Young Writers Society

I came up with this story when I was very young, which could explain my problems. I've edited things out and changed a lot of things. It is called "The Elements". Here is my current, hopefully uncliched plot:

6 children, all 13, enter a tournament to be trained in an extremely good school for the planet's army. The planet is mostly acid wasteland, with a small area that is habitable: a lake with an island in it. The clouds are also sturdy enough to build homes on. The main characters are all fraternal twins:2 from the Nuvalose(Cloud area), 2 from Terrmasse(Island), and 2 from the Ghiac Lake(habitable by certain people). People from the Nuvalose have powers of either wind or electricity. People from Terrmasse have the powers of earth(plants only) or fire. People from the Ghiac lake have either the power of ice or the power of water. Each of thees kids has a different element. They enter the forest of champions, and the first 96 competitors in the tournament will go on. They meet each other there, then manage to all continue. They all end up in the same team, and win the tournament. They are then suddenly teleported to the sacred temple of the six gods who created their planet. They approach their statues, revealing that the statues were the gods themselves, simply disguised. The gods explain that they are trapped in the temple and that they must free them from their bonds. The group refuses, thinking that there are better warriors on the planet. The following night, Negram, the books villain, kills everybody on the planet except the six children. The Gods come to them in spirit, and tell them, once again, to go and defeat him, saying that they could eventually save their deceased friends. They go to another planet, and there embark on a huge adventure where they eventually defeat Negram, but discover they must go to the spirit world and defeat him again, which leads into the next two books in the trilogy.

YES, IT IS!

Nah, just kidding. It sounds too interesting to be cliched.

Are you writing this? I hope you are...

Definitely not cliched. It sounds pretty original. ^_^ Best of luck.

I don't even need to read the whole thing to say that it is somewhat a cliche.

1. Kids with different element. Power Rangers, Captain Planet, Sailor Moon, W.I.T.CH etc etc much?

2. Isn't it quite likely in both literature and media that if a band of teens enter some sort of tournament that one of them would at least win? I think it's quite predictable.

PSH! Mythology also had young people who represented a different element, and nobody says that's bad. XD

I'd read it...*scuffs foot*

I'd like to see it!

I'll think over the tournament thing, but the different elements thing would be hard to change. I'll figure something out. Maybe I could have them teleported in the midst of the last battle so they don't technically win. That might work. Anyway, I'm currently debating something. I'm thinking about turning this into either 3 books or 8. Here's how it works:

First book is what I said before.

Last book is where they access the spirit world and defeat Negram once again in his now more powerful form.

Then there's the books in the middle. Here's the idea:

In the 8 book series idea, there are 6 books in the middle. In each one, they find the a sigel representing each element. Together, these sigels give them access to the spirit world.
(Sigels could be changed to amulets or another small item)

In the 3 book series idea, the book in the middle is where they obtain a gem that seems to be made of pure light. It gives them access to the spirit world, ect.

Obviously there would be conflict in getting the items. Here are the pros and cons I've come up with:

3 books

Keeps the series interesting.
Prevents plot from getting too repetitive

Never allows me to really focus on a single character
I need to balance them out and such

8 books

Like the idea
Allows me to focus on each character

Could result in repetitive plot
Could become uninteresting after the first couple books


What's your opinion?

At first, I read the made-up names and the word 'elements' sent the cliche alarm bells ringing in my head but at a closer look I reckon it sounds pretty interesting.
That does mean that you have to scrap all your ideas because you don't, a good tip would be to make the whole elements thing more subtle, after all, people say there's only a certain amount of stories in the world so we're all taking stuff from somewhere.
Its about putting your own spin on things and painting your story in your own unique blend of colours.
Good luck to you and keep writing.

There are a couple of cliched elements, but you've combined them well with each other (and the non-cliched parts) so that as a whole the story feels origional. So yeah, no problems here.

As was mentioned above, you do have a couple cliche elements, but you combine them into something original and that's really what's important because these days almost everything has been done.

As for the number of books...8?? It really depends. Repetitive plot is a bad idea, especially with so many books. Have you ever read any of the series by Tamora Pierce? her Total series is divided into sets of 4, each set centering around a specific character. In each one, the main character is a young woman finding her way in a man's world. Repetitive, yes. Boring, no. On the other hand, I couldn't stand her circle of magic series: It had the same 4 characters, and she spent time focusing on the story of each character.

Personally....I'd say don't do it. Stick to three. If the plot would have been different and captivating each novel, then you'd be okay. But if it's going to be repetitive (and I suspect it would, since they're all twins, all have powers, etc etc), then you might lose your readers interest.

On the other hand, I personally feel that books are about characters and not about conflict. So if your characters are all very interesting, dynamic and lovable, then people might not mind reading more about them. In such a case you could get away with a repetitive theme (their pasts).

But repetitive plot is a definite no.

It's possible to balance out so many character in just three books, but it would definitely be hard to go in depth on each of them. Have you considered the groups splitting up to go after these gems?

Also, you don't necessarily have to dedicate a single book to a single character, since they're groups of twins, you could share a book between a set fo twins, since twins are kind of inseparable any-ways.

Well, 2 of the sets are inseparable. The other one...not so much.

I wasn't stating that the plots would be repetitive, I was saying that it would be easy to do that.

I'm trying to keep the plots very distinct, and I think I might be able to pull of 8 books. But if I get clueless for one, I'll just go with 3. Thanks for the help, guys.

The 6 books in the middle don't focus on their pasts a lot. Rather, the character has a dominant role in the plot.

The only couple of issues I would have would be the fact that all the kids are thirteen (which is kind of unrealistic, unless you have a very good reason for it. Obviously, the twins are going to be the same age, but every set of twins being the same age is a little over the top, but that's just me), and the other is the fact that Negram killed everybody but those six? Why not them as well? I think I have read the first little bit of this selection, as I recall, and I actually liked it. Maybe explain in your book why Negram didn't kill them as well. I'm just trying to help. I think every cliched thing can be perfectly fine as long as you do it right.

Do whatever the story wills you to do.