Young Writers Society

Challenge

Elevator Pitch

Sam's been at the Tea Party Organization for as long as he can remember. Well... he can't remember much from his old life. After all, that's the good thing about the Organization: the tea parties, the scones, the pain-free and easy life without illness, his best friend Rishi. The only thing he remembers is Jane, the girl who refused her invitation of recruitment. But as Sam graduates his studies, and he begins to experience sick flare-ups, Jane begins to occupy more and more of his mind. What's it like out there, beyond the Organization, and what's Jane like now?

(OMG, this was so hard! I have a lot of trouble with blurbs, much less elevator pitches! I feel like I have so much I wanna say, and I don't think this does it justice, especially because, while Sam is my main main character, we follow Rishi and Marian as characters, too. Eek!!)

EDIT: Here's an even shorter pitch. Attempt 2, lol. I still think I need to work on my focus.

A group of "tea partying" teens, all with their own motives, leave the only world they've known at the safety of the Tea Party Organization--a reclusive, self-sustaining dwelling--to discover the world beyond and confront their own pasts.



Song Inspiration

Challenge

Character questionnaire: Sam



Sam art, by the lovely @Spearmint

25k is a great goal for Camp!! Love the Sam art, and I'm excited to learn more!! <3

This story premise sounds super cute! I like the title as well. Can’t wait to see how this goes

* theme of escapism vs confrontation of the past

I am in love with this already!

The rest of your themes are awesome as well and I am so excited to follow your project this month! <3

@Carlito Yesss! Might be a bit more or less than 25k, but that's my estimation! Lol anything is always easier for me than the laborious, daunting NaNo 50k. Wanna get this draft DONEEE!

@Lael Thank you so much!!!^_^

@RandomTalks YAY I'm so glad you like that theme. It was definitely something I started off with strongly when I was in the beginnings of my planning process.

Challenge

Character and location list

Sam: my cutie-patootie, mr. mcflirty MC! (more about Sam in character motivations/goals and character description).

Rishi: Sam's #bestie FOR LIFE YO. Rishi has felt second to Sam for his whole life, but part of him doesn't care--because he loves Sam, too. Everyone loves Sam. Rishi is a rule-following perfectionist, the perfect balance to Sam's over-impulsivity and spontaneity. He's anxious and constantly preoccupied with how he is perceived, always wishing he could have a bit more of Sam's easy confidence. Rishi's fear is to be forgotten and alone: and when Sam leaves the Organization without him, Rishi becomes consumed with self-loathing, jealousy, and anger.

Marian: To perhaps even more of an extreme than Sam, Marian feels like she doesn't belong at the Organization. She has no roommate in her cottage (and she can't help but wonder whatever happened to that girl), and her friends are boy-crazy and obsessed with handsome Sam and Rishi. She feels out of place at community gatherings, insecure with her presence, and instead prefers to indulge in romance books she checks out of the library. Marian wants something more: she wants the whirlwind of romance she reads about in her stories, friends she can trust and connect with, and to learn to love herself.

Jane: Jane my beloved... she drives Sam crazy (but I promise she has a story of her own). Jane is a tall, skinny, willowy girl with the biggest doe eyes. When she was recruitment age (7 in this draft, but I may age this up...) she rejected the invite to join the Organization and has lived in Waterstone for her whole life with memory loss about anything to do with the Organization. Jane is currently practicing the become a nurse, something she's promised to do ever since her baby brother died. This event has shaped her into an extremely nurturing and protective person with a hard exterior.

Chrysanthi: Chrysanthi is a gorgeous traveling dancer who stops by Waterstone on their performance tour. She has long wavy dark hair, brown skin, and a strong Grecian nose. To parallel Marian, she too wants to get out of her own organization: Chrys loves to dance, but she has hopes beyond the grueling traveling life and the constant subject to male objectification.

Mr. Lawrence: mentor at the Organization

Miss Daisy: Miss Daisy is a glassy-eyed, blonde-bobbed mentor at the Organization. As a mentor, she teaches studies at school about tea partying etiquette, regulations, and expectations. She's described as aloof, "out-of-it", and properly mannered.

Mr. Earl: the leader of the Organization

The Tea Party Organization: A secluded, cozy commune hidden with magic from the real world. Small population, all of recruits from tea parties from around the world--people saved from the previous bad living situations or traumas. Cottage housing, forests, farmer's market, lively community square, farmland. After children graduate their studies at 17, they work as tea brewers or tea partiers and can continue this work or choose to pursue another profession (farmer, baker/chef, etc). Tea brewers are specialized in the craft of brewing magical teas for tea parties, including those that aid in memory loss. Tea partiers embark on tea parties around the world, where they help bring relief to assortments of strangers who require help (somewhat like therapy)--after each visit, clients will forget about the tea party but carry with them some peace and tranquility into their life. Every year, there are also recruitment tea parties, where they recruit young children to join the Organization.

