[alexrider12]

I think the discussion here is essential reading for hopeful authors. It's not that familiar or even cliched plotlines are off limits. But if you use them, then some other element of your story must stand out as particularly interesting: maybe your characters are so engaging that the reader will want to follow them anywhere. Maybe your setting is so lush and enchanting that your readers will want to read just to spend time there. Or maybe, beneath the cliched surface plot there is a "deep story" that hits the reader where they live. This is harder to do, but theme development, take home value so to speak, is what I believe separates a "good read" from the "book that is dear to you."

In the book I'm writing, I use the "character in a murderous family" plotline, but the way it's resolved... not so normal. I'm hoping to lure the reader into a false sense of security before slapping them upside the head.

Well, I like it at least!

[James Somers]

In the book I'm writing, I use the "character in a murderous family" plotline, but the way it's resolved... not so normal. I'm hoping to lure the reader into a false sense of security before slapping them upside the head.

Well, I like it at least!

Sounds cool, ALEXRIDER--BTW I loved the Alex Rider novel series. I think Scorpia and Arkangel were my favorites. Very cool.:cool:

James

[SheepSalesman]

A professor of a friend of mine said it best:

There's only one story. There's everyday life and then something different happens. The rest is just details.