“It’s finally here! It’s finally here!” – Me, running around my house this morning.
It seems like forever ago that I first announced Novel Boot Camp. I asked for topic ideas, your most common editing problems, and I spent hours upon hours (upon hours) writing and perfecting the course. Whew! It almost felt like Boot Camp was never going to arrive!
But here we are at the kickoff party – you with your manuscripts in hand and me ready to do nothing but eat, breathe, and sleep (or not sleep) Novel Boot Camp for the next month. It’s going to be a wild ride!
Before things get too crazy and some of you are inevitably reduced to tears with a bloody manuscript in your hands, let me say that the excitement and enthusiasm for Novel Boot Camp has reminded me of why I do what I do. It is the passion and dedication of writers like you that keeps me blogging, editing, and mentoring. You guys are the greatest!
To celebrate the kickoff party, keep meeting up with writing friends and critique partners (though I know some of you are at more than capacity in that department!) and let your friends and family know that you’ll be putting your pen where your passion is and might be a bit busier (and crazier) than usual. In order to keep the blog comments focused on the workshop, post your kickoff party excitement on Twitter and the FB group.
And now on to our first workshop!
Workshop #1: Genre Guessing Game
June 30 – July 6
For our first workshop, I want to focus on the most important aspect of editing – seeing your novel from the outside.
This is no easy task! You’ve toiled and slaved over your novel. You know it inside and out. If you’ve been editing it long enough, you can probably recite passages from heart. All of that is lovely and wonderful and passionate, but terrible for editing.
So for this first workshop, I want you to send your book out into the world – just a tiny piece of it – to see how it’s perceived by those outside yourself, by the people who know nothing about it.
Participants will submit the first 200 words of their manuscript. Guessers will attempt to identify the genre, tone, and basic plot of the novel. The objective is to have a bit of fun while exploring how your manuscript looks from the outside. Do people think your romantic comedy is a horror/thriller? Do readers expect your story of redemption to be a story of revenge?
Remember that how the Boot Campers perceive your novel is likely how agents and editors will perceive it too. We’ll be talking about why the reader’s perception of the first page is important in our first lecture tomorrow.
Warning: This is a new and totally untested workshop process. Please bare with me if there are any technical kinks or if things seem awkward. I wanted to do something unique so I hope it works!
How to Play the Genre Guessing Game
***Read the FULL directions and follow them or you will not be eligible to participate!***
Firstly, I understand that not all readers are comfortable sharing their work online. If you do not want to submit, you may still participate in the guessing.
How to Submit Your Opening
To streamline the process, decrease cheating, and increase participation, I will be posting all of the first pages anonymously (meaning that no one other than me will know whose first page is whose). If you attempt to submit your own first page, it will be deleted!
The submitted novel openings will be posted as quickly as possible, but since it must be done manually, there will likely be some delay.
Submit your novel’s opening in the form below. It will go to my email and I will manually post the first 200 words only (not your name, genre, tone, etc.) into the comments section.
Note that your novel’s opening is the very first 200 words. If you open with a prologue, use that rather than your first chapter.
How to Guess the Genre
In the comments section below this post, leave a reply to the novel openings submitted and post some or all of the following:
- Guess the Genre – Is it a contemporary romance? A YA paranormal? A horror/science fiction hybrid? Post your best guess. If you think it’s middle grade or young adult, please also include a genre (adventure, comedy, romance, etc.).
- Guess the Tone – What do you think the overall tone of this novel is? Is it creepy? Heartwarming? Spiritual? Disturbing? In other words, what adjective would you use to describe the book?
- Guess the Basic Plot – What do you think this novel is going to be about? What do you expect to happen?
- Do NOT post a critique of the opening or any comments about the writing quality or style. We will have a novel opening critique later in the month.
Please do not post your guesses anonymously unless you do not want to be eligible to win the prize for best guesser!
Sample comment/guess: I think this is a middle grade adventure story with a dark tone. I expect it to be about how the main character learns to overcome his fear of the water to defeat a sea monster.
What Should Writers Take Away?
The reader’s perception of your novel is more important than your own. Keep an eye on your novel’s opening this week to see how Boot Campers perceive your work. Is it right in line with your vision or way off?
Is the novel going to deliver what readers seem to expect? We’ll be talking about the importance of the first page’s promise in our first lecture tomorrow.
Prize – Free Edit of Your First 1,000 Words!
This workshop will have two winners! Due to the labor involved in posting, moderating, and then judging the posts, it may take me until after Novel Boot Camp to choose and notify the winners. How long it takes depends on the level of participation.
Award for the Best Guesser: This prize will go to the Novel Boot Camper with guessing power from the gods. In other words: the camper with the most correct guesses.
Award for the Best Opening: This prize will go to the opening that had its novel, genre, and basic plot guessed correctly the most often.
