My main character Laura Orsi has angered my villains by crippling their business, she has also arrested some of his family members killing one in fight. Orsi will get caught by the villains however my question is what could the villains do to Orsi to get revenge on her. Its a sci fi setting so be imaginative also I know how the story works out I am just looking for inspiration for this part of it. I am brainstorming ideas for sci fi style tortures or something along those lines. Also for simplicity I am calling them villains for this thread and they own a diverse selection of legal businesses and illegal ones. thanks
How about you give us the ideas you have so far and we can explore those. That tends to prove more fruitful.
The ideas that I have got at the moment are something along the lines of playing with her fears either in reality or in a virtual environment. I am also playing with a idea to turn her into a mannequin for use in one of his shops
With the first idea, of digging up her phobias and failings, her foibles and transgressions in life, what purpose would this serve as far as being transformative of the character. Remember that whatever you bring to the story needs to be something that furthers the plot or furthers the growth/change of a character, or (and best) does both. As to the second idea, of her being a mannequin in his shop (this sounds less sci-fi and more fantasy), the question is the same. How is this transformative, what does it tell us about the person or people?
Orsi getting captured will lead her friends to save her putting the focus on another character Rafael Koja and also help Orsi have more confidence in her whole team.
The revenge should be fitting from the villains POV. For example if she crippled their business they would clearly want to exact revenge with a similar level of debilitation. In other words, instead of direct "torture", is it feasible for the villains to try and break down her life by pieces instead of going after her directly? Going after her money, her reputation, her family??? Though I suppose these are not sci-fi based. But those are my thoughts anyway.
Ok, so that's a description of plot furtherance, and it would be satisfied by pretty much any choice that ends with the team saving Orsi, so we haven't really answered the question yet, the thing from which Orsi gets saved and why to chose one thing over another, which constitutes the original question you posted. So, I ask again, to compare and contrast the growth in the character of Orsi and the exposition in the eyes of the reader, were you to chose the fear torture over the being made a living mannequin or widdershins likewise. If you were to explore the feat torture, how would you use this to talk to me about Orsi, to tell me about Orsi? It sounds like an excellent opportunity to expose one side of the character, the deep Shadow self we all carry. How would showing us and Orsi him/herself this Shadow side further the growth of Orsi and further the growth of the story? If Orsi were made a manniquin, how would this answer the same questions? Person made golem, made unquestioning slave, every joint and digit a traitor to self-possession and sovereign autonomy. It's a deeply offensive transgression and because of that an excellent opportunity to again talk to me, the reader, about Orsi. What would you do with these two separate opportunities? How would they change Orsi in my eyes as a reader?
If Orsi still has a role to play after she's saved then your options are limited for some permanent physical torture. Cliché maybe but could she be injected with some form of parasite, or disease that her friends can then provide a cure for down the line when she's rescued?
Back when I was religious, I imagined Hell as a place where every sort of pain was felt at once, forever. There have been many stories that featured a direct tap in the brain to pleasure centers. How about a tap directly to pain centers? No physical damage done, the pain stops when the switch is turned off. I do like the idea of using her fears or past experiences to both act as her torture and develop her character. Since she's your character, that would be up to you.
When they capture her, they use some chemical knock out drug to stop her cold without hurting her in any way. Then, they transfer all her memories to the body of a street person and the memories of one of their own into her body. She, then, has to go about proving that the body that was hers is now not in her possession but she is a street person and nobody believes her so the company doesnt really keep watch on her. It turns out that the street person is the long lost daughter, lost at around age 15 and now in her 40s and having had a hard life to boot, of a wealthy man who finally finds her and takes her in. With access to all the resources of the wealthy family, she sets about going after the bad guys again but after being cleaned up by the father is almost unrecognisable as the street person. She gets her father to use his influence to get a mid level position in the bad guy company and is sitting where she needs to be to watch what is going on and keep tabs on her old body. The occupant of her old body and she get friendly.....things twist whatever way you think best from there. OK I did that all on the spot and it looks like it, too. I like twists! ;-}
How about a tap directly to pain centers? No physical damage done, the pain stops when the switch is turned off. Tellya one even worse - transfer her to a man's body and give her a swift KICK in the pain centres! ;-} Complain that giving BIRTH hurts? Wait till she cops THAT! ;-} BTW, that is Heinein-esque of me, I know but it definitely works for the definition of pain centre!!
Bait her and trap her. Then torture her for days until the place where she is bein held gets attacked...by her other enemies. She gets free during the fight, and is about to escape until she is found by the third party. But as the leader of the third party is about to shoot her or capture her, part of the roof collapses on him as the fight damaged the building so much is falling apart. She escapes just in time, but there is one enemy left...and he is an old friend who recognizes her. Where the story goes from here is your choice.
