Awesome advise Q thank you. 

I have my characters ready for the most part, I'm forming the branches of baddies, friends, random extras, but the one thing I have left to decide on is where to place my story location wise. I would definately like to place it close to a city.

I was going to place in my own city, but is there any unspoken advice about using the city you live next to? If not I think it would be the easiest route, as doing research would be very simple for streets and places that my character would visit.

Now once you have the location down, what do you do about the stores, shops, and food places? For example if I wanted my characters to go to a bar to have a few drinks is it recommended that I create one rather than use a real location?

I'm not actually using that quote in any of my works 

I just thought it up to give an example of my question, but I do see what you're saying. Make sure its something that was a wide angle of understanding for all ages and not something that is only aimed towards one crowd. Thanks 

I see JB do it every now and then in the DV, and I see it on certain TV shows as well, but what is the rule of that? To what degree can you make a referance to something that's not your own work and not get in trouble for it. For example:

"You are not human, you come from an Alien race known as the Primes."
"Ooooh okay, and can I transform into something? How would that work anyway? Would I have to break my bones and reorganize them?"

Now is using that considered all well and good? Or would that be a no no?

Should I try and come up with a name that is rare?

I picked one name and searched it on google and got like 4 million links back haha!

Okay so last night I was brainstorming an idea, and I came up with something that excites me! Without giving too much away or putting any ideas on the board I thought up a tale of three people who all had different abilities, and I even came up with abilities that weren't the common type (wizard, vampire, werewolf, etc.)

It would be a first person view through my main character, who I wanted to be a sort of young, geeky guy who turned out to be somewhat like an unorthodox sherlock holmes.

But now I'm questioning myself as to whether I should give him powers at all? Here's my arguement:

Giving him an ability: I love reading novels where the hero has powers of some sort. If Harry Dresden were a regular man I would still enjoy the series but the fact that he's a wizard just makes the story a hell of a lot more fun. With my hero using abilties it leaves him able to battle with other supernatural forces and not be completely outmatch and outgunned all the time. I did plan on this book being a supernatural world of sorts. I also feel like giving him an ability would allow him to grow over the course of the series(assuming it was succesful)

Not giving him an ability: Even though I love reading about heroes with powers, one of the reasons I love heroes like Batman and detectives like Sherlock is because they have the ability to thwart the bad guy without any abilities. I think it can make the story richer if you have a supernatural force going head to head with your hero and he has to defeat him with wits and skill.

So, any opinions are appreciated. I was going to start a rough draft of the first chapter to see where it takes me but I'm stuck on what to do about my hero. I planned on him having a power of his own but I feel maybe the story would be more suspenseful without one? Thanks guys!

Awesome feedback! Thanks again guys. Assuming I stick to first person I definately would agree that one person per chapter is the best way to go. I was kind of thinking each chapter could be called "John Smith and the something something". Next chapter, if it dealt with another character could be, "Jane Smith and whosey whatsit".

Star you make a real good point about making sure each voice is unique, thanks for that. I'll probably take your advice and write a page or two in both formats and see which works for me best.