As part of the Compelling Reads Tour, four authors of young adult series hosted Write with Us, the first of many activities where attendees start their own group novella. The authors, Martina Boone, (Compulsion, which launches October 28) (that's me! :)), Kimberly Griffiths Little, Wendy Higgins, and Jessica Spotswood shared the basic steps of writing a novel: genre, setting, characters, theme, plot types, point of view and style.
We all had a blast brainstorming and working with the audience. After a little more than an hour, the group had created the startings of a paranormal historical story that takes place in the Arlington National Cemetery on the night of the moon landing in 1969--at the height of the Vietnam War. Our main character, Zoe, is the daughter of the cemetery’s caretaker and was born with a limp. Every day the seventeen-year-old limps through the cemetery leaving flowers on graves to honor the soldiers, like her own father, who died in Vietnam and whose sacrifice was not honored as deserved due to the Vietnam protests.
We all had a blast brainstorming and working with the audience. After a little more than an hour, the group had created the startings of a paranormal historical story that takes place in the Arlington National Cemetery on the night of the moon landing in 1969--at the height of the Vietnam War. Our main character, Zoe, is the daughter of the cemetery’s caretaker and was born with a limp. Every day the seventeen-year-old limps through the cemetery leaving flowers on graves to honor the soldiers, like her own father, who died in Vietnam and whose sacrifice was not honored as deserved due to the Vietnam protests.
During each of her daily walks, Zoe often notes a particular soldier who guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and starts to fall in love with him. The soldier, Liam, is the son of an abusive father and has demons of his own to battle. Determined to rise quickly in the military, he does his best to ignore the girl who would tempt him away from his duties.
But Zoe's sensitivity and innate kindness creates a connection to the dead that results in her often seeing a shadowy figure standing guard beside the living sentry. The ghost of the unknown solider is still on guard after decades and decades, waiting for someone to identify him and let his family know what happened to him.
On the night of the moon landing, however, as everyone in America is glued to their television sets, the son of a disgraced soldier turned Vietnam War protestor leads his mob of followers to Arlington Cemetery to desecrate the graves. And that puts him right in the path of Zoe who is out on her nightly walk.
And that's where we leave the story with YOU -- finish it up. Add to it here or on your own blogs or wherever you want!
And that's where we leave the story with YOU -- finish it up. Add to it here or on your own blogs or wherever you want!
Leave a comment with some additional pieces of the story below, and Wendy, Jessica, Kimberley and/or I will stop by now and then to read and comment!
WRITE WITH US and learn as you go!
Check out the tab above for plot structuring information -- and, of course, there's TONS of information on writing at AdventuresInYAPublishing.com, my own blog which I share with a slew of talented folks. Adventures has twice been names a Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers Blog, so there's lots of information for everyone!
Want to see our next writing or fiction event? Stop by http://www.CompellingReads.com to learn more! : )
Looking forward to seeing your stories!
