Is This Love?- Plot and suggestions!

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So I was wondering what topics and certain things you would like me to put in my story and things to steer clear from. I want to make it as good as I can and for it to be interesting and not cliche. Since it’s taking me forever to write I thought that I would adjust it so any ideas would be great.

The plot/description:

Rose and Grayson have been in and out of foster homes since they were 10. At the age of 17 they manage to get back in touch with an old family friend and find out that he’s living in New York, they decide to live with him and leave London behind. Follow them on their journey of facing old demons, learning to trust and love and trying to escape their dark past plus going to high school.

About the 3 main characters:

ROSE:
Rose is a strong, badass girl that’s been through a lot. In the story she is struggling with depression. You will see her open up and learn to love others and herself (very cringey ik). She’s got a very unique personality and is very headstrong. She doesn’t take shit from anyone. Although Rose has a tough exterior she cares about the people she loves and would do anything for them.

GRAYSON:
Grayson is Roses twin brother. He and Rose are very close since they are all each other have. He is kind, funny and a food lover. Throughout the story you will see him fall in love with an amazing guy. He will also help Rose in finding happiness.

ALEX:
Alex is really a big softie. He may seem like a bad boy but I promise you he’s not- I’m not really into the whole bad boy stories anymore. He is Roses one and only love interest. Alex really helps her open up and is the first person Rose really trusts (apart from Grayson ofc). Alex is best friends with Graysons love interest.

HIGH SCHOOL:
In this high school there will be a bitchy annoying girl. But no she isn’t going to try and steal Alex from Rose. Yes she’s gonna be a bit annoying but there’s not going to be any of that typical cliche drama. She’s going to have normal conversations with normal people. In this school there will be no typical bad boys or nerds or jocks. There will be normal people in a semi normal high school so no cliche groups.

Also i want to apologise since i am new to writing stories you will not be able to choose you sexuality. In the future, if i’m still writing stories, I will write stories with those options. There are LGBT characters that are very important to the story so hopefully it’s still gonna be ok. But I apologise to anyone part of the LGBTQ+ community.

I am going to have diversity in this story and not just different coloured skin but also having depth to the characters. Their backgrounds and their culture will be shown (I apologise if that came across offensive in any way)

I know those descriptions seem really cringey but I promise you the whole story won’t be like that. So if you have any ideas or things you would like to see in it then tell me and I will add it in. So thanks for reading all that and any ideas will be highly appreciated.:heartpulse:

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I hate the cliche stories that have the “I’m not like other girls” bad girl. So I suggest you still write her as a bad girl, however she’s not a complete bitch to everyone. Just ones who deserve it. And don’t just maje it about “oh I ditch classes and smoke”. Make her character stand out. That itself can make your story 10 times greater.

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haha yeah so do I. she doesn’t smoke and does care about her education so she isn’t one of those bad girls. thank you for the advice.

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I feel bad for asking this and I don’t know why. But this story interests me. Again I don’t know why. If you’ve published any of it. What is its name?

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so i’m currently trying to make the episodes longer but i’m planning on publishing it this weekend. it’s called ‘is this love?’

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I’ve just published the first 3 episodes. x

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Sounds like a solid first draft for a plot, thank you for sharing it with us! :blush:
If I may give some suggestions (you’re free to do whatever you want with them, of course):

I love to see an antagonist that has layers. They’re not just mean “just because” or because of a cookie-cutter back story, but there’s a lot more to their character. A great villain, in my opinion, fights against the hero for what he considers to be the greater good. So maybe Rose hasn’t given the best impression to this “mean girl” (this is a good way to show some of Rose’s actual flaws or create conflict from a misunderstanding) and the mean girl feels like keeping Alex and Rose apart because she feels as though she knows Alex better and that he risks getting hurt if he falls for Rose. Or maybe Alex has very traditional parents who forbid him to date anyone before he graduates high school and the mean girl knows that, so she’s trying to keep him out of trouble by sabotaging his love life.

