I know the basic route I want my story to take, but I've attempted to write it twice now and had to stop both times because it just wasn't flowing correctly. I kept my (very vague) premise consistent in both versions but went about them very different ways. I'd appreciate anyone who was willing to discuss this in more depth.
Sure. I'll help. I have some experience with that sort of thing. Tell me about your novel whenever you can.
I come across the same problem all the time, I believe I'd be able to help if it's still needed :)
At the most basic level, the story follows a young woman who has been raised and trained under one organization. Throughout the story I'm keeping it unclear to the reader whether they are the protagonists or antagonists. There will, as is typical of these kinds of stories, be a love interest. As of now I have him as someone who worked closely with her or was raised with her in some capacity. My trouble basically arises with my setting. I've attempted to write this under two types of futuristic governments: one very similar to America's current system and a very technologically-advanced monarchy.
Starting with the simpler government system, this one seemed to work the best, but that could be only because it's the one I'm most familiar with. My main character does undercover work for her organization and is easily able to blend in to her surroundings. I had more difficulty fitting in my love interest, who is necessary for the route I want my story to take.
In the monarchy, the main character is actually a member of the royal family, and does all of her training with this organization in secret from her family. The love interest here would either be a palace guard or bodyguard, that much is still up in the air for me.
I know this is all very vague, but any input on which story sounds the most interesting, or any gaps you immediately notice would be appreciated.
I feel it's also worth mentioning I'm only seventeen and therefore probably have no intention of publishing this, especially considering it's not very original.
Don't sweat it, I'm 18 and I've literally never published anything. But it sounds like an intriguing story once you get the details. The simple government route could possibly go as, either the love interest knows about her abilities or not. If he does, he could be a part of a similar family that decided to "volunteer" their child to special services and the two end up working together. If he doesn't know about her abilities, then he could be an eyewitness to an incident involving her, but he is unsure of what he saw and wants to find out more. Then after that, the two still end up together in some connection through continuous involvement. But if you went with the monarchy route, it could be where the organization has set up the love interest as a guardian of some sort along with the girl to protect the same person or thing. If the love interest didn't know about her abilities, you could write it so that they were assigned the same task but unaware of being "partnered". But you could also make it where the love interest does know and is aware that the family doesn't, a secret is kept and a connection is established. I hope that gives you more options to choose from and that this was of some help to you.
That definitely helped. Thank you!
What would help is reading more (if you don't already). Find works that are similar in subjects that you want to deal in. Keep note of what works and what doesn't work and how you think you can do it better.