forum Ok so here’s the idea

Started May 21, 2019 by @ElianaRose15

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It’s about a high school newspaper club and journalism class and the students bringing justice to their school and working together to find a traitor in the office who is selling information to a competitor newspaper. Ideas?

Sounds like an interesting place to start! I think this concept could be really good for maybe exploring current issues in a unique way or from a high schooler's perspective, or deal with opposing viewpoints. Also seems nice to have a more lighthearted mystery with the traitor subplot. Do you have anything further (Characters, more developed plot, other subplots, etc.)?

Ok so keep in mind real quick this is directly posted from my original brainstorming document on my computer and hasn’t been edited/fixed up in a few days, so some things don’t really make sense without me explaining them. But anyway:

Ever since the retirement of long time journalism teacher, Mr. Gomez, and the decision to allow Freshmen on the team, the class has always forced teachers to quit. With awkward broadcasts, fabricated stories, and false statistics, who wants their news from the school paper anyway? As the school threatens to shut the paper down, their last resort is hiring a new instructor: Thelia Browning, a former supermodel. After it’s clear the job was just a walk-in-and-grab sort of deal with no training required, it’s obvious the school just handed the title to anyone so it was guaranteed it would fail. But, after Miss Browning proves her intelligence, she’s determined to clear the name of the paper.

However, after it’s clear a traitor is in their team; selling information, fabricating stories, and recording things heard around the office out of context, three freshmen reporters must work together to find out who it is. Will they bring justice to the school? Will Miss Browning save the day? Find out in next month’s issue of the Sometimes Paper.

~characters~
Thelia Browning- A former supermodel with an eye for detail and a love for journalism. After it’s clear the school board only hired her so the program would fail and be forced to shut down, she’s determined to get things in order and save the paper.

Nicole Sanders, 18- A Senior who’s been involved in the paper since her second year. She works hard to bring justice to the paper’s name. She works as the senior editor of the paper and helps with finding stories.

Jason Maxwell, 18- A Senior and a friend of Nicole, who unlike her, is very childish and slacks off. However, he has proven her cares about his job and does do good work. Works as editor of the website and a typist for the paper.

Rosaline Cercio, 17- A Senior with an artistic ability. The photographer and designer of the website. Very good at spotting things in pictures to solve clues. Because of her attitude and how she acts, she’s very good at pretending to be a stoner to solve cases like underground drug rings and other things.

Julia Carpenter, 16- A Junior who loves doing the morning announcements, but has since been forced to share the role with the jealous and very annoying Zander

Zander Morris, 17- A Junior who likes pulling pranks and being stupid, but still likes to do the announcements in a funny voice to entertain students.

Lucille Davies, 16- A photogenic Sophomore with a love for being the center of attention, and the main reporter.

Jane Davies, 16- Lucille’s fraternal twin sister who is angry that her sister gets all the attention.

Paula Zuck, 17- An unpopular girl who likes to report.

James Zimmerman, 18- An upperclassman who is a typist and reporter. Lucille is literally in love with him.

Mara O’Malley, 16- The secretary in the office/detective and one of the hosts/original host of The Daily Announcements. Very good at her job but tired of stupid people and loses her temper easily. Does Current Events

Dana Ford, 15- A thot who doesn’t do her job and likes slacking off and playing on her phone; one of the hosts of The Daily Announcements/Does Pop Culture and Sports

Jack Roberts, 17- A friend of Mara who does the weather and is crushed on by Dana. After she replaces Gertrudis, he becomes angry and doesn’t like doing his job anymore.

Ruth Umbridge, 14- The Cameraman of The Daily Announcements. She is forced to share her position with Janet who likes the news to be serious all the time and tries to sabotage her into losing her job.

Janet Cooke, 16- The Editor and Co-Cameraman of the news who likes to be in charge all the time.

Raine Mast, 14- A freshmen who is forced to work on the boring stories no one cares about, such as politics and current events. However, because of her popularity in school, she hears all the hot gossip and starts a gossip and ask column in the paper and online. She is one of the Main Three who team up to find the traitor in the office

Henry Jones, 14- A nerdy boy who is crushed to find he doesn't actually get assigned anything, so he works with Raine and Kira to find the traitor.

Kira Gosset, 15- A girl who is very good at finding information out and knows lots of things about bullies, underground organizations and other stuff since she’s a bad girl gone good.

Jaya Getaway, 16- A girl who is very good at drawing and is a comic artist for the Sometimes

Noel Horton, 18- A columnist who reports on sports and has a crush on Jamie, the new guy.

Jamie Walton, 18- The newest member who reports on pop culture and holiday celebrations

Elle/L, 17- Also called “The Economist” and “The Boss” she has questionable morals but still finds ways to get the truth out of somebody. Very good at making offers and business.

I kinda have a few plots and subplots picked out, only issue is I can’t decide if I want the traitor plot or the “save the paper” plot to be the main one. There’s tons of subplots though. Like Miss Browning having to prove her leadership skills and intelligence to students and staff, the budding romance and friendship between Nicole and Jason, the growing trust between the main three (Jason, Nicole, and Rosaline) the detective work/spying to find the traitor that goes on with Mara, Kira, Henry, and Raine, the schemes and heists the class pull as a team to find out what’s going on with the rival paper, finding out about Rosaline’s bad homelife, the enemies turned fiends turned partners in crime that are Zander and Julia, the tension that goes on during the news broadcasts, whether it be Mara and Dana’s conflicting personalities, Janet and Ruth fighting to get control of the camera, everyone in the office taking sides on whether or not the paper/news should be serious or fun and relaxed, the class having to work to get the students to trust them again (since they were exposed in the past as liars who made up stories) I feel like it would play better as a screenplay/tv show script.

I love what you have so far. The focus on Miss Browning wasn't something I expected from your initial pitch, and I think its a really unique angle to take on. The rest of the characters seem great too, and I definitely agree that, due to the size of your cast and the amount of subplots you have, this would work best as a tv show/screenplay. As for the main plot, honestly I think both could work at the same time if you played them to varying degrees. Maybe have the overarching plot be "save the paper", while a major focus is on the traitor aspect, either throughout the entire book (or season?) or just through a certain part. You also seem to have a fair amount of subplots that could be worked into single-episode stories.

Hayo, this sounds really cool! I'd love to join (once I figure out what character I wanna be lol)