Brainstorming time - I need a plot device stat!

[erinbee]

Hey YA AW'ers (that's a lot of initials!),

Nice to see that there's finally a young adult forum. I was hoping that some of you could help me come up with a plot device for the project I'm working on.

The story is about an idiosyncratic gamer girl getting ready to start junior year of high school. She's been going to school with the same kids for years, but when she gets to class, she realizes that nobody at high school recognizes her. In fact, nobody in the world recognizes her but her family and her best friend. Over the course of the story, she takes an increasing number of risks, using her "blank slate" to build up a cruel, new popular identity. At the end, when she risks having her real identity exposed, she has to make some choices about who she really is.

My question: what's a plot device I can use to explain why nobody recognizes her? I don't know about a paranormal type thing...magic seems played out...other things seem unbelievable. Is it simply an unbelievable premise altogether?

I'd really appreciate your help - thanks in advance for your bright ideas!

[Soccer Mom]

Hmm. The idea of getting a chance to start over and build a new identity is an intriguing one. I can't really come up with anything that isn't paranormal. But paranormal doesn't have to mean magic. Hmmm. This is interesting. I'm going to ponder it for a while.

[J. Weiland]

What if she is the unwilling participant in some sort of twisted experiment conducted by a secret government agency?

Aliens have abducted her and placed her in a parellel universe where she and her family and the one friend are the only ones who do not fit the equation?

[Marlys]

I can't think of any non-paranormal ways to work this. My first thought was maybe she'd been out for a year or so after a horrible accident that involved major reconstructive surgery...but then her classmates would have to know about it, and the school would probably make some fuss about her coming back.

Plus...what are you doing about her name? Any natural (huge weight gain or loss) or surgical changes might throw people off for a bit, but if there was even a smidgen of recognizability there (her voice, her eyes), her school chums would have to be complete idiots not to connect the name with the new look.

But, you know, a curse would do it.

[alleycat]

Could be done a bit like The Princess Diaries, where the girl has such a makeover that no one recognizes her.

Or, maybe she's went from ugly duckling to beautiful (and busty) swan.

Or, slightly different from your premise, the girl was in an accident and has had reconstructive surgery.

[moth]

Hm. I'm with soccer mom -- I can't see any readily apparent non-paranormal ways to work this. I too will go ponder and repost if anything comes to me...I hope it does! :) Sorry I can't be of more immediate help...:o

[alleycat]

Would it work if she had been so horrible the last year that everyone got together and decided to play a trick on her for a few weeks? Everyone is in on it except her family and best friend. Or the reverse . . . everyone else is so awful that they want to teach "Little Miss Goody-Goody" a lesson.

Or, do a "Stephen King" and don't explain it.

However, I think your basic plot idea is the fact of the girl changing. In that case, you could have her experience a life-changing event (a shock), or series of events, and have her effectively become a "blank slate". It would do what you wanted, without the oddness of trying to explain why no one recognizes her. I think in some ways this could also be more interesting and offer more avenues to explore. At the end, she could still have some difficult choices to make about who she really wants to be. Just a thought anyway.

[josephwise]

You could root the cause in her antagonist. Someone who despises her so much he/she spends a whole summer convincing everyone she never existed. Why would the antagonist do that? I don't know.

A bit surreal, but a character-based reason might be just the ticket.

[roguebear]

Maybe she was horribly burned and in a coma for a while and had extensive plastic surgery.

How about just go paranormal and have her randomly enter an alternate dimension?

[TwentyFour]

OMG! I watched a disney movie like this, only it was a nerdy boy and geeky girl who come back as foreign exchange students! It was a great movie! They were never noticed before that year, they got a kick *** makeover and came back to take over as the King and Queen Bees of the school! You should try it like that, they are ignored before and get some cool makeover and come back as stand out individuals!

Not sure if this helped, but it would be a great story! Oh, and in the movie, they spoke another language so they used an accent to up the ideals of their new identity.

[Toothpaste]

What about something like in Big (yes paranormal), she goes to a fair, wishes for a fresh start, and then wakes up the next morning and no one recognises her.

[Penguin Queen]

<...>
However, I think your basic plot idea is the fact of the girl changing. In that case, you could have her experience a life-changing event (a shock), or series of events, and have her effectively become a "blank slate". It would do what you wanted, without the oddness of trying to explain why no one recognizes her. I think in some ways this could also be more interesting and offer more avenues to explore. At the end, she could still have some difficult choices to make about who she really wants to be. Just a thought anyway.

I was thinking along those lines as well. That woudl make it more interesting I think, in a way.
Have her have an accident or some sort of shock, complete amnesia -- well, not complete, but she forgets every single event of her life. Blank slate. You'd need to read up on amnesia but I do believe this kinda thing happens.
And as alleycat says, it woudl make it really interesting for the reader who knew her before, and sees her changing.
And then you could maybe have her get her memory back, but she doesnt tell anyone, and struggles within herself.


The only other thing I can think of is some sort of alien experiment, for example, with the aliens wanting to prove the inherent badess of humanity, by allowing her to act out all her basest wishes without anyone knowing, but unbeknownst to her they watch her and take notes on electronic clipboards or something.

[Evaine]

Bill's New Frock, by Anne Fine, does something similar for younger readers, though Bill only has to live as a girl for one day at school. In that story, Bill wakes up to find his mum has laid a dress out for him to wear, and he's accepted as Bill and as a girl for the rest of the day with no explanation.
It's very funny, and Anne Fine is very observant about the little details of school life.

[alleycat]

I guess erin didn't need the device quite as quickly as she thought . . .

[erinbee]

I've just been enjoying the great responses! Thanks so much, everyone - this has alerted me to some inconsistencies in my story that I now get to figure out.

[emsuniverse]

You need to watch the movie "Jawbreakers" - there's a main character there who did just that. A complete makeover, no one recognized her, she was able to go from geek to bombshell and no one noticed.

[Soccer Mom]

This reminds me a query in Miss Snark's Crap-o-meter. You might want to check her blog for it. That one had a leprechaun granting a wish, if I remember correctly.

[Sandi LeFaucheur]

A complete makeover, no one recognized her, she was able to go from geek to bombshell and no one noticed.
Or, maybe she's went from ugly duckling to beautiful (and busty) swan.



As someone who's always been "plain Jane and no nonsense" I hate stories where someone becomes instantly beautiful. (Like those movies when the bespectacled heroine takes off her glasses and lets down her hair--"why, Miss Jones, you're beautiful!" ack!) You have no idea how upsetting that type of story can be to someone who does not meet the big-hair, straight-teeth, curves-in-all-the-right-places idea of pretty. Whatever you do, please don't do that and destroy a few more girls.

Yeah, sure, you learn to live with not looking like you fell out of Vogue, the song "At Seventeen" (Janis Ian) becomes your anthem, but heck sometimes it hurts.

Oops, is my insecurity showing?

[niczav]

It would involve a few other changes, but how about the Witness Protection Program. That way, at the end, the risk of exposing her identity would have very big consequences, not just for her but for her family too (and maybe even for the course of justice). I wrote a filmscript along that theme a few years ago, but nobody liked it. Maybe they just thought my writing was crap, though ...

[Elektra]

Even a complete makeover doesn't explain why people don't recognize her from her name during roll call. I can't think of anything outside of the paranormal. Perhaps it could be like some sort of divine test, like in that movie The Family Man