Young Writers Society

This idea actually came to me while I was playing Fire Emblem. It was wierd. I just took some key element and cahnged them and POW! I get this. It's a historical fiction. Here's an overview of the plot:

Heather is the owner of a clothing store during the post abolition Jim Crow Laws issue. She was raised and tought to be racist and charged blacks higher prices. Soon, the blacks find out and boycot her store. The remaining customers, whites, tell her how stupid the blacks are, but these comments seem rude to her, and she decides to fight for black's rights. Her friends and family are against her new attitude, and she argues with them a lot. Her parents own a general store that is also boycotted. After Heather's new attitude spreads around, the boycot on her store is broken and her customer base skyrockets, as she owns the only clothing store that is not being boycotted. As blacks protest for equal rights, most whites get tired of them and move out of the town, including Heather's family. This is a deep tradgedy for Heather, and she feels strange and foreign in a town where she is the only white person.

What do you think?

It sounds pretty good, just a few things.

If she has been raised racist, then why doe she find the other people's comments are bad? If her family is racist she's been raised around that kind of language and realistically would be using it herself. I myself and writing a story about a girl who's parents were villains, but who grew to see that their was of life was wrong. It's extremely hard to make such transformations realistic, because in reality the environment we grow up in shapes us--so unless she's been sheltered from how badly the blacks are being treated, she shouldn't even blink an eye las when they are being attacked verbally, or even physically. You'll have to make the struggle to change real, something BIG has to happen to change her very way of thinking suddenly.

Next...whoa. All the whites leave the town? No offense, but has that evr happened historically? They have houses, land, lives in that town..and they're going to let a bunch of blacks--who are no better than dirt to them--drive them out with silly protests? If they left town, they'd want to sell their houses. If the only people left are black...then that implies they sold them to blacks. Again, not likely to happen. Backing down in such a extreme way sounds to me like a dream, not something realistic.

More likely, if the protests seem/are violent, they'd pressure the government to send in the army/police to put an end to it. Or better (and probably more realistic), they'd boycot the blacks too. If she's the only store in town open to blacks... then where are they getting their food?

It's a beautiful idea, but I'd recommend you think on those two points before you forge ahead. It's possible to still make your little heroin isolated--people could shut her out along with the blacks or something--but having a whole host of people who thin they're better than everyone else decide to run away just because of peaceful protests sounds convenient. It's not like the only people in the city are black, they do have white customers ...and not everyone would be able to pick up and move like that.

Hope that helps some, it has a lot of potential, I can already see the possibilities for making it a great read.
^_^ Keek!

I'll make the change bigger. That's a good point.

Hmm...Maybe I'll just say that her family leaves. That seems more realistic.

I didn't say that she owned the only store in town that was open to blacks, I said it was the only CLOTHING store open to them.

Thanks for the help, I'll definetly think those things over. This will be rather hard, but I'll pull it off.

^_^ Good to hear. You'll have to work at it, but I think you can make something really great with this idea. Good luck.

Sweet new transformation idea:

She sees a black woman walking along and drop a piece of paper. On it is a poem, which she thinks is amazing. This sharply contrasts the opinions the whites have, and she befriends the woman. She relizes that blacks are better then her family and white friends let on and then comes the rest.

How's that?

Definitely better. ^_^ Though make sure it doesn't happen too fast. At first she'd be confused and fascinated, trying to find about about the woman who wrote the poem without actually wanting to show interest. She might even, at first, suggest the woman wasn't the author at all (since she'd have been raised to think such artistic talent ws beyond them).

But of course the black woman would see right through her, and introduce her to the other side of life.

Or something like that. You get the idea: not too sudden. So long as you keep it real, it all good. Nice idea.

^_^ Best of luck!