Young Writers Society

hey everyone! so I've not been writing for a while because I can't come up with a full enough idea to get started. This is an idea I've had for a while but there are so many questions that I have about how to go about writing it that I thought i'd ask for some feedback! any responses are appreciated.

I once overheard someone say they were afraid of reincarnation, and that kind of struck me and something strange to be afraid of. So I started thinking what if reincarnation was actually a miserable existence.

And I started writing about a character in limbo, being reincarnated, between bodies. The story would have multiple main characters that would each die and then the following character would be a reincarnated version of the previous one. of course each character would vary in terms of age, gender, race, background, personality, family life, etc. The only time the main character can remember all of his/her previous lives and is aware of this process is in the short time it take to be reincarnated, in the sort-of limbo.

here are some of the things I need to work out :

is this all set present day? would it be more interesting/too complicated to have the lives span different time periods?

Should the reincarnation story revolve around a mystery or something else that connects each person?
If not, what exactly am I writing ABOUT with each of the lives?

Do they all live a full life? Do they all die prematurely? Should I write each character and whatever age they are before their death so I can involve the deaths for each character?

If there is a mystery or some sort of link, it should be nation-wide right? So I can have them live in different parks of the country (or even world)

I was thinking I would keep the idea that you are reincarnated into your new life by your actions in your old life. So lets say one of the characters commits a serious crime. When he or she dies, the next character would be born into poverty or something. And the story could follow them trying to get out of whatever hole the previous character dug for them.

Anyway, any feedback at all is appreciated. Thank you!

Hey grace! First of all, welcome to YWS. You've definitely come to the right site for some advice.

Alrighty, I will answer these as best as I can. I must say you have a good idea for a story. Before I got into some world-building, the best advice I can give is just to go with your gut and to write. If you're stuck on the plot side of things, then work on the character side of things, and vice versa. It seems to me right now that you might be stuck on both sides haha

is this all set present day? would it be more interesting/too complicated to have the lives span different time periods?

I think having it set in present day is a safe bet right now, since this story is going to be extremely grueling when it comes to research. Somewhat of a cheating way to do multiple timelines is to do them briefly, like flashbacks to a certain memory. Go through them quickly at the beginning of the story to set what's going on, and if you wanna go through them later on, you can do that after you have a base story and characters, so you have soemthing to go off of.

Should the reincarnation story revolve around a mystery or something else that connects each person?

Three words. Time travel mystery. I think it goes well with the reincarnation theme you're wanting. It goes more into the magical side of spirituality (I don't know if you're trying to stay away from that or not) but it can definitely work well with reincarnation. Maybe people who die start getting stuck in limbo and a character from the modern world has to journey with either someone mystical or another person who's about to go into limbo to find out what's happening?

If not, what exactly am I writing ABOUT with each of the lives?

Well, that's entirely up to you! You can be a little vague about the individual lives and focus on the mystery plot, or you can be specific about a certain scene. There's tons of possibilities here. In fact, going with the specific scene thingy, you can have them have a common theme that pertains to the mystery (as in solving it) and the reader can try to guess as they go along. The more I write about the mystery plot, the more I like it xD

Do they all live a full life? Do they all die prematurely? Should I write each character and whatever age they are before their death so I can involve the deaths for each character?

Again, that's up to you! I would warn against focusing too much on the past lives, since it might clog the story up. Too much focus on the minor details make the bigger picture harder to see.

If there is a mystery or some sort of link, it should be nation-wide right? So I can have them live in different parks of the country (or even world)

Yes yes yes on the mystery! Also yes on having different nationalities. If you're wanting different characters in this person's past lives, go all out on it! It's gonna take a lot of research to be accurate to the countries during those times, but I think it'll be worth it.


I hope this helps you out! Good luck on the story <3

Totally agree with Omnom. Time travel mystery sounds like lots of fun! I think you definitely will want something to tie together the different lives, which can then resolve with a lot of satisfaction for the reader at the end.

It sounds like you have a premise but not a story. Picking some time and place settings will help you out, but what you really need is character. Think about the core personality for the MC. Who are they? What do they want? What's stopping them from having it? And one of my favorites--what's something unexpected about them?

Having the reincarnation theme is nice and all, but what's really going to keep readers is a character we can root for and fall in love with. He needs some personal conflict in addition to whatever grand mystery he needs to solve. Maybe solving the mystery requires overcoming some character flaws, even.

Good luck!