Both winners will receive a free edit of their first 1,000 words.
Connect with Other Novel Boot Camp Participants
Need a writing friend? Got a question? Need a shoulder to cry on? We’re there for you!
I will be answering writing and editing questions on our Twitter hashtag as time allows. Due to the insane volume of emails I’m receiving, I cannot provide free advice or assistance via email. Thank you!
What is Novel Boot Camp?
Novel Boot Camp is a free online novel writing course focused on identifying and correcting problems in your novel. Learn more about Novel Boot Camp and find past (and future) posts here.
Ellen Brock 
Gary place a bouquet of lilacs in front of the granite stone. They were her favorite. He bent over and ran his fingers through the engraved name. Mary Neal. Images of a white sheet, stained with her putrid remains, being pulled back, flashed in his mind. He tried to push the horrid memory from his thoughts, but it was embedded there like an inoperable tumor. Why couldn’t he picture her dimpled smile and the way her eyes lit up when she told him she loved him? That image was veiled in shadows, hidden behind the guilt, and years of dark thoughts, of how he had killed her. There was one way to make penance and stop the blackened thoughts that plagued his entire being. He had to find a cure for the human condition that led to his woes.
A buzz distracted him from his grief. He pulled his phone from his pocket, took a deep breath, held it, and let the air out slowly through his nose before answering. “Hello.”
“Dr. Neal,” the raspy voice said, “I haven’t heard from you in weeks. I understand you’re a busy man, but I expect to be updated on your progress in a more timely manner.”
Genre: Sci-fi, dystopia.
Tone: Dark and ‘gritty’.
Gary, under the influence of some mental condition, killed his wife Mary. Now plagued by guilt, he attempts to find a cure for his condition, but fails and possibly inflicts it on many other people, too. In the end, he’s able to come to terms with his past, but only after much suffering.
Genre: romance-grief
Tone: dark, trying to find happiness again
Plot: narrator goes on a journey with a new love interest to try and become happy once again.
Sci-fi
dark
Dr. Neal has killed his wife and must live with his grief. He will experiment on people to try and cure this condition and possibly make it worse.
GUESS: I think the genre is possibly sci-fi or fantasy with dark and eerie tones. I think the plot is about him working with others to find the cure of the conditioned that caused him to kill his (wife?) to make up what for what he has done.
Genre: Sci-fi (Adult)
Tone: Serious, gritty
Plot: An experiment gone wrong, maybe he was trying to help her and tried a cure at a last minute resort – ended in tragedy.
His objective is to put things right, to correct the wrong by finding the correct cure.
Genre: Horror. Fear of the unknown. Another person, this one a close friend or colleague, has died a miserable death from an unknown cause. Dr Neal will find the cause and save the world.
I think this is a sci-fi story with a bittersweet tone. Gary, blaming himself for the death of his wife simply because he didn’t get to her in time to try to help her, devotes his days to bringing his wife back to life, Modern twist on the Frankenstein story.
G: Drama
T: Serious
P: I think that the plot will come back in time to “show” us had did he developed the condition he’s in and how had he killed his wife. Then it will progress with his struggle to forgive himself and understand the extend of that condition. He will also fight his way through unknown and different ways that he could come up with in order to find the cure.
GENRE: Techno Thriller
TONE: Mystery
BASIC PLOT: Gary Neal must solve the riddle of how his lover died
Genre: Contemporary Adult
Tone: Sad, nostalgic
Plot: Dr. Neal, feeling responsible for his wife’s death, endeavours to eradicate the illness that took his wife before he’d found the cure. His search for the cure will become his new life’s mission.
Scifi. He’s a scientist who was unable to cure his wife OR he has powers that weren’t able to cure her. Now he’s on the search for something that could heal whatever was wrong with her. Possible love interest if they go with him on the search
Horror/Suspense. This feels like Jekyll and Hyde to me, maybe a bit of the Fugitive? Dr. Neal is working to cure the “condition” he has that the raspy voiced owner/boss has forced on him in order to kill the killer in himself.
Medical Thriller with a dark tone. In his grief, Gary has taken on an impossible task he cannot get out of.
Genre: Sci-Fi Horror
Tone: Morose
Plot: Dr. Neal is looking for a cure for death, but when he finds one, the results are…unexpected.
Genre: Thriller/Sci-fi
Tone: dark, creepy
Basic plot: Dr. Neal caused this woman’s death in some way or another, and he searches for a cure for whatever led to her death. He is distraught and maybe a little unstable. His research/experiments lead him down a dark path.
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Tone: Dark
Plot: Gary must wrestle with his inner demons and make peace with himself for killing his wife.
G: Historical Romance
T: serious
Plot: Dr. Neal while searching for a cure falls in love with a dying woman.
