Input on my General Plot (1 Viewer)

[Lauren264]

Hi there,
Simply put, my short story is about a young woman who is forced to choose between 2 men, one of whom represents power and one of whom represents love. I want to set it up so as that the audience believe she will choose love, but in the end opts for power.
It's set in medieval france.
Do you think this is too cliche? It is clearly influenced by Romeo and Juliet (Paris vs Romeo), maybe too much so?
Any ideas on how I can avoid being cliche and "teen-agnsty" please comment
Thanks, Lauren xx

 

[astroe]

Not a criticism about you personally, but my teacher always told me never to write about love or anything romantic considering the markers will take on the stance that "Pfft, what would a student know about love and whatnot."

Also, I don't forget you need to link it somehow to the Advanced and Extension 1 courses, subtly anyway. I couldn't recognise any aspect of what I did, but eh I did Crime Writing.

 

[dizzyizzy]

Hmmmm sadly astroe is right. Perhaps keep the romance plot as a secondary theme/thread of the story? It's silly to say you can only write a romance once you have considerable life experience but unless you are feeling bright and sparky and possibly incredibly foolish I would warn against it.

The setting sounds potentially very interesting...I assume you will have read a number of the torrid romance novels set around medieval times. I would think that the plot 'forced to choose - dramatic love whatever' is unrealistic.

Throw up some more ideas? Good luck.

 

[Lauren264]

Thanks to both of you!
Yes, you are probably right, sadly. The thing is, my E2 teacher is just too nice - even if what you say is complete shit she'll say it's a good idea =S
But I think part of the value of the story is that it deals with a young woman's first perceptions of "love" - not necessarily saying whether they are right or wrong. And I think that's something I definitely know about
But I take your points, I'll try find another focus.

Oh and astroe, I do crime writing too for E1!

 

[alex.leon]

At the end of the day, you can do anything for ext 2 as long as you do it well.

People say don't too much. Don't do romance, don't do teenage angst, don't be self-referential, don't be too ambiguous, don't do Nazi war stories, don't do mental illness etc etc.

You shouldn't be afraid to take risks. A marker cannot penalise you for choosing to centre on something that others have done badly in the past. I'm of full belief that a marker may be pleasantly surprised to read a well-written, thought-provoking, original romance.

If you can write well, go for it! Feel free to PM me with any drafts or anything, I'd love to help.

 

[Shadowdude]

Well, as long as it's not another Twilight... =P

Seriously though, if you can write it well - do it.

 

[xXmuffin0manXx]

Hi there,
Simply put, my short story is about a young woman who is forced to choose between 2 men, one of whom represents power and one of whom represents love. I want to set it up so as that the audience believe she will choose love, but in the end opts for power.
It's set in medieval france.
Do you think this is too cliche? It is clearly influenced by Romeo and Juliet (Paris vs Romeo), maybe too much so?
Any ideas on how I can avoid being cliche and "teen-agnsty" please comment
Thanks, Lauren xx

lol

 

[philphie]

consider this as well: men with power have been characterised as wilful alphamales and your particular male character might see the woman as nothing more than a trophy wif for him to self indulge on, so howabout have this man with 'power' turn his back on the woman moving onto someone else, and seeing this woman in her superficialiaty opted for power will once again reflect another aspect of shallowness: the fear of being alone so she makes an attempt for the lover, he rejects her, not wanting to be second choice, and she is left with no one, the moral of the story being guys aren't play things!!!!! we have feelings too!!!!

 

[philphie]

it's quite evident that a woman that opts for power is most likely a selfish one, so mabe concentrate on that theme rather than risking being too cliche with love, after all, who is more selfish than a teenager, so you definitely have the experience to create such a character

 

[Lukybear]

I believe that if your doing such a story you should make the tone a little dark, to avoid that cute teenage crap. And mabey add some maturity and formatlity. Thats what i would do.

 

[dizzyizzy]

like philphie's idea, maybe the two guys can run away together and flourish in a magical unconventional romance? they wouldn't see that coming

 

[philphie]

like philphie's idea, maybe the two guys can run away together and flourish in a magical unconventional romance? they wouldn't see that coming

+1, always enjoy a gay romance haha

 

[accio.brain]

Half of mine was basically romance. No one ever told me not to, I was just told to avoid the teen angst stuff (I got 48, btw). I guess you just have to do it well, but I don't think everyone should be avoiding something because teachers or other people don't think anyone's capable of doing it properly. As someone else said, feel free to PM me if you need an opinion on a draft or anything, I'd love to help

 

[alex.leon]

+1, always enjoy a gay romance haha

lol, no jokes, top of the state ages back (from my school) wrote an epic poem that had really grossly detailed gay sex in it.

 

[commizar]

lol, no jokes, top of the state ages back (from my school) wrote an epic poem that had really grossly detailed gay sex in it.

mmm, please tell me there's a copy of that somewhere. I need some "inspiration", so to speak.

 

[Shadowdude]

Err... I'll have to pass. I need more romance/erotica, male-female stuff for inspiration for my story... ninetypercent would know.

 

[Ethanescence]

I think if you're going to do a romance short story and do it well, you need to have significant purpose behind it all. In other words, what message do you want to portray to teenagers who are the target audience for your story? And how is your story going to effectively communicate that message?

Otherwise it's going to seem superficial if it is only romance story for the sake of romance, rather than romance story that conveys a more complex understanding of your character(s) and aspects of the human condition.

Even though I think the duality between love and power is possibly cliche, it's an alright starting position to develop further ideas.

I'd suggest you research theories and philosophies specifically related to your romance story (such as post-feminism, materialism, power ideologies, idealism) and how they will relate to the subject matter of your story.

You will then have the message and purpose that you want to convey established from this in-depth background research. And when you go to write your story your characterisation will hopefully be realistic and you can avoid the typical stereotypes of romance stories.

Markers are looking for originality and effective written communication in these short stories, so just rehashing conventions of the romance genre and applying it do a shallow plot-line set in particular historical context isn't really going to cut it.

 

[nutcracker]

Just thinking out loud here, if markers can say we shouldn't write about things we have little/no experience of, doesn't that rule out like, 90% of the things we're allowed to talk about?

Isn't that what the imagination's for?

As for the OP, as everyone else has said, go for it
I don't really know how exactly you can avoid the whole teen-angst issue, I guess it all depends on how you write. I believe that if you can write creatively, even if it's a 'cliched' topic you're writing about, you can still make it really interesting and engaging.
Goodluck!

 

[Shadowdude]

That's what research is for - to ensure you are fully informed of stuff. Although I'm not sure how it works for me because I'm venturing into the completely original <_<

 

[Lauren264]

I haven't looked at this topic for AGES, so sorry for the lack of reply!
Seriously, thanks SO much to everyone who replied You've given me some very interesting ideas (totally digging the gay romance thing). And once I have a (presentable) draft I will definitely PM some of you it. It feels so good to get some support Thanks again!