| Can't say what's best. I'm a writer, too, but a central idea is only the beginning.
You need a Big Idea (and there is no such thing as an idea that's been done to death. Every idea has been done to death - there are no truly original concepts. What matters is how you do it and if it enthralls the reader or not. Concept fatigue is a factor, but if you right the best dang zombie story ever, who cares if thirty lesser tales are out there as well?)
Once you have your original take on the Big Idea, you need a plot. A whole plot. That'll get you through to the end. If you don't know how the story is going to end, this will just be another attempt, and you'll never finish.
Then you need to populate it. Stories that have a great plot, but no compelling, rounded, complex characters are doomed to remain in the slush pile. Knowing the next event is nice, but write about the characters, not the events. That's the key. How is all this affecting the people.
And the last advice: Stay away from First Person. Stick with Third Person. If your viewpoint character is not compelling, or is unpleasant, or just you voicing your own angst, you're going to be falling into a trap that drags down many a writer. Keeping with third person (and a consistent viewpoint character - don't jump from viewpoint to viewpoint) limits you, and makes you describe things better. You may see a lot of novels and stories published in first person, but what you don't see is all the bad first person that never makes it out of the slushpile. Third person is more forgiving, publishers say. Stick with that until you're darn good, and a publisher would buy your toilet paper as long as you had touched it. |