What should I use for a story lead (chick-lit novels)?

Question

I lost a ms that I've been working on for a year, and I'm heartbroken about that, but I want to start a new novel.
I have three leads:
1. A girl that decides to get a fake email address so she can help sort out her friends problems without them knowing that it's her doing all of the work, but realizes that she has made something worse
2. Diary thing
3. A book about an illegal immigrant girl

Answer 1

Can you combine all three, or two of those ideas?

Try sorting out each story, and choose the one your heart, mind, and gut are leading you toward. You seem to have more to say about Idea #1.

Answer 2

if your audience is teenage girls then the first story sounds best.
Personally I think you should not mix the three together, it would be too much going on. The third sounds more like a mature topic which teenage girls might not be too interested in (though it is still very good).

To make it a diary well, you have to have a plot too, so you can make that just be sort of an addition. I think there are far too many books out there that are written in the diary format.


- Perhaps you should alternate between the first person (not in diary though) and third person, between chapters.

- Or you could alternate between the girl who is trying to help and her friend.

- Or you could start the beginning of each chapter with a diary entry from the friend that she is trying to help. Then the rest can be in first person from the girl that's created the account ...


(I know I say a lot about alternating but I just think that for this kind of story if it is not told in first person then it is hard to get it across well. But also if it is written in first person then it is too biased, one does not know about what the other gril/boy feels except what the girl with the email thinks she feels.