The moonless night concealed their arrival. It had been a long night, to get to the roof of this estate in the south of France, they had to climb over the peak. The mansion was built into the side of the mountain. The front of the mansion had surveillance cameras in the woods and grounds. The girls suspected that there would be no cameras above the house. Who would suspect anyone to approach the house from over the top of the mountain. So that is what they did. They had the architect plans and thought they knew where the hidden vault was. Another thing the estate owner neglected was to wire the access through the skylight with an alarm. It was a simple matter to slip the latch to gain access to the room they wanted. With that, the girls strapped on special kneepads and gloves that went to their elbows. They poked their heads through the skylight and placed over their eyes, a pair of high tech, thermal imaging, night vision goggles. These allowed the girls to see anything giving off heat in the room such as a radiator, candlelight or a person. It also allowed them to see any infrared alarm systems that would look invisible in normal light.
Genre: Mystery/adventure/thriller.
Tone: Secretive and exciting.
Plot: The girls break into the mansion to steal something, and instead discover some crime or mystery that they have to solve — without getting caught for their burglary!
Genre: suspense
Tone: light and high paced
Plot: a story of the most amazing and astounding burglaries that the world has ever seen, conducted by a few young girls. Eventually one burglary goes wrong and it makes them all doubt their motives.
Mystery
suspenseful tone
These girls are very talented thieves and will leave you guessing as to whether they get caught .Maybe they find something they didn’t bargain for.
GUESS: I think the genre is action and adventure with mysterious tones. I think the plot is about a group of girls who are possibly spies or something of the sort. They might find something in the house that eludes to the larger plot that will require more missions.
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Tone: Serious, fast pace
Plot: Two thieves will uncover more than they bargained for. Intrigue and possibly a love interest.
Young adult caper story Curious. Technically equipped, well-trained girls break into a mansion to steal something of importance.
G: Crime/ Action
T: Fast pace
P: The girls were hired to brake into the mansion to still plans. They succeed. Now they are on the mission to stop the owner of the mansion, he can’t go ahead with his plans as it would cause mass destruction.
GENRE: Mystery / Thriller
TONE: Secretive / Adventure
BASIC PLOT: A team of female Secret Operatives get burned in a mission. They were set up and must figure out who did it to redeem themselves.
Genre: Crime Thriller
Tone: High Paced Action
Plot: An apparently easy heist goes horribly wrong. They have to abandon the plan it mid-heist and run. The thieves end up being hunted down throughout the story because of who they dared to try to rob.
Genre: mystery/adventure
Tone: secret
The girls on on a mission to steal something (whether it be information or just some object). This object will turn out to be more than what they thought it was.
Mystery/adventure with an exciting/thrilling tone – The girls find the vault empty and are caught and accused of the crime but must escape in order to find out who the REAL criminal was and to steal back whatever treasure it was they were after.
YA Mystery/Thriller/Crime with a light tone. Something will go horribly wrong with this robbery and the girls will spend the rest of the novel getting out of their predicament.
Genre: Thriller Mystery
Tone: Sneaky
Plot: Girls are sealing something important and someone will try to catch them.
Genre: YA adventure
Tone: suspenseful, high action, danger
Basic Plot: These young women are expert burglers, but they are not stealing from the innocent. They are there to obtain something important that will expose the homeowner for the evil man he is. But it doesn’t go as smoothly as they planned, and are caught in the act. These girls are smart and skilled, though, and soon come up with a plan for escape.
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller
Tone: Suspenseful
Plot: The girls get caught breaking into the mansion and the only way they can get free is by promising to steal stuff for the man who owns the house.
G: Action/Adventure – Mystery
T: Action/excitement
Plot: The girls are trying to steal back their family treasure that their parent’s had died for.
Prologue
The screaming had returned.
Ferrin had to say this for his would-be captors; they were, if anything, proficient. First, a light whimper could be heard, and from there, uncontrolled sobbing, as the next unfortunate soul was fastened to the large wire-bound rack. The arrival of an Inquisitor would trigger the next phase in this ongoing cycle, leaving the victim to fall into one of two categories: beggar or spitter. At this juncture, true fear had not yet manifested itself. That was saved for later, and with it, the only guarantee was that later was undoubtedly coming.
They say the threat of pain is even more persuasive than the pain itself. They, whoever they are, have obviously never been through the White Tower’s purging. Ferrin chuckled to himself, with a morose sense of amusement that teetered dangerously close to the edge of insanity.
For the uninterrupted silence of a single night’s sleep, he would have given his right arm – well, at least a finger or two. His mind was beginning to crack, and he could no longer tell which of the voices were real and which were a bi-product of the Purging. Death would have been preferable to yet another…
Dystopian/Horror
Very dark
Ferrin is being held captive, awaiting the Purge. He will escape and take a few other prisoners with him and they will be wanted and hunted down.
