Young Writers Society

Hi! I am new to this forum and am seeking help with my current writing project. My school's newspaper club, of which I am a member, is holding a writing contest. The prompt, to the best of my memory, is:

Write a fictional story about the true meaning of the holidays including at least one of the following concepts:

•Conflict

•Sacrifice

I forgot the other two, but thankfully my idea was accepted by the club president.

The contest ends next month, so I need to start now. My story ideas is as follows:

It's Christmas time, and Ambrose, the main character, decides to mail a letter to Santa. Though he doesn't believe in him, he writes a letter just for kicks, which he hasn't done in years. Everything seems fine, but Ambrose soon receives a threatening letter back from Santa. (What the letter says, I don't know.) Children all over the world have experienced the same phenomenon, as well, including Ambrose's friend (a currently unnamed girl character.) Realizing that Santa Claus is not only real, but evil and planning to take over the world, Ambrose and his friend are determined to stop him. Now, Ambrose must form unlikely alliances, develop difficult strategies, and ultimately discover the true meaning of Christmas to defeat the red and white suited menace.

As for the characters, I only know a bit about Ambrose:

Ambrose is a very intelligent 15/16 year old teenager, knowledgeable in many subjects and a critical thinker. He is always deep in thought and talks very little. Ambrose is a private young man who only speaks with people he's close to and whenever he has to. This aspect of his personality , in conjunction with his lack of trust in the outside world besides his family and friend, adds conflict to the story since he will need to open up and form alliances with people he wouldn't normally trust.

As for his friend, I am considering making her the sympathetic type, but don't know anything else. I discussed her a lot with the president of my newspaper club, but I didn't write anything down and forgot everything.

So, i am requesting assistance in developing my ideas further before writing this story's first draft. How much should I flesh our before writing the actual story. How do I keep the theme of the true meaning of Christmas apparent throughout the story? (I don't even know the true meaning of Christmas!) Any advice regarding what I have so far and anything else will he greatly appreciated! Thank you!

P.S. In case anyone is wondering, the contest ends before Christmas break.

I love what plot you have here! Santa being evil and taking over the world? Genius.
I think the first thing you need to do is establish what the true meaning of Christmas is to you, and your characters. It's something that is personal, and different for everyone. Whether's it's the hope it gives to everyone, or the gift of giving, you need to decide that before you go any further. Especially since you're writing this for a contest and it's imperative that you include it in your story. I've got a few questions that you can either answer here, or answer personally, whichever you chose. You might not even have answers to a few of the questions, but it's totally okay! These are building blocks to build your story on.
How does Ambrose discover that other children are receiving the threatening messages? What are these unlikely alliances he makes? How does he cope with the fact that not only is Santa real, but he's evil? How does he explain it to his best friend so she understands? How does he get to the North Pole with the limited resources that children have for travel? How long does he have to thwart Santa? What is Santa's plan to take over the world? Why is he being so clumsy as to reveal his plan to teenagers through threatening messages? What kind of threat is he sending the children? Why does he have to discover the true meaning of Christmas to stop Santa? (That's a little cliche as far as Christmas plots go, so be careful of that.)

These questions are good starter questions, so try and answer them as best you can. Asking yourself questions is the easiest way to discover new things about your plots and characters!

Use this for some inspiration. Good messages on the meaning of the holidays. A genius work of art that touches some deep, philosophical topics.

SparkToFlame wrote:I love what plot you have here! Santa being evil and taking over the world? Genius.
I think the first thing you need to do is establish what the true meaning of Christmas is to you, and your characters. It's something that is personal, and different for everyone. Whether's it's the hope it gives to everyone, or the gift of giving, you need to decide that before you go any further. Especially since you're writing this for a contest and it's imperative that you include it in your story. I've got a few questions that you can either answer here, or answer personally, whichever you chose. You might not even have answers to a few of the questions, but it's totally okay! These are building blocks to build your story on.
How does Ambrose discover that other children are receiving the threatening messages? What are these unlikely alliances he makes? How does he cope with the fact that not only is Santa real, but he's evil? How does he explain it to his best friend so she understands? How does he get to the North Pole with the limited resources that children have for travel? How long does he have to thwart Santa? What is Santa's plan to take over the world? Why is he being so clumsy as to reveal his plan to teenagers through threatening messages? What kind of threat is he sending the children? Why does he have to discover the true meaning of Christmas to stop Santa? (That's a little cliche as far as Christmas plots go, so be careful of that.)

These questions are good starter questions, so try and answer them as best you can. Asking yourself questions is the easiest way to discover new things about your plots and characters!

Thank you so much for the questions! First of all, I was thinking about making the meaning of the holidays different for each character. Second, my friend gave me a character idea that I like: For the friend, Ambrose befriends a really rich, socialite girl who own a private jet that they use to fly to the North Pole. How does that sound?

There's still the question of parents. Do they realize what is going on? Do they believe the kids? Do they not believe?
It's very unlikely a rich kid would be able to take their parent's jet without permission.

SparkToFlame wrote:There's still the question of parents. Do they realize what is going on? Do they believe the kids? Do they not believe?
It's very unlikely a rich kid would be able to take their parent's jet without permission.

I was thinking more along the lines of someone around 20+ old. But there's still the question as to how and why she would become friends with Ambrose.

What is the word limit for this contest?

You have the potential for a short story (10k words max), a novella, or a novel with this. How complex are you going to make the plot? How many events are you going to have, and how deep are you going to make it?

This is a fantastic story, don't get me wrong, but I'm wondering what the limits in the contest are and how you plan on fitting that very rich plot into it.

Rosey Unicorn wrote:What is the word limit for this contest?

You have the potential for a short story (10k words max), a novella, or a novel with this. How complex are you going to make the plot? How many events are you going to have, and how deep are you going to make it?

This is a fantastic story, don't get me wrong, but I'm wondering what the limits in the contest are and how you plan on fitting that very rich plot into it.

Unfortunately, the limit is 5 pages
Also, my friends told me that the plot is too complicated for a Christmas story. I already started writing a shorter, simpler story but it doesn't have as much magic. Only one person has told me to stick with this story, so I don't know what to do.

Do you want to write it?

If you want to write it, keep it as a side project. Once the short story for the contest is done, then maybe work it as a main project.

You don't need a Christmas themed contest to write a Christmas story. If it's a good enough story, it has a market outside of that. I'm reminded of The Legend of Holly Claus, which is a mainstream published novel that is extremely well ranked on goodreads. I don't see it very much outside of Christmas displays, but I'm pretty sure it's sold all year and obviously people pick it up outside of Christmas time.

If you want to write the story you outlined in your first post, go for it! Your passion for the story will come out on the page, and it's worth writing any story you want to write.

I second Rosey! I love the plot you have going. Keep it on the side and come back later! I'd read it