, they're horrible, but everytime you finish one, you've got to eat another just to make sure that you tasted what you thought you tasted.
ok i got a story line which the author Joe Craig gave me when he came to our school. An average 13 year old boy's life, he goes school, maybe does a paper round but then they have an assembly which changed his life. Some men come into the hall and start spraying bullet's everywhere, he lays on the floor pretending to be dead, he looks to the side of him and his best mate and sister are dead, so he wants revenge. That's all im saying so far lol tell me if you like that plot.
Well ... that's not really a plot. It's an establishing scene. For a plot, you need to string together a series of events that gets the boy from that scenario to a final scene that gives a resolution to the storyline.
To do that, you need to know certain information - why are the men attacking the assembly - are they looking to kill someone in particular or is it a random terrorist attack. How does a 13 year old boy set about going to get revenge? How does he track them down? What form is his revenge going to take? Does anyone help him in his plan or is he working alone? Where is the story set - the UK or the US or somewhere else? Is it a fantasy or something set in the conventional world.
At the moment, you haven't given us enough information to go on to make a decision.
MM
The whole point was not to tell you much information, it is only to see if you like the basic plot i was going to use.
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I like a good story of revenge. Something I'm noticing in my own writing is that one of the themes is revenge. How a person comes to desire it and the lengths they will go to get it. And the effect it has on people.
One thing I personally love in a story is seeing how people react to situations. We'll take the above scenario. I don't care how the boy reacts to the situation, but it better be human. Does he think twice about killing the people that killed his friends and family? If he does, why? If he doesn't, why?
I want to see how people are affected by their decisions and not only that, but how they came to those decisions. If the boy decided to kill not only the killers but their family, what was the rationale behind it? What was going through his mind?
Stuff like that :-D
I want a story that shows a lot of emotion and the characters seem real. The plot has to be interesting and there has to be some romance in there. Also, put some action in there. Don't always have that light hearted stuff, there has to be things going on. Otherwise the story is just boring, and nobody wants to read a boring story!
Right, but like I said, you haven't given us a plot, you've given us a set-up. As a set-up, a revenge-based story is fine but like Elidibus said, the rationale that drives your main character is going to be very important.
Unless you're willing to give more information, it's going to be difficult to give you more detailed feedback.
MM
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I like stories to be somewhat relatable, even fantasy or sci-fi. The characters should be believable to a degree. Also, it's always nice when a character solves their own problems instead of having 'the hand of god' zap the conflict away.
I really, really love a good plot. Fantasy and Sci-fi are the best, except for, of course, great mysteries, etc. I love books where the MCs are (for me) strong, independant girls. Spying is great too. I don't like vampire stories anymore (the plot is way overused, and when you start adding angels and demons I just lose it). If there's romance, I really like a plot where the MC falls for the bad guy.
But I love a good mix of mystery and humour.
But I love a good mix of mystery and humour.
Boring, flat characters will make me put a book down really fast. So I suppose that's what I want most out of a book (any book I read, not just YA) -- great characters.
This made me lol. I completely agree.
I write for adults, and don't read YA, so I don't think my opinion really counts, but I like things that are original. Or as original as you can get, since pretty much everything has been done already.
But please, please don't do vampires/angels/girl next door/the rich guy falls for the poor girl/magical powers that help the MC save the world/etc.
And I abhor novels with bad dialogue. It's a cardinal sin in my world.
And interesting characters, that you actually care about, instead of wishing they would get hit by a bus or struck by lightning or devoured by wild boars within the next couple of pages.
And I'll shut up now.
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CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Please. I like characters who I care about and who I can sympathize with. Not empty shells.
Honestly, I value characters more than anything when I read. But maybe that's just me....
Honestly, I value characters more than anything when I read. But maybe that's just me....
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