Need help with getting my plot together

I'm so lost right now with this idea even though I had pictured in my mind for so long now but I can't seem to get it together.

I want it to be about this guy who after getting married to his newly wife, he moves into a new home with her and with a dog. His wife is also pregnant. But some goon thugs attack and rob his home leaving all three for dead and they set the home on fire with the wife and unborn child already dead but the main guy happens to still be alive but his dying dog grabs him with it's very last breath by helping him drag out from underneath the house then it dies in his arms right outside as the dog helped pull him out.

From there he would end up in the hospital after waking up weeks in a coma, he decides to make his escape from the hospital regardless of his condition then proceeds to get into every single kind of training possible, I mean from hand to hand combat to explosives, guns and military weaponry, the whole nine yards. And he will be fighting and facing those responsible like those goon thugs that raided his home but there would be a rich world for him to discover which leads to other bad guys connected which has a whole world of assassins, renegades, Italian, Russian, Triad, Yakuza mafia organizations and even something even much bigger than that in this underworld society and even and underground cult of bad guys are discovered, basically the mc would be dealing with multiple types of bad guys in a hidden underground world where many follow this code of honor type deal and even some highly skilled assassins. It starts off about just revenge from his families death like his wife, dog and unborn child to getting back at those goons, which causes a chain of events from now dealing with those he pissed off for killing their henchmen, now he's dealing with these other kinds of bad guys like these different mafia and assassin clans to leading up to other events like protecting someone else, everything is supposed to flow through the plot, leading up to different killers he faces. It's not just a straight forward Punisher revenge tale. He will actually be dealing with some crazy supernatural cults and even mythology based on some of these organizations.

I was even thinking of having it that the mc who's out for revenge would get killed but then be resurrected as a spirit who can travel from one human body to the next to plan out and finish his revenge.



Does this sound like a good revenge plot to start with? Or is it too cliche and overdone? Does the story connections to the bad guys he would be facing sound interesting enough like it has potential?

 

Me right now, in a nutshell! So you're not alone. And sadly, it's something you have to work through alone and just keep at it.

Does this sound like a good revenge plot to start with? this is a subjective question. I wouldn't read it personally, but someone else might love it. All that should matter is that you like it enough to go through the marathon of writing it. The whole "revenge-genda" has been done to death for hundreds of years. Plus, when something is over done it's usually because it's liked, right?
This idea has potential. But what are the goals and motivations of these characters? Why attack this guy and be so cruel? It needs a lot of work.

 

At least I'm not alone in this

 

I would love to know more about your story since I had a similar problem with mine too, Mine is about a general who goes after the MC who is a monk in a village and the general has an organization which he has connections to a yakuza accult guy with a cyber mechanic and a mad scientist that sent demon knights to attack the MC's monk village

 

It may help to realize this is a story premise, not a plot.

A storyline is a chronology of events. It describes what happens and in what order, but does not indicate why. As you write, the chronology will grow and become more detailed, but it remains a chronology.

A plot consists of four components: an actor, an action, a motivation, and an opposition. This is the driving force that connects a source event to a subsequent event. For most stories, there is a principal plot that drives the story from beginning to end, but within this is a vast network of smaller plots that drive characters to perform a single activity from one event to another. The motivation helps the character move toward a goal, and an opposition tries to push the character away from the goal.

Without opposition, there is not much story. Virgil walks to the store to pick up a bottle of wine to go with dinner. But the store closes in ten minutes, and Virgil's car doesn't want to start. That time pressure, together with the balky vehicle, constitutes an opposition, without which the reader would want to skip ahead to the next action.

Developing a story typically involves introducing complications and barriers (oppositions) along with urgent reasons to complete tasks (motivations). Also,different characters can have conflicting motivations, so one character's motivatios and actions comprise another character's opposition at any given time.

In physics terms, a storyline is a path parameterized by time, and motivations and oppositions are the forces acting upon actors as they travel along the path.

 

What you have isn't a plot. What you have is a back story, which serves as motivation to get your character going, and you have a vague premise of a hero going into the underworld to tackle bad guys.

