Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-12736261-20140708180230/@comment-10734109-20150209024326

I'm good with basic ideas and editing stuff, but I'm not really good at building on and conveying emotions and all that shizzle.

I'll just copy my ideas from the writers thread over to this one for reference. I know that you all had some pretty good ideas too, so you could transfer them over as well.:
 * Exposition: Introduce characters and interactions
 * Conflict/problem: School is thinking of shutting down the visual arts department due to lack of enrollment and inability to pay teachers
 * Rising action: Students start fundraisers to help keep the school open (while facing failures and difficulties with this task
 * Climax: The goal has been reached
 * Falling action: The rest of the school year wraps up
 * Resolution: The year finishes woohoo

More elaboration:

Chapter 1
 ·     *      (3:00 PM) Show students arriving at the school and saying farewells to their parents or getting off buses. We can use this as an opportunity to briefly get a view of some of the characters’ personalities as well as to get the readers used to seeing the characters.

 ·     *      Once in the school, the students follow signs to the auditorium where they are told to spilt off into different sections by grade (first character interactions can be shown here, even if it’s just between two characters)

 ·     *      School headmaster (or principal) gives a speech on the opportunities of the school, how the schedules work, where the dorm rooms are, etc. (Some characters can be intrigued, while others are bored out of their skulls)

 ·     *      After the assembly is over, the students are told to head to the teachers in the front of their grade’s section (9th, 10th, 11th, 12th) to receive their schedules (which have a map of the school on the back to help them navigate it, though this does not need to be shown to the readers). Once they get their schedules, the students are allowed to go to their dorms (four students to a room).

 ·     *      The main girls’ dorm room will consist of Kim, Kaitlin, Brooklyn, and Janika; the main boys’ dorm room will consist of Andrew, Farid, Darren, and Emery. This is not excluding the other characters, as they will be included in another dorm room.

 ·     *      When they get into the dorm rooms and start unpacking, deciding who sleeps where and that sort of thing, the characters can start having more direct interaction with each other and will probably start talking about things. At this point, the girls will likely be the first ones introduced. It’s not out of the question that they’ll even start having arguments or poking fun at each other. Everyone’s not always friendly when they first meet. Kim, in particular, is probably going to be completely ticked at everyone she gets stuck with, especially with Brooklyn due to her lack of feelings towards others and her tendency to seem insensitive. Kaitlin and Janika will likely start off on the wrong foot.

 ·     *      The characters go down to dinner, where most of them are meeting for the first time. Not sure yet whether or not we should actually show too much of this scene, though.

Chapter 2
 ·     *      We skip to morning, and show the boys waking up. Though the school day starts at 12:00 and is a half day to get everyone used to the new schedule, Farid sets his alarm clock for 9:00 so that his sleep schedule won’t be off too drastically for the next day. However, he forgets how loud it was set to and it ends up waking everyone else up as well, except for Darren who was already up doodling for the past half hour (doesn’t need much sleep). Naturally, the other too are annoyed with Farid.

 ·     *      Until the school day starts officially, we can show interactions between our main male characters and how they cope with each other. Since Emery is not as interested in visual arts he may not be able to relate as well to the others.

 ·     *      Before the school day starts everyone goes down to the cafeteria to eat lunch, where some of them meet up with other people that they either met the day prior or they knew before coming to the school.

 ·     *      And finally, it’s time to actually start school! First, everyone would take the required courses (math, science, English, social studies) and after those are over with they’d go to their elected art courses. I’m not detailing this much right now, since we’d have to decide which characters we’d be following around for each period.

 ·     *     In the first art course of the day (illustration) everyone comes down and sits at one of the four (or five if we want) art tables stationed around the room with four people to a table. Kim, Kaitlin, Andrew, and Farid all sit down at the same table. Right after everyone is settled the teacher introduces himself (I’m thinking Mr. Lockwood), and then says that throughout the year they’ll be working on projects with the other people at their table to get a feeling for what their work may be like in the future. (Characters react accordingly xD)

 ·     *      After this, the chapter ends



And now for stuff about character relations:

Main group: Kaitlin, Kim, Andrew, Farid How it might come about: Both Farid and Darren are not normally the types of people to try and start conversation, but as roomates (and possible seat partners in English?) they'll end up warming up to each other and will BE THE BEST BROS OF ALL TIME.
 * "Intellectuals" friend group (develops over time): Darren, Farid, Brooklyn

Brooklyn will probably have trouble getting along with her roomates since they might view her as cold and insensitive, but since she and Farid would have fairly similar processes of thinking they wouldn't have much trouble getting along. They can be seat partners in math and then can realize, "Hey! This person's pretty good at math too! Maybe they like other subjects too?" *deep intellectual conversationing ensues*

Also, Darren and Brooklyn have pretty compatible personalities so it wouldn't be difficult for them to become friends either. <p style="margin-bottom:1em;">In short, Andrew would get along better with the girls rather than the guys. All of the guys would be a bit insensitive for his taste in friends, and so he'd likely tend to lean towards most of the female characters as friends even if they themselves don't get along with each other.
 * Andrew's relations: Kim, Kaitlin, Janika

Even so, I could see him ending up gaining a bit of a crush on Emery, which could really confuse him and cause him to be stressed (but we wouldn't reveal the reason why until later eheheheheh suspense ehehehEHEHEHEHHEHHHH *COUGHS LOUDLY*) <p style="margin-bottom:1em;">Emery probably won't really be too involved with the visual arts group of students, and will only ever be seen with them in required courses and when they go back to their dorms for the night. He'll probably be one of the "popular guys" in his music and theater classes and will likely have a substantial group of friends. However, the friends he finds may not necessarily always be the best of people and will sometimes poke fun at the more wimpy, "bossy," and intellectual characters as well as the more feminine guys. Emery doesn't think much of it since he's never really been in those positions. <p style="margin-bottom:1em;">Since Camilla is very friendly towards other people, she will probably do her best to accept Janika even though most people find her irritating. Andrew would probably be the same way as well. Kaitlin only tries to be her friend because of Camilla. <p style="margin-bottom:1em;">Okay, so this is just a headcanon type thing that still needs accepting, but I thought it would be interesting if Kaitlin and Camilla were best friends who always did everything together before they came to the school, and when they transferred they were really hoping to get in the same dorms (but, clearly, did not) and now they have to try and talk to the other people that they're actually in the dorms with. They could even have signed up for the same classes, though the periods which they were placed in could have been switched for two of these so that they only have maybe one required course and one elective together. If you guys like the idea (sorry for the awful explanation) of them being middle school friends, I'd like for you to notify me xD.
 * Emery's relations: Other theater/music students
 * Janika's relations: Camilla, Andrew, Kaitlin (to an extent)
 * Kaitlin's relations: Camilla, Andrew, Ro, Janika (somewhat)

I realize that I haven't added Ro in yet, but Camilla would probably end up trying her best to get to know Ro (same dorms) and Kaitlin would thus be introduced. <p style="margin-bottom:1em;">The main girls hate her; her roomates don't know what to think about her rumours. Enough said.
 * Jenna's relations: Other people in the fashion and cosmetology classes

Plus, it's likely that she'd be more friendly towards people with similar interests to her and she may think that the animation, illustration, and fine arts students are either ditzy or dorky/nerdy.