GUESS: I think the genre is a YA dystopian novel with bitter tones. I think the plot will be about MC’s life after he has gone through the purge and he will either get to see them emerging into a new life that he embraces, or struggling in a life he doesn’t want. The latter seems more plausible at the moment though.
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Tone: Dark
Plot: Some secret to uncover, and punishment was their way of trying to discover it. Ferrin has to find a way out. He has been through much more than they know.
Dystopian sci-fi horror. Scarey. Ferrin is slipping in and out of reality as he awaits his fate. I have a feeling Ferrin will find a way to overthrow his captors.
G: Thriller
T: Serious
P: Ferrin will go through numbers of different kinds of torture. Someone else at the same time is on a mission to brake him free.
GENRE: Thriller
TONE: Dark
BASIC PLOT: Ferrin must escape and finish his mission
Genre: Horror/Historical or Fantasy
Tone: Dark
Plot: Ferrin will be set free just before his turn to be tortured comes. He will join the rebel forces fighting against the Purging.
This is a dystopian. He’s being tortured and “purged” him. He and some others will find a way to escape and/or beat the purge and be normal again.
Fantasy/Horror -Ferrin escapes his “would-be captors” and is hunting for a relic of some nature (which perhaps is why he was arrested for being a heretic) but he’s actually been let go and is being followed by an Inquisitor who wants the item/power of the the itm for the White Tower
Historical Thriller/Fantasy with a dark tone. An escape plot, maybe a dilemma where there’s there’s a task to do that’s just as bad as the torture . . . what do do?
Genre: Horror
Tone: Dark
Plot: Ferrin tries to escape from the White Tower before it destroys him.
Dystopian thriller
dark, serious
Ferrin is being tortured, “purged”, by the people in the White Tower. On the brink of death and or insanity, something happens that allows him to escape. After he regains his strength, he returns to destroy the tower and those who tortured him.
Genre: Dystopia
Tone: Dark, Adventurous
Plot: Ferrin escapes from the White Tower and rises up to battle the dark forces and restore peace and prosperity to the land.
G: Sci-Fi/Dystopian
T: dark
Plot: People are captured and tortured to find the secret of immortality.
Neha Shah and her parents sat cross-legged on low wooden stools around a sacred fire in their living room. “Om Namaahh Shivai,” intoned the priest tossing a few grains of rice into the flames. Neha stifled a yawn.
It was around 8 AM. The priest was performing this ritual to seek the blessings of all nine planets before Neha’s wedding. Occasional ‘caws’ of a black crow perched on the window sill mingled with his chants.
The elderly priest handed Neha a coconut with betal leaves tied on top with a red thread. He wheezed from the smoke and lapsed into a coughing fit; Mrs. Shah gave him an encouraging smile. After all, it was at her insistence that he was conducting this ceremony. Mrs. Shah claimed, “His presence is so lucky for us. See how everyone in our family has had successful marriages. My sister tried to act smart by getting a new fellow for her daughter and see what happened…divorce in a year!”
Now as Neha took the coconut from his trembling hands, she hoped he was lucky enough to not leave the place in a stretcher.
Genre: YA growing-up story.
Tone: Occasionally angsty, otherwise generally balanced and calm.
Plot: Neha is pushed into an arranged marriage, when what she really wants is to go to school / have a job / do something else. In the end, she either gets what she wants or realises that she can be happy without it.
Genre: mystery and coming of age
Tone: mysterious and light hearted
Plot: Neha has a secret. A deep family secret which she only reveals after something traumatic happens to the narrator who just cant seem to find a spouse.
YA/Coming of Age
light/humorous tone
Neha will have to make a choice about doing what her family wants her to do or what really makes her happy. This will be laced with deep family heritage.
Young adult, family drama. Unpredictable. Young Neha is being prepared for marriage. Judging from her reaction, I think she might turn the tables on this ceremony and break away from tradition.
Genre: YA
Tone: light
Plot: Coming of age, arranged marriage that will go through transformation with a deeper story to come.
GENRE: YA/Fantasy
TONE: Adventurous
BASIC PLOT: Neha must perform a quest t find her true love
G: Paranormal
T: Steady
P: Some forces of evil are against Neha’s marriage. The black crow was send there to watch and report the progress or disturb the ritual. Ritual doesn’t go as planed and Neha and her future husband wont receive a blessing from the nine planets. If Neha married her fiance their future baby would come to a power that could forever get rid of the demon that is planing to stop it from happening. Now that the blessing wasn’t given to the young couple he can put his plan in place and take over the world. Neha will fight for her marriage to succeed and battle the demon of her own. Her hidden power will show up and she’ll do everything that she can to save her future baby. .
