Young Writers Society

Hello everyone! I'm new to YWS and I just wanted to see if an idea I had could be of any interest that would make it worth pursuing.


So, I don't really have anything planned out completely yet, but this is the basic plot:


People are being sent to the moon again, and this time it's for the long haul. Sixteen year old Altair is one of the unlucky few being sent up to do the hard labor needed to build the first-ever moon colony. Why? Because he's a delinquent. A young, physically healthy individual fit for the space prison program. So now he's being blasted off the planet where he can't escape and can't corrupt the good citizens of Earth.

I have a couple other ideas about the plot and about the characters, so feel free to ask if you're curious, but that's the basic idea I had. Let me know what you think! Is it something people would read? Or should I scrap it?

That sounds really interesting! I like the premise. - Would all the citizens have a history of crime? Because that sounds like it could be sort of dangerous, if they're all violent - how do they keep order? Are the people in the program doing some sort of forced labor?

Also interested in who "governs" the moon colony - and how far in the future you would have it set. It seems like one of the difficulties would be establishing enough background to allow the story to unfold and still make sense. Also it might be helpful to have some sort of challenge to boost the plot rather than just the fact that Altair is in the space prison program.

Any how, those are just my thoughts from reading your idea - but it sounds like a solid premise! Good luck and welcome to YWS!

~alliyah

If you're interested, go for it!

The thing about ideas is, it's all about the execution. "Guy dresses up in a bat suit to stop crime because criminals are superstitious and he wants to avenge his parents' murders" sounds utterly terrible, but that's the core idea behind Batman, and we can't deny he's one of the most popular characters of all time.

Don't worry about bad stuff in the ideas stage. Planning it out and writing it is where you'll really get solid feedback on what works and doesn't.

Rosey has a really good point about the pitching of the ideas, it really does come down to how you write it and how you, personally feel about it. Your idea sounds intriguing to me, obviously this is at its fundamental stage. But my advice is this, if you really want to know whether this idea is up your alley. You can test it in a few ways.

1) Start by fleshing out your ideas and characters more, but don't overdo it to the point where it starts to overwhelm the actual plot. Some people like to do this, but they tend to get too carried away.

2) Write a few chapters or shorts relating to the story, don't get discouraged if the writing style or mood isn't what you aim for. The purpose of this is to test whether you enjoy writing it, whether you're enjoying putting this idea down to paper.