lol, by then my character "Martin" would be around his 50s-60s by the time she's 21. What I meant is, well soon enough on their journeys before she realised he leading her back to the Gov. He will feel that she feels like a daughter to him, and soon he'll adopt (adoption doesn't really count in a world full of mutated bunnies and bandits) her if she forgive him for leading her to the Gov. It'll probs has to be the saving her idea once he given her to them after a day or two until he realised he missing a part of himself and of course that's the girl. It's all muddled up, I've not even started yet (Prob the next day).
Oh that's true even for allegedly 'normal' families. I was just suggesting perhaps a ruthless, merciless cannibal would 'take someone in'
Happy to help. This makes sense. People are more than happy to take advantage of a power vacuum. As for making her important work on developing the characters who want her back. Even if you don't use it doing that will help you figure out their motives. Their motives may or may not be important to the story. That is up to you to decide. It helps me when I'm writing to know what is driving a character. Many times it is better to let the reader draw their own conclusions and not spell things out for them. Especially if you are going for an air of mystery. I'm not sure what sort of love you're speaking of. As the writer you can make it happen. A good writer can sell any plot to just about anyone. Comes with the territory of character development. I think you're on the right track with this. Thinking about it in terms of what his life would have been like and what that would do to him is good. Not everyone will be affected in the same way but it definitely would make some sort of impact on a person. Some people get harder, some get stronger, some crumble, some become deeper, some become more shallow. As for it being interesting that is up to you. Most every plot has been done or some way or another. Your voice as a writer, how you tell the story, will be what decides if it's interesting or not.
Thank you, for your time with this. For the love thing, I'm not sure what I might be talking about (Not romance that for sure). Once Martin 'collect' her in the middle of nowhere, the bond between them would be subtle at best and rather strange (Martin sees her as just 'cargo' anyway). Once more 'life-threating' events has impacted on them, they begin to trust each other and he'll have far more respect for her. Sooner or lather, they become like father and daughter and this feeling is alien to him but he still runs deep to the core of of his goal and that means betraying her, and the whole time he has been lying to her. ...and you know how could go, he feels a piece of his life is missing and it's the girl, broke her out of the facility which is an suicide mission and are reunited, well... hopefully. Now it's onto the next challenge, how the hell do I start my novel? I forgot how hard it is to start one.
I like that.Maybe there is no refrigeration and since he already has some fresh food to eat, he doesn't want to kill her until his supply runs out. During his wait situations happen to see her as more than a meal.
It's not so difficult a question really. Most of us want to be reminded of beauty, happiness, normality - most of us want to believe in something, hope for something, in order to carry on. Your MC is human - despite how ruthless and heartless he is, there's got to be a part of him that wants normal life back, that wonders what life was like before the nuclear fallout, and if there's such a thing as beauty. Perhaps the girl shows a level of vulnerability and physical beauty that your MC feels drawn to her - it's very human to want to protect beautiful things. I live in the Czech Republic and there's graffiti everywhere - slumps and old, decaying or half-repaired buildings, trash, homeless people lurking under the bridges or sitting on the benches with plastic bags and rucksacks beside them. There's this metro station (subway/tube/underground) that looks like what I'd just described, and opposite the exit to the metro is the tram stop, where there's a tram shelter with some kind of plastic wall - tonnes of stickers and flyers and bits of unpeeled paper and dirt caked all over it. And I would stand there, waiting for my tram. Opposite the tram stop, beside the metro exit, there's a wall. On that wall is a beautiful, funky piece of artwork sprayed onto the concrete. It's in faded pinks and blues and it's of a cool, pretty party girl listening to music. Guess what? I go through that metro several times a week and have done so for the past 2.5 years - it's never been vandalised. Never damaged, never drawn on or sprayed on. No one touches it. Why? I like to think because there's something inside all of us - inside mankind - that somehow longs and loves beauty, and we want to protect it. Anyway, my point is, it wouldn't be too far fetched to have your MC see something similar in the girl, and soften towards her. Perhaps it's been a while since he's seen a pretty woman, perhaps her openness and honesty is disarming because in a world like yours, kindness and honesty are rare to the point of extinction. If you live in a world where everything is brutal, and suddenly you meet something fragile, beautiful, and precious - something like love and gentleness - it breaks you. Other ideas for how your MC would stick with this girl without eating or raping her: 1. Perhaps the girl knows a skill he doesn't and the guy can use her. In nature there're many such mutually beneficial relationships - ants and plants, or ants and caterpillars, for example. The plants provide food and lodging, or caterpillars provide food, and the ants in return provide their protection. 2. Perhaps the girl simply follows him initially, because she knows he could help her. Your MC could refrain from attacking because he would be wasting precious energy on the girl when he needs to preserve his strength for whatever threat comes next. Think of lions, crocs and sharks - they don't attack unnecessarily. And during this time, build a relationship - perhaps your MC hasn't had a real conversation for a very long time, and the girl provides this outlet. Perhaps the girl makes herself useful and finds them uncontaminated water (I imagine that would still be hard to find) and gradually the man warms to her.
If this girl is older than about 10 I honestly can't think why he would keep her except as a useful slave, probably a sex slave also. However, he may have been affected by the nuclear war and be physically unable? (although this would probably make him more likely to kill her). I wonder if her size may be important in some way, maybe to gain access to some abandoned facility he cannot enter?
If the girl is beautiful, he could be attracted to her, but more like an object. Think like King Kong. The giant ape protected the human girl because her beauty attracted him. She is like a precious object who he doesn't want to lose. He also died for her at the end of the film.
But that what hits me, why would a man such as Martin will accept safeguarding her with his life? When he, himself is ruthless, selfish and partially just 'bad'?! Do men still feel the need to protect a child from dangers, and also love them with dearest hearts? Your story hook is here. Dream a few and sharpen one. Good luck.
Not at all. If creating a story in an environment that we're not used to, we need to evaluate the way people behave in that situation. People have dark, animalistic, and selfish desires and without the construct of a bountiful civilization these often rule the behaviour of individuals looking to both survive and thrive. You need to be able to put aside known moral limitations and explore the darker, more perverse potential of human behaviour in order to convince the reader of your story. If you limit your characters to your own ethical beliefs, then it doesn't leave much room for a hard-hitting story to grow. And if you find the topic disturbing, hopefully a convincing representation in a novel will have the same effect.
^I agree with Selbbin. Though I think I get what Cogito meant. Cannibalism, sex slaves... yeah, that kind of content disturbs most people.
Personally, I believe real men do honor the protection of children. Now to the extent or how they do is another story.
Most, yeah. For instance, the guys from Aryan Brotherhood kill men at the drop of a hat, often in very gruesome, gory ways, but most refuse to kill women and children (some do, but some have left the gang after they were ordered to waste a kid or a woman). So a man can be ruthless, dark, even evil, and still have a soft spot for women and children (especially girls since they are both, females and kids).
Making my MC a dirty minded person for young girls to be sex slaves, yeah... sure but I'm gonna make him somehow not see them as sex slaves, perhaps a natural aspect of his person. I'm ok with writing a bloody novel (bloody as in actual blood and flesh ripping out) but sexual stuff, come on! I'm gonna tune this character a bit different, he had parents killed by bandits at age 8 and this particular bandit thought to use him as a weapon, he then grown ruthless but still honours what his parents tell him; Don't rape girls without permission and don't rape teen girls.
Conan is also another example. He is savarge, ruthless, but intelligent in a way. Sometimes he treats girls like objects, however he also respects them. He doesn't kill them unless they turn hostile toward him. And he doesn't rape the girls, unless one of them said it is okay. Even the Hulk protects girls unless they anger him.