Neha is not happy to be getting married, but this is a tradition she has to follow. If this marriage works out, her family will get a reward. It’s a romantic coming of age with a light tone.
YA Fantasy/Romance – Neha Shah is an unbeliever in the ways of the mystics- but when she is married the ancient prophecy is fulfilled and she is given the gift of sight of her people- which causes immediate problems for her marriage as she must learn to cope with her new abilities amongst her powerful peers (of which her new husband is not)
Fantasy. Light and humorous tone. Love story brewing, Neha probably won’t want to marry the “perfect” mate Mrs. Shah has in mind.
Genre: YA Coming of Age
Tone: Foreboding
Plot: The crow and coughing fit suggest a negative outcome of the marriage, creating a struggle for Neha.
adult romance
ominous
Neha doesn’t want to go along with her parents’ traditions, but appeases them anyway. She’s young, starting a new life, and thinks all this spiritual stuff is antiquated. When things start to go awry in her new life, she realizes just how much she needs her family and the comfort of those traditions.
Genre: Coming of age
Tone: Exotic with lots of cultural info
Plot: Neha doesn’t end up getting married, something happens before the wedding and she ends up falling in love with someone her parents didn’t pick for her.
G: YA coming of age
T: serious/romantic
Plot: A young Indian girl is married to a man who travels for work. She finds a whole new life outside of her culture.
The water is dark and muddy. Fear paralyzes my body, but it is nothing compared to the coldness I feel from my ears down to the tips of my toes. But nothing, not even the cold, matters; I don’t want to live alone in this world. I stopped caring months ago, when Bash left me behind. I let my body relax and indulge my emotional numbness. “How could you leave me?” I have screamed those words over and over so many times, and if I could open my mouth right now, I would scream them again. The water filled the car minutes ago, and now my lungs are burning, aching for the air I don’t deserve. Moments pass. A wave of fear moves through me. What am I doing? But it’s too late. I inhale instinctively and let the water fill my body. It fills my nose and throat first, and then the worst pain imaginable hits me as it fills my lungs.
The pain; that is the last thing I remember.
Genre: thriller, romance, suspense
Tone: sad, depressing, all the feels
Plot: character realizes that they are worth so much more in life through unconventional people doing unconventional things
Thriller
tone is depressing
Character will try to get her life back together after a near death experience. Bash will come back into her life.
Romantic thriller. Depression. This person has lost the one person she ever loved and now does not want to live. Being pulled from the depths of destruction, she will learn how to live with or without Bash.
Genre: Adult Mystery, Thriller
Tone: woeful
Plot: Learning to deal with loss.
GENRE: Romance
TONE: Desperate
BASIC PLOT: Our protagonist attempts suicide, but fails. Alive, she now must find the missing Bash.
G: Romance
T: Serious
P: She’s saved by a stranger who notices her car through clear water. She’s in a coma for some time and when she wakes up she doesn’t remember her past life. The man who saved her visited her frequently in the hospital. After she woke up he’s still there. He supports her all the way through her recovery and they fall in love. The things are getting complicated when eventually her memories come back. Her love for Bash comes back like it never went away. Then the grief hits her twice as hard and she feels depressed again. Her new boyfriend tries his best to comfort her and to get her back, he can sense that she’s slipping away from him.
Suspense/Fantasy/possibly horror. The narrator is given the opportunity to remake the choices that lead to the moment of the accident/possible suicide and notes the dark influences previously unseen in his/her life
Romance with a dark tone. We’re either going to learn how she came to this sacrifice of herself or she’s going to be rescued and find there’s something to live for again . . . maybe both.
Genre: Romance
Tone: Depressed
Plot: Someone saves the main character, becomes a love interest and gives her a reason to live.
romance/suspense/possibly paranormal
dark, depressing,desperate, highly emotional
The story might go on to tell what happened to lead this character to such an act of desperation- a romance that ends with Bash leaving, and this character then feels alone and does not want to go on w/o him/her. OR, this character, although dead, remains stuck on the earthly plane as a ghost.
Genre: YA Dystopia
Tone: Dark, depressing
Plot: The character tries to commit suicide but is saved by Bash who explains why it was necessary to leave him/her behind. They join forces and work against the new regime that is taking control.
G: Romance
T: dark
Plot: The protag is saved at the last minute by a handsome stranger.
Genre: Romance
Tone: Dark
Basic Plot: The protagonist has just been left by Bash and deep in despair they try to
kill themselves. But after being rescued at the last moment they are sent to a psiquiatric centre where they meet someone and fall in love once more.
Technically, living by the sea meant there should have been a breeze. By nightfall, it should have been cooler, the heat less oppressive. By midnight, a full breath should have been easy to come by—even in July. That was one of the perks of living in Maine.
Not tonight, though.