You have no plot - there's no story, and there's no goal. There are, importantly, also no stakes. This is why you're "lost". What you have is way too broad - tackle bad guys, well, who are they and why these particular bad guys and not some others? What's your MC trying to stop, really? What happens if he doesn't manage to stop them? Who are these bad guys? You've got a bunch of generic titles and types, but no characters. And currently your back story is so extreme it feels like the MC's family exists just to serve his back story and does not exist because they're actually real. Of course it's all fiction, but you need to build the illusion that they exist more than just for the book.

 

As far as a premise goes, this is pretty classic Woman in a Fridge trope (and should likely be avoided). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators

 

I think you guys are right. And I think I'm also lost because I got so much going on with so many different events it's just confusing me. So I have an idea. I'll let you guys know what you think of this simple intro plot for my story I have in mind and you all can let me know what you think of it. And I'll figure the rest and then ask more about the stuff the mc guy would be facing.

For this revenge story I decided instead of getting back at those who killed his wife and child, he would be a trained hitman assassin who's been through years of military training and settled somewhere new to live a normal life but is staying in an area where he sticks out as an outsider to most so probably doesn't bring good attention from others, despite being a nice calm collected guy that just wants to live peacefully (or I could say he now takes assignments of assassin jobs but tries to live a normal mid wage job on the outside). He then befriends a kid and finds a stray puppy which he takes in and this brings him happiness for the first time in life until one day he comes home to his apartment and finds the stray pup dead which was from a bunch of goons. So now he goes on after them, not known this guy is a trained badass, but after killing them opens up to other bad guys, which then capture the kid he befriended, goes after them and kills them all. But after that it opens up doors to newer bad guys which will continue with other reasonings. Does any of this sound interesting?

 

Wait so if I had that his wife died years ago from say cancer or something like that is just part of his past backstory, would that be the same woman in fridge trope? Would it be better if I just had it that his wife has just been alive but his ex and have it they are divorced?

 

Why would his motivation for revenge come from those?

 

Sorry I think you misunderstood me. What I meant was she would have been already dead way before his dog is killed. Like she died years ago from cancer maybe and plus after these thugs destroy his home and kill his dog would only further fuel his hatred even more and he'd go back to doing what he does best, killing as a trained professional assassin, which he uses those skills to eliminate them all.

 

This is pretty much exactly the story in "John Wick," except the thugs also steal his classic car.

 

I think so yeah. Is that a bad thing?

 

Nope. But it's an example you can look at to see (in your opinion) what worked and what didn't.
Lots and lots of stories have similar summaries; the delight is in the details.

 

That movie was awesome so I think it flowed really good. I would try to make mine a little different in that the events that have happened to lead him to his revenge would be more like they happened as in planned rather than just by coincidence. How could I make it so that after his wife died years ago, then few years after his son and dog are randomly killed in his home by these thugs doesn't seem so random? Because that sure is a lot of tragic events for one man to take in and all happen so simultaneously.

And I was going to ave it that many antagonists he deals with in connections to different crime organizations and assassin organizations from around the world.

Oh geez ..it's really starting to sound exactly like John Wick. The mc is even supposed to be a bit scruffy, but I was going to give him a beard and make him look older.

 

John Wick has a fortune in gold coins in his basement - does your MC?
John Wick had the Continental as a safe place and a source of supplies - does your MC?
The major bad guys knew from the start the John Wick was a nightmare in human form -- do they know that about your MC, or do they have no idea what they've unleashed on themselves because your MC always remained anonymous?

There's lots of ways your story can be different - maybe even better.

"Gross Point Blank" is another good movie (but a comedy) about an assassin.
As is "Leon: The Professional" of course.

 

How about instead of revenge it is simply outrage? Revenge is so done.

 

I'd say my guy has a little more in common with Frank Castle "the Punisher" as he would be a more brute in style when he does things because it would suit his personality from losing so many loved ones, especially his dog which was probably the most helpless victim he lost in a way. Maybe the John Wick connection is losing a few loved ones and his recent deceased dog which sets him off.