ALL of it is your choice. Don't leave that decision to others. "Brainstorming" for ideas will not make your writing better. Quite the contrary. Trust your imagination, and force yourself to depend on only your own creativity. That is how you exercise it to make it stronger and more nimble.
Unless the answers are like @Wreybies', @jannert's, @ChickenFreak's and a slew of other people in this forum, including your posts sometimes. I'm learning a ton from their posts even though they are replying to people with stories nothing like mine. Sometimes imagination lacks writing foundation. When people give answers that provide insight into foundation, I find it very useful.
Brainstorming is not having others do the work for you. It's bouncing ideas off of people in an active way in order to sound things out, to get out of your own head for a bit and hear a different voice. This is why I always answer brainstorming threads with questions, never concrete answers. I disagree in total that brainstorming has a negative affect on one's writing. Frankly, the constant rebuffing of the attempts of members to brainstorm work in the different subforums up here in the "Teacher's Lounge" would seem to call into question the very purpose of this area. There are some primordial issues at play here that need attention and reinvention.
I have to disagree, Wrey. There's a difference between looking for new techniques and new approaches to telling the story, and casting about for feedback on how to flesh out a particular story. The actual story is the writer's own task. My purpose in posting these messages is to introduce a different way of thinking to a novice writer. Writing is not a communal activity. It is an art that requires the artist to look at the world somewhat differently. The fact that people who have been here a while are tired of hearing it is irrelevant. I'm talking to the aspiring writer who may not have considered an approach to writing that emphasizes self-reliance and developing one's own imagination. Brainstorming leverages crowd intelligence. It's a paradigm that works well in business and other endeavors with clear, measurable goals. But real creativity is a whisper that gets easily lost in the noise of a crowd. The greatest works of creativity come from those who come up with their own answers, who contemplate things from a different, solitary perspective. I am committed to this approach. Even m user name embodies it. It translates as, "I think."
@Cogito: While the person asking the questions might indeed be looking for the wrong thing, that can sometimes be because they don't know how to go about solving their problem. Do you think @Wreybies answers in posts #4 and #8 would not be useful for a person casting about for feedback on how to flesh out a particular story? Wouldn't answers like those be more helpful than letting a questioner wander without direction looking for their answers?
There's also a difference between encouraging members in a positive direction and discouraging them from asking questions. These subforums in this section are meant for the brainstorming and sharing of ideas. It's their purpose and function. Remember that we have membership from all walks of life, all ages, published people and people picking up a pencil for the first time in their lives. I've come to the end of my tolerance for responses that imply to the members that their question isn't worth asking or pursuing. It's inappropriate.
Now, this will sound very strange, and dark. But I wrote a short story a few months back about a man being tortured. It took place in current time however. But the same thing still applies. I always put myself in the antagonists shoes. The main character had shot and killed a mobsters son in a firefight with him. Completely in self defense. So I put myself in the mobster's shoes and asked myself: 'What would I do to someone that killed my only son?' The result was quite dark, so dark I had to tone it down to fit it to teen and up. It involved the torture and murder of the protagonist's daughter. Try it. Works for me.
That is a gross misrepresentation of what I have posted, and how I have expressed it. I expect better of you. Do I have to dress up every such post in kitten ears and put a three-paragraph disclaimer at the end? What in the hell is wrong with encouraging writers to trust their own imagination, and telling them they CAN work through it? What is wrong with encouraging self-reliance and self-confidence?
When statements like the above-quoted are regularly encountered by members, this discourages the function of the venue no matter what the message is dressed in. This entire upper quarter of the forum is regularly assailed by responses that negate the purpose of it even being here. I am not misrepresenting because I am not making reference to your explanatory post, but instead to the post that initiated this conversation wherein a member was told that brainstorming is detrimental to the writing process, a statement that is in error and, again, negates the purpose of this portion of the forum, thus a portion of the venue as a whole. In other forums I frequent the brainstorming sections are very active and interaction is brisk, bright and positive. This is the mindset I will be espousing and implementing herein after.
In your personal opinion. I maintain that brainstorming on the broad story points is detrimental to the writing process. It encourages the beginning writer to run to others for the rest of the story as soon as it gets difficult. I say my opinion is every bit as valid as yours, and I am doing more of a service to the beginner by pushing him or her to stick with the planning alone. And it by no means negates or undermines the purpose of this forum or the site as a whole. You'll note I do make suggestions when someone is stuck on a specific point, or is looking for ideas on how to proceed. I particularly recommend they go back to their imagination when they are trying to come up with the basic storyline or are looking for additional material to pad out the story. I also push them to make their own decisions when they ask which of several alternatives to choose. That's a very sloppy writing habit to take up. You go ahead handing out fish, and I'll go ahead discussing how to fish. You know which one will feed the mind longer.
