Never Too Old For Y.A. & N.A. Books discussion

Hi! I am currently beginning to write my novel which is YA dystopia. It follows a place in the future where the government controls their people's memories to wipe any rebellious thoughts from their minds. At night, every person must report to their pods, where the are wired up.
Caspian is a Memorable, the person whose job it is to wipe the people's minds. What he hasn't old anyone is, he keeps the most important memories to start a revolution of his own.
There is also a girl, whose name I have not decided upon yet. She lives in the poorest area of the country where the land is barren and food is scare. These are the most rebellious people. During a routine wire in to wipe her memories, a virus sweeps through the system, effecting only her and Caspian. Their memories swap. Both knowing what the other knows, they must find each other in a world of chaos, to put right the wrongs of their society.

Please help me! I am stuck with a name for the female character. I am looking for an unusual name, preferably short. She is a very strong, determined, curious and rebellious character. The ideas I have are; Aurora, Cecile, Iris, Anya, Rae, Dulcie, Rowan, Avery, Ava, Tamara. Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted. I would also like to know if you think the plot sounds good (there will also be a romance aspect in there). I look forward to hearing what you think :)

I really like Anya. I don't think I've read a book with that name yet. I would suggest Sia, it's short and unique. Or Gia.

I think this sounds like something I would want to read. I have a question: why aren't the memories of the memorables wiped (or are they)?

they are, it's just Caspian is being a bit naughty and cheating the system :)

Ah. Well sounds good. Happy writings!

Hi Millie,

I like the sound of this. The memory wiping sounds really interesting. It'd certainly be one of the best ways to control a population and its a really creepy concept. I also think the idea of a romance between two people who have each other's memories is intriguing (I'm assuming the two of them have a romance).

On the names, I think the best names in this sort of book are those ones that are unusual, but that you could imagine someone actually having in real life. I always think too many really weird names sounds a but odd. Of your suggestions, I like Anya, Rae, or Ava best.

I think there are a couple of things you need to think about to make a dystopian novel work.

1)It's obviously quite an overcrowded genre, so you've got to make sure yours stands out and doesn't contain too many genre clichés. I write vampire novels, so I have the same issue. "Girl from poorest area" has been done, so I wondered if you could give it a bit of a twist. Maybe her town could be really beautiful (grows only flowers and no food?) or her family could be the richest (very relative term) people in the poor area and face jealousy. Those are just random suggestions - you just need something to shake things up, with that and any other plot point that people could accuse of being similar to something else they've read.

2)Work on the world building. I think the best books are those where you really understand the history and geography and politics of the world. In particular, I think you need to make the rules of the memory machine very clear (I'm not saying you haven't - I'm just giving my advice) - what does it take? what does it leave? do people whose memories have been taken have gaps or fake memories? If a memory isn't deleted after one day, can it ever be deleted? etc etc

Similarly, I think you need to be clear on the Government's motivation. How did it get power? Why do they do bad things? Most people aren't super villains who are deliberately doing evil - they probably think their actions are in everyone's best interests, or the lesser of two evils. One thing that would be cool would be if they originally started wiping people's memories for good reasons - to help people get over personal tragedies - and then it became more wide spread and less voluntary.

Finally, I think it's crucial to make the romance realistic: a gradual development, things in common, some ups and downs etc.

Phew, I got a bit carried away there, but I hope some of that is useful. Feel free to use or ignore as you see fit. I think my take home message is that it's a really good concept, but it's what you do with it that will determine whether it becomes an equally good book. Good luck - I'd love to read an early draft at some point!

I like anya is well. it's strong but feminine and vulnerable at the same time. I think it would fit with her being poor. The plot sounds really good. My only question is do they still know who they are? is it just the rebellious thoughts that get swiped

Hi Millie
I'm new to the group and I was searching for advice on self-publishing when I stumbled across this discussion. I found your idea interesting and wondered if you continued with it. Would love to read it when finished. Also, did you pick a name for your female character.

This is a great idea! Do you have any of it written yet? I would love to see how you develop the characters and setting. POV should be really interesting in this book -- I'm imagining the POV changing as each memory is shown. Anyway, out of your suggestions, I think Ava is the best. It's short, sort of exotic, but also humble. Plus it's a real name, so it's less distracting for the reader.