And look-wise or at least more style wise he'd be more on the level of Punisher mixed with Wolverine with maybe a little of Nathan Summers too.

Maybe he doesn't need to have lost a wife and kid? Maybe instead I could say it was his mother and sister? Brother? Cousin? Niece or nephew? But also keep the dog as that might be the only similarity to Wick.

He does not have any gold coins, he just wanted to live his life normal until these guys get in the way but the connections lead to these underground crime organizations and assassin organizations and them also going after him, not knowing what he's all about so they would not know what hell they unleashed on themselves and he later becomes known as that nightmare that didm;t know of him yet but there will be antagonists who knew him from the past and have knowledge of the him but that would be much later on or in different chapters. Most likely for another segment of a newer book. He would also discover this sot of assassin underworld and corrupted secret government agencies and mafia crime lord organizations which also have some hidden mythology. There would be some evil organized cults later on that almost seem supernatural in a way but that's when the story digs deeper, it progresses from more normal bad guys to other kinds of bad guys.

And there won't be any comedy really lol but I would say there would be some similarities to Leon The Professional as he would have that good side to him in helping someone like he did with the girl and have that grounded part of him that shows his care for her or for his plants and even have some light hearted moments (I like the way they did it in The Professional, despite being a trained killer, maybe he shows compassion to children and animals or something) but gets $** done when things get ugly, I guess that's a close enough description?

 

But outrage from what? Could I say from having a dog that was killed? Maybe since he was always in the military and spent his life on the battlefield and trained for killing and suffered many scars and ptsd and loss of many good friends lives, this puppy brought him happiness from all the carnage he'd felt with, until some stupid goons took that from him and he becomes outraged about it? I think the dog is what makes the connection similar to John Wick, but essentially as I develop him further he really doesn't seem too much like Wick or even look or dress like him right? His style of combat would be different too, like Punisher, Cable and Wolverine but a little more finesse.

 

Does any of this have potential to not be too much like John Wick? Or even somewhat memorable? I'd also give him martial art skills combined with his military combat training.

 

Like I said, the delight is in the details. Obviously, any hyper-competent former assassin that comes out of retirement to wipe out his former clients and associates is going to draw comparison to John Wick and/or Frank Castle. But it's having different details that will make it interesting.

Ask yourself, if you wanted to make John Wick's story better, what would you change? If you wanted to make Frank Castle's story better, what would you change?

Rossini's La Cerentola is Cinderalla, but oh-so-much-better than the Disney version.
For example, Rossini's Cinderella falls in love with the Prince when she thinks he's a servant,
so when the servant who is impersonating the Prince proposes to her, Cindy turns him down.
That's a way better character than Disney's version -- what kind of poor girl turns down a Prince in favor of his valet? A girl who chooses love over riches, instead of love and riches as in Disney.

 

You could make this a hero's journey type story. Maybe instead of an intentional thugary, have his wife die in a car accident caused by another vehicle. He thinks it's a assassination attempt on him and he prepares for revenge. He investigates all the local 'bad guys' only to find these are mostly dodgy businessmen who don't let the law stand in their way. This category includes politicians and even himself. Finally he discovers his wife's killers are just a group of remorseful teenagers he's been trying to raise money for so they can go to collage.

 

Here's a story idea:

Former assassin decides to clean up the city/state/whatever by assassinating himself into the Mayor's/Governor's/whoever's office. It'll take a while but at least he's going to (try to) only kill politicians.

 

That's a tough one. They're both really good the way they are now. I'd have to think that one through.

This is a great example, maybe there's some way I can do that with my version of John Wick and The Punisher.

As much as this sounds good, I don't think it would fit well with what I'm trying to go for with my character and story. I'm looking for this too be an all out action gritty tale with some possible small light heart moments, maybe little romance in it just to keep it from being all dark and morbid, but he's not the type to just find out this mistake, then there's easy forgiveness and all live happily ever after and he gives them college funds. Though I kind of like some of that part with the accident and thinking those teenagers/drivers were part of an assassination attempt, msking it seem his paranoia is affected from some kind of ptsd but it would have to lead to these other violent encounters I planned.