I'm writing the last novel in my dilogy and I could use your help. My questions are at the end. The main theme of this dilogy is about emotions. There is a hidden gene in each person that grants them the power to do anything emotion-wise, and my MC (Daria) is the first in a few centuries to unlock it. Perhaps the strongest asset of this gene is that she can see the consequences of any decision she makes. In the first novel Daria reunited with an old friend and tried to remember her past, but she failed to. In the last novel she finally reaches her true self and all her memories. When she was younger she wanted to feel romantic love. Her will was so strong that she just chose somebody to fall in love with, that's when she unlocked this special gene. But it just went downhill from there. Daria suffered severe trauma from the people she was close to, and she concluded that love — as an emotion — is not worth it and needs to be 'wiped out'. In doing so, all the evil in the world would disappear forever — as she finds out love is actually the root of negative emotions. But that would also cause genocide, because people can't just be stripped clean of love. It's something they've known for life. Therefore, billions would die from Broken Heart Syndrome. As a reader, do you think it's fine if she outright says in the first fifty pages what she intends to do? Or should I try to convey her wish through an event, perhaps? The genocide will still be impactful, as it will be revealed towards the end. But before that, her friends will try to stop her. What do you think about Daria's motivation? I spent a lot of time trying to establish my ending, and it all clicked when I came up with this, so outside opinions would mean a lot to me!
So she got her own heart broken and to make up for it, she decides to make the world a better place by condemning billions of people to die of Broken Heart Syndrome? That's an interesting concept, very Hitler-esque with lovers as the target instead of Jews, Rom, gays, etc.. You could take your cues from history, with Daria starting out with eliminating small groups of people, perhaps those who are in psychiatric hospitals recovering from trauma laid on them by loved ones whom they still love despite the abuse. I'm not sure what the emotion-destruction equivalent of gassing truckloads of victims would be, but you could open the book with such a scene and go on to Daria's self-justification of the atrocity. As the book goes on, she could refine her methods and increase the number of victims with each refinement.
Why not start her off as a serial killer; her targets are anyone who has broken someone's heart. Perhaps a high-tech dating-site "hack" of some kind would be fun as things escalate.
First of all, great story idea! Yes, I think it's completely fine for a character to outright mention their plans in the beginning of a story. It would make for an interesting storytelling "path", as your readers will focus on how that character is going to accomplish their goals rather than wondering about what they really intended to achieve. This puts more strain on execution, by the way.
That's a great start, thank you for suggesting it! And yes, she's not condemning billions of people just to make the world a better place, but also to pour out her wrath for getting hurt. That's what I'm going for. She already is a serial killer! She killed two innocent people to accomplish her goals in the first novel. I didn't mention this part. I understand. This is going to surprise all my readers - they don't expect Daria to follow this path, and so I need to pay attention to all the details, to make sure it's going well. Thank you all for taking the time to reply!
I’d think laying bare the characters intentions would have the effect of immediately rooting against her. Are we supposed to have any empathy for your character?? If so, give us a Joker-style backstory first, then reveal her Final Solution. I know a movie that’s sort of like that: Hitler, the Rise of Evil. It follows a very similar set of personal disasters to show his human side: the loss of his mother, his homelessness, near death in WWI, and how he slowly acquired the power to actually implement his plans and the setback of the Beer Hall Pudscht. The camps don’t show up until near the end. It’s brilliantly done and is going for the same sort of thing. It makes the ending all the more terrifying. When the bad guy wins, usually the feeling is kinda “meh” because they tend to be just pure evil or something not natural. Going out of your way to show the monster is nothing but a human and that potentially anyone is capable of that, that’s the bone chiller. The story isn’t really about genocide, that’s the end, the story is the means to the end. It’d also be a progression like other have said. Hitler didn’t go straight for the Jews, handicapped and criminals went first. Perhaps your characters first step would be those who use love wrong in her opinion: pedophiles, adulterers… then keep broadening it: gold digger, non-straight… then all love is the final solution.
I'll have to keep going back to your comment a few times. You brought up some very helpful points. Thank you!
Don't let her think that it will cause a genocide. You as the author know the outcome. Make her a true heroine wanting to do right, mistaken, yes, but her intention should be clean. She thinks she is removing pain because that's all she has associated with love. She doesn't realize how many other people have strong, positive love. The book can be how she broke the world and her redemption when she realizes the havoc she caused. To be honest, if I start to read a book or watch a show where the character is an anti-hero, I hard-stop. I detest it when the 'good guy' tortures or kills and makes excuses for it. So...if you like books with anti-heroines and are going for that vibe, I'm not your target reader, so don't listen to me... LOL, just read the part where she killed 2 innocent people...so my idea wouldn't work.
