Thinking about Writing a Book: Would Like Some Input

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I actually posted something similar in the Members Only Forum a few months ago, but it didn't get many responses, since it was probably the wrong forum for it. Anyway, I'm thinking about writing a book. It's going be loosely based on my life as a child. The tone of the novel is going to be dark but matter-of-fact, with just enough emotional writing to speak out to the NTs; just think of Fahrenheit 451. The setting will be in an unspecifed town, loosely based on where I spent my childhood years in, but generic enough not to match to any real town.

The main character will be a boy in second grade. The story will not specify him as an aspie or make any references to Asperger Syndrome, but the description of him will be very clear to anyone familiar with AS. Events will unfold throughout the book, describing situations that can be painfully unpleasant to an aspie child. Despite the general darkness of the novel, there will be some comic relief, and the ending will be just optimistic enough to appeal to both the happy-go-lucky and the bitter-and-jaded.

The novel will be in a realistic society set in a future or futuristic time period. The setting will resemble modern-day life, with late 80's to early 90's technology (for a slightly steampunk-ish vibe), although I might add inventions not found in today's world. Here's a sneak preview of some of the places in the story.

[yet unnamed] River
The town where the story takes place has a river running through it. Many decades ago, long before the story is set, it was heavily used by ships and boats, and people came to swim there. Currently, it's too polluted for swimming and boating, and too shallow for transportation; the story is set in this period. The main character and his friends have a love/hate relationship with it.

[yet unnamed] Avenue
This is one of the town's main thoroughfares, named after [to be added in the novel]. The main character and his friends use this street to get to the river, since its bridge crosses it. Many of the town's public transit routes operate on this street. It's not located near the main character's school, so it's one of the few places where he can go without being recognized by bullies.

Three Bridges Park
This park is located on the bank of the river. It got its name from the three beautiful pedestrian bridges it once had, crossing to a residential area on the other side. Two were destroyed by vandalism and lack of maintenance, and the last one was torn down and never replaced, to protect the residential area from crime.

Gulf War Fighters Monument
Near the Three Bridges Park, there is a solemn-looking memorial. It has a plaque with the writing: "This monument is the least we can do for the men and women who fought a war they did not support.". It's intended to be an ironic contrast to how the main character is bullied for being different, especially considering that schools have field trips there.

So, that's the end of the sneak preview. Let me know what you think of it so far, and post any ideas/comments/suggestions you can offer.

It sounds like a good idea for a book and your meticulous planning of your world is excellent; it shows that it already exists in your head which means that you should be able to bring it to life quite easily.

Have you written a 1 page synopsis for the story yet? This is a good idea as it'll help you plan out exactly where the story will go and you can start devising how many chapters it will comprise of and what to put in each chapter. Have you also sketched out character descriptions for each of your main characters, to help you understand how they'd act/react to the situations in your story?

Are you familiar with story structure? Will this be your first book?

What's the conflict? Your main character versus the bullies? What's the resolution?

For now, this book is just an idea. The structure and tone are inspired by Fahrenheit 451, where Guy Montag is embittered and disillusioned by the society he lives in. Thus, the conflict will be main character vs. the world. I'm not sure what the resolution will be. I don't want the ending to be too happy, but at the same time, just optimistic enough so that it won't be dismissed as "depressing". Like Gustav Mahler's version of "Frere Jacques" (a children's song written as a dirge), the story shows the dark side of a supposed time of joy and make-believe.

I plan to set the story in the year 2183 (but with 1980's and 1990's technology). Crime rate is low enough to make it safe for second graders to walk around by themselves, but life for aspies remains just as treacherous and unpleasant as it was in 2010. At the same time, kids are not viewed with high regard by the adult population at large (like kids on planes today).

Here's a possible opening scene.
P (temporarily name for the protagonist) and his friend F1 (temporary name) were sitting on the river bank, in a forest in an underdeveloped area of town, eating peanuts and throwing shells into the water, watching them slowly drift away downstream.
"Now this is nice", P said, "not like at home. I got a C on my homework, and my parents banned me from watching TV for an entire week. I'm lucky as hell they still let me hang out with you." P cracked open a peanut, ate the contents, and furiously threw the shell into the river; it started floating away.
"Hey, a TV is just a cathode ray tube in a box," F1 reassured him, "you still have me", and patted P on the back. "There are nice people in the world, you know," he continued. "Like that old lady at the farmers market who sold us the peanuts. She talked to us as equals."
"Maybe she's lonely... But I'm still going miss my Sunday night cartoons because my parents said if I get a bad grade, I'll regret it", P retorted, and tossed another shell into the river.
...

You havent really answered the question "what is the conflict"?

you're kinda writing the story from the outside in- instead of from the inside out.

Most writers ( I assume) start with the actual story- the main conflict and storyline- and then work outward to create the characters and setting.

you seem to be doing the opposite- setting a very vivid stage before you even have any notion of what the play is.

Is this about being an aspie (being rejected by nt society). Is it about childhood in general ( you are onto a good irony -adults tend to idealize childhood and forget what a hell childhood can be), or -what exactly?

It seems pretty interesting. I like the idea of seeing things from a young Aspie's POV, and I would like to see the society that spouts so many hypocracies.

I would think that is more like on the river bank between the bridge and the forest at the edge of town, and I would not want to refer to a forest (in an area of town?) as "underdeveloped".

Personally, I think you overall planning is good, but I also think others are correct in saying you need a specific story line that will actually capture and hold the reader's interest ... and I think it would be easy to become distracted or preoccupied by the work you will be doing to insert and hold AS "between the lines", so to speak.

Thanks for the comments so far. When I said "underdeveloped", I meant that it's located on a slope of a hill, where buildings cannot stand, so it's mostly a wild forest. Just think of a forest preserve, only without government designation as such. Locating it on the edge of town wouldn't work for the story I have in mind.

I suppose it'll take me more time to properly develop a conflict and a plot line, as well as the human elements. Perhaps it'll end up being a novella, like Ayn Rand's Anthem or H. G. Wells's Time Machine, than a proper novel. I suppose I'll know more certainly if I decide to go through with writing it. To make suspension of disbelief easier, I'll set the story in the year 2183, after a number of massive changes swept the world (passing references to them will be made), resulting in the society where story is set. Yet at the same time, aspie children continue to struggle through like just as much as they do today.

... and maybe add the twist of Aspie children surviving despite the treatment experiments of the 2100s ...??