So, I'm at the point in my novel where the MC is about to go through an 'initiation' and learning period to become the 'Guardian' needed to fight the bad guy. My main character is a drugs addict and just died from an overdose on meth. He then was 'shifted' into space and time by one of the three aliens overseeing his initiation and training. He saw his funeral, then how his mother grieved for him. The surprisingly callous attitude of his drug friends towards his death. And an event that led to a defining moment between him and his love interest. A sort of ghost of Christmas past type thing if you will. My problem is, I'm not sure whether after he's seen all that and wants to change, to have him come back to himself before he injected the drugs and died, or to have him sent to the respective alien planets for training and have the reality on earth stay 'shifted' and going on as if he was dead.
I don't like returns from the dead with a second chance for a great life; they are total literary cop outs up there with "...and then I woke up and found it was all a dream." Send him off to another planet if he's in a condition to continue training.
Hes going to be sent off to another planet either way. The thing is he comes back and is sent off where will people think he went? And if he goes while 'shifted' and everyones living in the reality that he's dead, how is he going to come back and interact with the love interest and friends?
So either way, he's returning from the dead to earth, his friends, and love interest? Therein lies my original objection: death without permanent consequences. If he returns to earth, I'd prefer to see him return in another incarnation, unrecognizable by friends and family, left outside his old life by the bad choices he made while living it.
Yes, he will be in contact with them again at some point. I understand what you're saying. There is sort of consequence though when he sees the grief of his mother and the indifference of his friends. So it isnt exactly like he died and poof hes back. But essentially it is a second chance redemption deal. It seems hes going to have to come back to the point before he overdosed with the knowledge he gained through being 'shifted'. Because I don't know how he can go off when people are living in a reality that he's dead and write him back in.
It's been my personal experience that recognizing a mistake is only the first step in change. Once you realize it, you're not always sure what instances in your life led to such a mistake and what habits will make you vulnerable to making it again. There's a certain lack of selfwareness we humans seem to have and keeps us going back to our previous mistakes like a moth to a flame, even after we already are aware of how much it ruined our lives. And sometimes you might even be tempted to remain an addict or abuser or whatever, merely out of fear of what the other side of that dark tunnel might hold. Violnist Lindsey Stirling talks about this extensively concerning her own issues with an eating disorder.
I'm with @Catriona Grace that the "woke up and it was all a dream" will leave most readers feeling ripped off by being invested in a story that didn't happen. If anything...I would give him a really bad trip that makes him change his mind. I have an uncle who OD'd and had a vison of the devil taking him by the hand and leading him to hell, only according to him hell was a black nothingness of abject loneliness...when he was saved by medical personnel he was so shook up by the experience that he went cold turkey clean. I would do something like that...
I see the dream sequence used often and because it is the MC early in the story—I know it's a cheap shot. Make it more interesting than resurrection.
Well he'd be coming back with everything he learned while being shifted. Could open it up for more time for him to learn more. As being dead and seeing all that he did could be the starting part of more introspective/growth. Then again, I'm on chapter 8 and each chapter is atleast 3 k so its prolly time to get the plot moving.
Hi Aceldama. I feel like this is one of those where posting about what to do is gonna lead you down a rabbit hole. On a story like this everybody is going to have their own opinion on what to do that will leave your head spinning. I would just go down whatever path YOU think is interesting. Because if you aren't really interested in where this guy goes on his journey, the audience won't be. To me, it comes down to what the intention of the aliens is. I mean, if you are dead, it seems you aren't going to have much control over what happens after that point. And you have multiple aliens involved, you said three. Whatever their intentions are, is going to push him in a certain direction. The plot generally is something we have seen before, BUT there are a lot of ways you can go that will make it new and interesting. I think I would just write it about whatever really piques your interest. What would YOU want to explore?
You could instead go with the Ghost of Christmas Future approach and show him his funeral years before it happens, so he changes his ways. He was in some ways a dead man already, at least headed that way, and would have got there without the intervention. So maybe he goes off to 'rehab' on some distant island (actually another planet).
