There Are No Original Stories, Really

I have now finished reading all of Stephanie Meyer's novels, including The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and The Host. The main thing these seem to have in common with The Hunger Games trilogy is that the pacing is set by having almost every event that develops the plot be a life or death choice.

I've been thinking some about characters of my own. I really feel like I could write something like these if I could come up with a premise that would generate that kind of plot development. Something where all the events lead to development of the self while also being choices that are crucial to maintaining the life of the character.

That is the hard part. The premise. THG has the main character's survival dependent on her own resourcefulness. Then she becomes the involuntary symbol of the resistance against the government where she is suddenly responsible for the lives and deaths of many many people. In the Twilight novels the main character, a master predator, falls in love with a prey item that is specifically and uniquely extra-attractive to him alone. In The Host, human lives are at stake when they are captured to become hosts for a parasite species that takes over their body and consciousness. Then the parasite protagonist's life is in danger from the strength of her host's resistance and later from the group of humans she joins. Then there are also love interests and angst and joy and pain from these added into the mix. This is why these novels fly off the shelves.

So now to come up with a premise that I can use my strengths to create...something that is not vampires, werewolves, post-apocalyptic gladiator matches, or alien bodysnatchers. What does that leave us? Hmmmm...