A streetlight was out in the Old Port, the cobblestone street uneven beneath my feet. I’d been drinking—not a lot, since I was technically on the job, but enough that the night felt darker, the silence richer. I glanced at my watch. It was 1:55 a.m.
I had five minutes.
I picked up my pace, crossing Commercial Street at a trot before I paused at the head of an alley that led to Portland’s working waterfront. The smell of the ocean was strong, salty-sweet, on the air.
There was nothing but darkness when I looked down the alley toward the water. A smarter man would go back, I knew. Of course, a smarter man probably wouldn’t have come here in the first place. I ignored the warning voice in the back of my head, and forged on. I needed this goddamn story.
“Lisette?” I called.
No answer.
Genre: murder-mystery
Tone: suspenseful
Plot: investigative journalist is looking for an exciting scoop, finds that his informant has been murdered, and is unjustly framed for her murder. He spends the story trying to unravel the plot behind her death and clear his name.
This is an adult mystery/thriller, with a journalist looking for a dangerous story. Possible romance.
Genre: murder mystery (I got the murder vibe ight)
Tone: slow paced mystery
Plot: Lisette is found dead in the alleyway and the main character is caught in the sinister game of a psychopathic murderer. Mwhahaha.
Mystery
suspense
Journalist is looking for a story and plunges him into something darker than he anticipated.
Mystery thriller. Panic-stricken. A reporter, knowing he is on to the story of his career, discovers a story bigger than he could ever imagined.
Genre: Thriller
Tone: moody and dark
Plot: Detective / investigator following up a lead.
G: Crime
T: mysterious
P: The journalist headed for a meeting with his informer. He calls her name repeatedly. Starts to look for her walking deeper into darkness. After awhile he sees her lying on the ground, face down. He slows down but still comes up closer. When kneeling down at her side sharp pain goes through him. Next thing he hears is screams in a daylight. When he tries to get to his feet he notices a knife in his hand. His covered in blood, Lisette’s blood. The cops are quick to arrive and take him into a custody. He’s being charged for her murder. He spends the next 20 years in prison. As he gets out his determined to find out who had set him up.
This is a mystery with a suspenseful tone. Narrator is a journalist looking for a good story so he can be successful. He’s looking for something specific but it turns out to be bigger than he could have imagined. Possible love interest.
Adult historical fiction/horror/mystery the narrator, a reporter, becomes the center of the mystery he was writing about when his sources all begin to turn up dead and the clues begin to point to him
GENRE: Contemporary Adventure
TONE: Suspense
BASIC PLOT: Our hero reporter is hot on the trail of a story that will change his life.
Mystery/Thriller serious tone. Lisette either deepens the story or becomes the story “he” is pursuing.
Genre: Mystery
Tone: Foreboding
Plot: Main character finds a body and has to find out who the killer is.
Adult mystery/suspense
suspenseful, ominous
The protagonist, a reporter, gets in deep when he agrees to meet an informant in a dangerous locale. She’s dead, and he sees the face of a man just before the man flees. As the only witness, he fears for his life-for good reason.
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Tone: Suspenseful
Plot: He’s a reporter trying to make it to the big time. He was given a head’s up about a breaking story taking place on the wrong side of town. While trying to get the story he uncovers a bigger story and risks his life to bring the wrongdoers to justice.
G: Mystery/Murder
T: suspenseful
Plot – A private eye helps a sexy woman find her very rich husband who’s been cheating on her, but he’s dead. They must find out who killed him.
Alone sits the boy, knees to his chest, resting in the warm sand beneath him. His deep blue eyes fixate on the great surf, hypnotically gazing out into the ocean. He enjoys watching the water gently rise up only to come crashing back down. The echo of the breaking waves ripples throughout his body, soothing him on this humid summer day. Even with Uncle Charlie’s passing consuming his mind, the cycle of the sea still puts Shawn at ease. He loves coming down to the beach, staring into the endless abyss even if the weather is less than perfect, for this is the one place he can find comfort in the world. The one place he comes when there are no answers. Unfortunately for Shawn, there always seem to be more questions than answers, but even he didn’t anticipate Uncle Charlie being a reason to come down here.
“SHAWN JAMES! If you’re not in this house in ten seconds, so help me Lord!” The stern woman’s voice booms from afar, rattling his ears. She stands tall on an old wooden deck with her dark gray hair nestled in a tight bun, looking out to him.
This is a MG coming of age, with a dark tone. A boy dealing with deaths and finding himself.
YA/Coming of Age
Sad
Shawn is dealing with the loss of a family member. The story will divulge how he come to grips with it.
Genre: MG
Tone: light-hearted
Plot: Coming to terms with growing up.
Young adult fantasy. Sad. Shawn has lost his Uncle Charlie and is thrown into a world of strangers. He will learn to cope and will seek solace from the ocean.