Waterstone: A rather rural village in the real world, England. A bit of a contrast to the Organization, which is full of vibrant colors: the sky here is overcast and gloomy, there are streets full of slums and poverty, and on the outskirts of the town there are some rows of dead farmland. However, there are also bakeries that pump out the smell of freshly baked bread along the streets, rackous laughter you can hear in the late hours of the night from taverns and bars, and forms of art completely inaccessible to the Organization: gorgeous dance, live music, sculpture.

Character Motivations/Goals

Sam!

Sam likes the Organization well-enough. He enjoys having dance parties with Rishi in the community center, turning in vouchers to Marlene's Bakery for the sweetest and tastiest baked goods, and his job as a "tea partier" who embarks on tea parties outside the Organization to heal clients of their pains with the Organization's magical teas.

But as he grows older, his curiosity about the outside world grows. Especially his curiosity about Jane, the strange girl he met on a tea party all those years ago who did something no one has ever done before--reject their invite to the Organization. The Organization is supposed to make him feel good--it's supposed to relinquish him of all anguish. But how come something feels off, and he's itching to explore and to learn more? How come he can't stop thinking about Jane and what she's doing now?

Sam wants to get out-to explore. And to meet Jane. What holds him back is discovering the truth about the world the Organization so tightly protects him from, and Sam's deep-rooted fear of realizing he may be completely worthless.

The stakes

This is something I've had trouble with throughout my writing process so far! I really want to work on this/tighten it up in my second draft (hoping I get that far lol). However, I'm trying to keep this in the somewhat cozy-fantasy genre (so something with lower stakes) but enough consequences that the reader invests in the story! This is also more spoilery (not sure if anyone cares, but yes--proceed with caution if you care!).

Most challenging character

So far in my writing process, of what I consider to be my four MCs (Sam, Marian, Rishi, Jane), I think Jane has been the hardest to write. Interestingly, I expected Sam to be the hardest to write because he's my COMPLETE opposite: a super social butterfly, silly, adventurous. However, I've actually had a lot of fun writing him and it's been a lot more of a natural process than I expected! Marian and Rishi have been not as challenging to write because they're both rather withdrawn characters that internalize a lot of their emotions; there are many ways I relate to both of them.

On the other hand, I've been having a bit of a problem with Jane and I think it's attributed to a few things.

1) The POV: Jane is the only one of the four who doesn't have an active POV chapter, so it's harder for me to really get in the head of her character.
2) She has less page-time, so I haven't been able to work with her for as long as the others.
3) I think her personality naturally makes her more challenging to write? Her personality is also something I'm definitely still working on (and will want to focus on in a future draft). She's nurturing and kind, but stoic and quiet at the same time.

Mr. Earl, who is the main antagonist of the book, has also been a challenge to write but I think that's mostly because I don't have the external conflict (which has to do with him) developed very well and I've had a lot of fun diving into characters' internal conflicts, sooo that's also going to be something I want to focus on in draft 2! And this Camp NaNo, too, as my writing process amps up to the climax!

Story arc

Cinderella (rise then fall then rise).

The story begins at a low-point, but settles in to the safety of the Organization. The fall occurs as the conflict ramps up and the last rise is the happily ever after (no sad endings in this cozy fantasy!).

It's coming-of-age, through the backdrop of a magic organization. The characters grapple with the decision of whether to escape from their problems (via magic tea at the Organization that essentially acts as a drug) or to face their problems in the real world. A combination of romance, friendships, learning about yourself, and preparing for the "real world".

I love all of your planning so far, this sounds great!! Love the vibes, especially:
* cottagecore, rural English village vibes
* a boy that goes far for the girl he loves

<3

So far, I've been on track for my tentative 25k goal! I'm currently sitting at 9300 words. I decided to do an update so far because I've recently passed the 33% mark (1/3!) and I also have some thoughts about my goal.

Since my overarching goal is just to complete my draft, I translated this into a rough estimation for a word count goal at 25k. That puts me at about 15,700 left to write. I have about 13 chapters left of the draft planned out, so I think that's a good track! My chapter lengths have been ranging from 1k-2k, with the chapters written for this Camp on the shorter end because the pace has picked up as we reach the climax. Anyway, I kinda just wanted to work out my calculations and figure out if 25k is still an appropriate goal (I was actually thinking I may need to decrease it, but I think it's at a good point!).

On the note of pace, I'm having a lot of fun getting into this more fast-paced stuff! One of my goals for edits is going to be working on creating more intrigue and possible conflicts in the earlier half of the draft, but I'm having fun with this conflict in this latter half!