Young Writers Society

Greetings all, once again I'm requesting you for some advice. Since the storms in my brain are only creating a giant mess; I would like to drop my pondering here.

Inspired by the wonderous movie entitled "The Da Vinci Code" and a story of my girlfriend -- an excellent work of writing, to be honest -- I wanted to start something in that direction myself. Meaning, a story that takes place in this time period around 2005 or 2006. Maybe an alternate-universe.

What I wanted to do is take that and add light variants of fantasy in it, like magic on a scale that reminds one of the CLAMP series, specifically the series X/1999.

What I have as of now:

Meet Conrad Taylor, a boy plucked out of the rainy streets of Great Britain after the unfortunate passing of his uncle Ragnar, sending him to the streets of Paris, France. There he inherits the former home of his uncle, a beatiful, little apartment with a grand view on the Eiffel tower. His uncle used to study History and Mythology, which probably 'led' him to his death. Curious after finding a few interesting documents in Ragnar's study room, Conrad goes on an investigation to eventually learn more about his uncle's discoveries.

To be a bit more specific: I wanted to mix the Philosopher's Stone into the story plotline, although I had in mind that specific object would eventually grant one magical ablities; nothing too extreme but still..

Then there's Alexis Renard, an eccentric, attractive young lady who's a well-known actress by day and a thief by night. She hunts on paticular interesting objects, stuff you could find in the Louvre museum. Now, I have her exactly in mind as it should and I even have some background information on her.

There's still another character I wanted to add, a character called Emilio Aquila. As the name may suggest, an Italian bloke whose family stands tall thanks to their incredible company. I was planning to give his family a somewhat darker tone -- maybe a bit cliché -- like connections with the mob.

Anyway, those three are eventually tied to the 'Stone' due to their own motives. It sounds bland so far, so maybe some of yo could help me spice it up and get me in the right direction. I was planning to let Alexis star in the play that tells the story of Faust, eventually letting Emilio watch that paticular play.

So yeah.. any ideas?

It sounds interesting, but the whole "plucked off the street" and "mysterious dead uncle" has been pretty over done.

Also, if she's an actress, why does she need to steal?

It will be interesting to see how you take this slightly cliche idea and make it your own. It has a lot of potential.

And I'm not exactly sure what your plot is... something about the stone, but you aren't sure yet?

~~~Sakura~~~

My idea? Write it. You've abviously got a rough plan. I say give yourself permission to experiment and play with your characters, plot, and world. Don't worry about it being interesting or stellar the first time around. In fact, you'll find bits that you're absolutely ashamed you wrote, and then there will be the bits that are actually pretty good, that you've managed to surprise yourself with.

The best advice I can give right now is try your hand at actually writing it, see what happens (for better or worse), and, above all, have fun doing it. You'll be amazed how much easier it is for a plot to get off the ground once you begin putting it to words. There will be hard parts, sure, but that comes up in everything.

At the end of it all, just let your imagination rain (kudos for whoever catches that reference, as I'm sure a lot of you already have ). That’ll probably be more helpful, not to mention satisfying, at this point than a lot of our ideas.