It’s even better when the mean girl isn’t a straight up b*tch and she actually seems pretty nice and harmless at the beginning. It makes your readers even more frustrated with this character because they know that the main character, Rose, can’t easily call her out in front of everyone and that she needs some witnesses to bring this antagonist down.

You could even add a second antagonist, one that is a lot more sneaky than the first mean girl and who starts attacking her before causing trouble to Rose as well. So the mean girl and Rose need to put their differences aside and make some sort of alliance to bring this second antagonist down.

Also, maybe it’s because the descriptions you gave are very short (which is fine, I get that you don’t need to tell us everything about them), I think they could use some more depth. They need to feel real, like actual humans who could potentially exist in this world:

  • Do they have a part-time job? What do they like to do in their free time? What are they passionate about?
  • When and how does each character enter your story? What’s the first thing you want your readers to understand about this character? Remember: show, don’t tell.
  • What are their motivations, what do they want?
  • Do they have any prominent or distinguishing features/mannerisms/gestures/phrases that make the readers say “oh, this is this character, no doubt”?
  • How do they like to dress? Do they care about style? Do they accessorize? Do they just care about comfort?
  • What’s their voice like? Is it sweet, deep, harsh, raspy? Do they have an accent or a certain tone of voice that your characters in the story can recognize without seeing that character? Do they speak like a man selling a product in a 50’s commercial?
  • Do they speak other languages? Have they traveled? Or have they always lived in one place?
  • What’s their socio-economic status? Are they much better off than their parents were at their age? Were there sacrifices to be made from their parents to offer a better life to their children? Or have they always been well-off?
  • Do they have certain habits? Good or bad ones. How hard is it for them to change them if they’re bad?
  • What are their dreams? Do they know where they’d like to end up? Are they ambitious or not? Why?
  • Was is their biggest fear? What could possibly destroy them? Is there something they constantly have to fight against to remain sane?
  • What’s their biggest secret that they would never want anyone to know about ever, no matter how much they’re given in return?
  • What are their values? What are the things that they’ve sworn to themselves to achieve or to never do? Does that change overtime? How difficult is it for them to change their strongest views, for better or for worse?
  • What’s their family like? We don’t see enough families in most high school stories, yet we all know how important our families actually are in our lives and in everyone’s lives, for better or for worse. How do they all get along?
  • How do they get along with other characters? How do they feel and communicate with strangers?
  • What are some important past events in their lives? Most people focus on the tragic back stories, which is good, but what are some great past events in their lives that they hold dear? What was their childhood like? Was there someone important in their life who taught them something that they still cherish until this day?
  • How much do they care about the past? Or the present? Or the future?
  • Do they believe in paranormal things? Or are they more of a skeptic? Are they cautious or impulsive with these things? What do they think about death and the afterlife?
  • Do they want a marriage, a house, and kids? Or are they more of a career person? How “traditional” are they?
  • Are they an idealist? A dreamer? If so, what does that mean to them? Or are they the opposite of that?
  • What do they like about themselves or hate about themselves? What’s their self-esteem like? What are they certain of being good at? What are the things that make them proud?

Anyway, you don’t need to answer all of these questions for all of your characters or to even bring these things up in your story… But it’s always good to know as much as possible about your characters, as if they were real humans, to give them depth and make your readers connect with them in some way. I don’t know about you, but I always find it super fun to make my characters super detailed, even if I don’t use everything in the story.

Also, keep your characters consistent. I know I have a problem with this… I keep having to remind myself that a character is shy and awkward and wouldn’t do what I’m making them do in the story in that specific moment. Make sure they don’t get out-of-character and it’s instead a gradual change and well-placed in that character’s arc.

Phew! I know this was long, sorry :sweat_smile: I just love brainstorming and story-telling. I wish you luck with your story and don’t forget to share the link with us once it’s uploaded!

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Thank you so much for this, definitely going to use some of these ideas from now on! I’m hoping that this will really improve my story and make it different than the others☺️

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Just want to say that this isn’t cringe at all. A lot of people suffer from depression and I would absolutely love to see Rose overcome it and learn to love herself and others! :))

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