For the past couple of days, I've had an idea for a story I want to write. The basic premise is two sisters, Caitlin and Sarah, trying to survive in an Orwellian police state. I've been dabbling into fiction with that sort of setting to get ideas, like Half-Life 2 and 1984, but I'm having trouble with the plot. Would any of you kindly give me some creative assistance, or at least provide a few tips?

Well, I like to write stories a lot, and what helps me is to sit down and start daydreaming of what it would be like to be in the shoes of my character(s). The exact feelings, motives, mindset, etc. Then I would basically throw said character in a situation, then see how s/he would deal with it, leaving room for character development of course. If it turns out to be an interesting enough story, I write it down.

It may be a bit cliche, but the story you could write would be is that the two sisters somehow realize how screwed up the society is (they get prosecuted for doing something minor, or one of them is killed, or one of them is sent to prison or something) and the other decided to lead a rebellion of some sort.

I know, cheesy, but it's the only thing I could think up on the fly. :shrug:

So you have a setting but not a story ? That doesn't sound too good :S From what I understand the setting is supposed to work for the story but the story is not supposed to work for the setting. But there seems to be a certain tip I heard quite often.

"End at the beginning, start at the end."

If you want an intriguing story with a ton of sub-plots and twists then the setup before those events are supposed to be built around them. The thought it supposed to be.

"So X is going to happen, I better write Y to make it possible"

Rather than.

"Oh, I wrote Y so now I can make X happen"

There are however many stories that seem to run like some sort of an action course and that can be fine too, but those stories don't tend to svck you in as much as the more complex ones.

One sister is kidnapped by the evil overlords for experiment fodder. The other sister must side with revolutionary ghetto rats in order to defeat the baddies and rescue said sister.

Aliens arrive on Earth, offering a solution to all of the worlds hunger and water needs, but the evil overlords want nothing to do with it since solving such social issues would make all the population free. Sisters must help the alien pilgrims to free humanity.

Greedy industrialists are converting the ghetto populations into food for the upper crust. Sisters must battle facist stormtroopers in order to expose the "Truth".

Not really. In fact on the contrary, if you don't work out your settings first, the story easily crumbles to inconsistancy. Of course that depends on what stories you want to put in. A story based on how people were affected by circumstances could easily fall into sci-fi category, could be many short stories based on a consistant fictional world. One that tells tales of human virtues or sins could be put in most any settings. Both works.



Two girls, you can start with one cup, or pensil test.

Jokes aside, Orwellian police state. What do you want with this settings? A final destruction of the ruling entity when folks revolted, with many sacrifices? Shadowwars between secret societies which the girls caught within? Betrayal, tragedy, love hate relationship between the sisters? Superhero type where they align themselves with rebels? Or be slightly out of the cliche, police the state and tell the commons/rebels/secret societies who's the boss?

many great stories develop from a "unity of opposites," in other words, two characters with conflicting goals that are bound to each other by circumstance

it would be helpful to establish the distinct identities of the two sisters and perhaps their clashing desires

Have you read The Carhullan Army? The society is very Orwellian, but the "Army" in question lives just beyond it's borders. A woman realises how bad the society is (she would be like a prole in 1984, not someone higher up like Winston was) and leaves to find Carhullan - a society which lives in complete isolation and is brutally self sufficient, until The Authority decides it wants to expand.

It's awesome, and might give you some inspiration. I found it interesting because the majority of the book is set outside The Authority's borders, but it still plays a major part. Also interesting to see how a new society develops - lots of books like that end when the protagonist gets out of the society, where as this one pretty much begins with her leaving.