G: YA/ adventure
T: Sad
P: Shawn has to accept loosing his favorite uncle. Unfortunately he can’t deal with it an no one seems to understand his feelings. He runs away hoping that all his problems will stay behind.
Genre: Middle Grade, Coming of Age
Tone: Nostalgic
Plot: Uncle Charlie is the first person Shawn is close to who dies. He has to come to grips with what it means to morn. He also thinks about his own mortality for the first time in his life. How anyone can die at any time and no one can stop it from happening.
Coming of age story with a sad tone. Uncle Charlie was his guardian and now he’s in foster care or with his aunt who he doesn’t get along with.
Genre: coming of age (I think it will end in a tragedy)
Tone: dark
Plot: narrator goes through process of grief. Goes through life under the controlling force that is his mother, eventually rebelling and becoming his own man. And then someone dies. :3
YA fantasy/adventure -Shawn begins to doubt the story he’d been told about Uncle Charlie’s life and uncovers evidence that he and his family are much more than he once thought.
GENRE: YA Adventure
TONE: Excitement
BASIC PLOT: Young Shawn is about to be thrust into the world of adventure in stark contrast to his all-to-normal life.
YA, Coming of age, serious tone. Shawn faces challenges after his uncle’s passing, maybe it creates questions he needs to answer to “mature” to the next level in life.
Genre: YA coming of age
Tone: Contemplative
Plot: Seems almost like the boy is an orphan. He will discover himself and find answers to his life, likely involving the ocean in some way. Maybe he will become a surfer or a boater.
YA/ coming of age
sad, dark tones
Uncle Charlie was the closest thing Shawn had to a father, and now that he’s dead, he’s left alone with his overbearing grandmother, since his own mother is off who-knows-where. He’s already had to deal with a lot of hardship in his life, and now this happened. The story will go on to tell how this event changes him.
Genre: YA Coming of Age
Tone: Sad, depressing but with a happy ending
Plot: Shawn must discover what happened to Uncle Charlie and come to grips with losing his only positive role model.
My guess:
Genre Sci-fi, young adult, dystopian fiction
tone: serious
plot: Emmeria will become a living conduit (to use the writer’s wording) of peace. Somehow, she’ll join with others to rebel against the government of Tarth so that people can feel.
Landser Walter von Beck awoke with a start. Breathing hard, he stared at his watch. Tiny droplets of dew covered the crystal and revealed nothing. He drew in his breath and swiped the dial with one quick motion. Only ten minutes had passed. Three . . . no, four more hours.
He forced his eyes to open wide, struggling to become alert. Raising his head cautiously he looked around. All was quiet. Only the doleful barking of a dog in the far distance broke the stillness. Darkness prevailed against the feeble light from a sprinkling of stars and a thin crescent moon.
He inhaled sharply and exhaled with force. He had dozed off while on watch! A vivid nightmare had left him in a cold sweat.
Due to the topography he knew the river could not be seen from where they had dug in. Still, he strained his eyes looking east, in the direction of the river. Tall, willowy reeds swayed eerily with the wind; ghostly apparitions silhouetted against a dark gray sky. He remembered exactly how long it would take them to get to those reeds, to the boats, and from there to the river’s edge.
This is an adult fantasy, with a impending doom feel. A fantasy setting during wartime.
I actually have no idea on this one but,
I’m getting a mysteryy/ action vibe
And the tone seems pretty dreary
The plot: uhhh I kind of feel like this guy is a treasure hunter. Mostly because they are digging stuff up do maybe they find some sort of artifact that changes this guys life ._. Sorry in advance
Not sure Historical Fantasy? (the name sounds old fashioned)
Grim sort of tone
He is supposed to be keeping watch and since he fell asleep its possible that someone stole what he had been sworn to protect.
Genre: YA Fantasy
Tone: Mysterious
Plot: Protecting his realm from something sinister.
Thriller. Anxious. Landser, possibly a squad leader, a spotter, awaits the opportunity to find safety from a life-threatening situation.
G: Thriller
T: mysterious
P: They are escapees from prison on return for their hidden money that they had from robbing banks. They are on the run and being chased by marshals. They are hoping to get to Brazil before marshals get close.
This is hard, but I think a thriller/mystery. It’s fixated in guilt and fear. It sounds like he’s waking up from a nightmare into a false awakening (if I interpreted the watch part correctly.) This is probably about him dealing with whatever event is causing these nightmares, and I feel it might be sort of similar to Inception? (Not the same obviously, but in the sense that it has the lucid dreaming)
Young Adult Fantasy/Suspense Dark Tone. von Beck and his companions are leading a campaign into the darkness as escort to a young prince who comes under the influence of the evils of the land and must be subdued and delivered without being injured/maimed/murdered by the anxious party of explorers
GENRE: Fantasy/Military Adventure
TONE: Tense
BASIC PLOT: The world is about to explode into war as empires clash. This incident along the border will only be the opening event.
