themikado20

I'll post the basic plot and if you like it and you wish to know more, I'll provide said information. It's a comedy loosely based on the Soviet film Office Romance (Sluzhebnyi Roman), though it takes place in post-Cold War London and involves teenagers in a Sixth Form German class.

Plot: After his spectacular failure of a film making only 1% of its budget in revenue, Swiss film director Lorenz Boutonnat travels to London to become a teacher of German in the Sixth Form. Once there, he re-unites with Alexander Tudor, from whose parents' Lorenz used to rent a flat his first time in Great Britain. Determined to have Alex win a city-wide, video-making contest, Lorenz encounters objections from Olga Braginskaya, the previous winner and Alex's fellow classmate from German. Lorenz then advises Alex to lightly flirt with Olga. Ironically, Alex and Olga go from mutual abhorrence to falling in love with each other…

Sam Winchester

Where's the catch? I get the whole part about them falling in love with each other, but is it simply a romantic novel, or does it have something to set it apart from countless other novels about the main characters meeting spontaneously and falling in love?

Sam.

themikado20

You do make a point. Of course, it doesn't just follow Alex and Olga, but the others in the class and how Lorenz's arrival affects them all.

- Lola Bosworth, Alex best friend, chasing Kyri Archiakos, the school's top athlete who nearly got signed to Tottenham before an injury. Lola and Kyri had previously dated, though Lola's romantic feelings are revived after Kyri’s return to school. However, he treats her just like a friend. She begins to write him love letters, which she passes to him through Terri Guzman, an energetic and overly curious A-levels Maths student. She accidentally finds one of the letters on the floor, reads it and tells about what she found out to her brother, and thus the whole Sixth Form starts gossiping about Lola's "immoral and stupid behaviour". Moreover, Kyri, tired of the wave of love letters, tells about the situation to the meddlesome Lisa, labour activist and the biggest talebearer of the institution. He gives her the letters and asks her to sort out the problem. Olga learns about it, reproaches Alex and convinces him to solve the problem individually.

- Terri's prospect of possibly moving back to Cardiff and trying to keep calm, while gently trying to break the news to her twin brother who's grown tired of constant moves between the cities as well as trying to keep focused on her keen interest in politics.

- Lorenz's teaching style contrasting with that of the previous teacher. He gives the students the 'freedom of choice', where he no longer requires them to do homework, take notes or study for exams but encourages strict discipline (i.e. students standing up when speaking with him and when he or any other adult enters the room; students being forced to memorise a stanza from "Der Erlkönig" if more than 5 minutes late to class, so on). It's nearing the end of term and the highest grade in the class is a 34. The class struggles to catch up with what they missed.

- The whole German class trying to find out why their new teacher came to London to teach them after being a film director. He told them he used to work a private tutor, though one of the classmate's Christmas gift of one of Lorenz's failed films on DVD proves otherwise.

- Everyone trying to stay calm when the end-of-year trip to German-speaking countries goes mad, thus forcing the students to be stranded in Zurich.

IrishLad

It sounds like a good starting point, but there really isn't much conflict there, even for a short story. Two people falling in love in spite of themselves is more a subplot than a plot. I suggest adding another element of struggle for the MC, and even for the secondary characters.

Hope this helps,
Cheers

themikado20

Cheers for the critique. Will certainly add an element of struggle.

Regards

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