Military Thriller with serious tone. He’s going to have to make it to that river’s edge and something’s going to try to prevent him from getting there.
Genre: Thriller Mystery
Tone: Omious
Plot: Something will happen here, or be found that will spark a mystery to be solved.
adult adventure
danger, suspense
von Beck is part of group that is on the run, and he is on watch while the others sleep. When they are discovered, the group runs to the river’s edge to the boats. Some are captured, some are killed, but von Beck escapes and must find a way to rescue the others.
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Tone: Vengeful
Plot: He’s waiting for a group of people to pass by on their way to escape on the river. They stole something from him and he wants to get it back. The story will revolve around his search for the stolen item and his eventual success in retrieving whatever it is.
The room smells as though it has recently been cleaned, sterile, I think, and I cringe at the word as it passes through my thoughts. Sterile, a word, we as society have become too familiar with.
With a sigh I slide the chip from around my neck into a microscope, knowing without doubt what I will find. I always come away with a pit in my stomach, after this kind of testing. Hoping, by some sort of miracle this couple will actually have a chance. Images of the sample appear on a screen next to me and I feel an ache in my chest, knowing this result will crush nearly every hope they had for the future.
I take in a deep breath and hold it in my lungs a little longer than necessary. “What’s wrong?” a voice says from the door. I shake my head, “nothing, just the usual,” I say in a sigh. I take the chip from the microscope then. I turn around to face my college and good friend, Dr. Zander Dillan’s. A smile twitches at the corners of his mouth, “”nothing” I can help with,” I lean against the microscope table and fold my arms across my chest.
Genre: thriller
Tone: dark
Plot: narrator is convicted to help other people and along the way he runs into many complications that could even put his own life at risk.
This is an Adult Sci-fi, with a mysterious tone. MC is helping couples conceive, maybe something about cloning?
Sci-fi
tone is mysterious
Seems that something has happened in the world and maybe tests need to be performed on couples to prove compatibility for marriage or breeding.
Genre: Adult Fiction, Mystery, Sci-fi
Tone: Moody
Plot: The world has become a sterile environment. Doctors/scientists are trying to find a way to make humans more immune to bacteria that never used to harm.
Best guess, Sci Fi. Sad. Our world is in peril. A future where child birth is non existent.. A solution to save the world will be found.
Adult Dystopian in a future where pollution or sickness have affected couples’ ability to conceive. Until a child is born. The protagonist must do whatever she can to protect the child from the Society with a capital S.
Genre: Mystery
Tone: Mysterious
Plot: While doing another routine check, she will see something strange on a slide. It will be dismissed out of hand and this will stay with her. What did she see? And why is it all being hushed up? It is not until she finds another anomaly on another slide that she really begins to investigate.
Dystopian. the world is barren and they are looking for a way to create babies. she is in the lab and trying to help, but goes on an adventure to find what the cause of the problem is and also fix it.
science fiction darkly toned but brightly light. The narrator is looking for evidence the couples can biologically reproduce, but most cannot perhaps due to some disaster/catastrophe in the past that this society has evolved from. Zander Dillan is an evil genius who has been doing genetic testing and becomes the baddy.
Medical Thriller with serious tone. These results are a ticking clock, will the POV find the answer before it’s too late?
GENRE: Techno-thriller
TONE: Desperate
BASIC PLOT: Our hero is about to become personally involved in a deep corporate secret that will affect society at large.
Genre: Sci Fi, possibly apocalyptic.
Tone: Morose
Plot: Humans have become sterile. At a hospital, people are trying to find a solution, and it is possible Dr. Zander has one.
G: Sci-Fi
T: Serious
P: Natural disaster struck the world. Everyone and everything is surrounded with either bacteria of some sort or unknowing to humanity virus. It either caused problems with conceiving and human kind is on a verge of dieing out or it brought disease that slowly kills everyone who is affected. MC dedicated him/herself to research. He/she will do everything in order to find cure. Maybe his/her family member will get sick as well (or himself) and it becomes a battle with time.
adult Sci-fi/thriller
dark, mysterious
Adults of child bearing age have suddenly and mysteriously become sterile. The protagonist is a young, but brilliant, scientist in charge of doing fertility tests. When test after test come back with disappointing results, she decides to investigate the cause herself. She’s shocked when she discovers the cause of the infertility. There’s been a massive cover-up by the government, and if they find out she knows the truth, she’s as good as dead.
Genre: Sci/Fi
Tone: Dark
Plot: The main character and Dr. Dillan will team up to create a way for couples that can’t have children to conceive. Something will go wrong and they will end up trying to fix their mistake.