1. monstercandy

    monstercandy New Member

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    plot help (please)

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by monstercandy, Dec 30, 2016.

    so me and my friend Lazy have this group of characters who we created probably around 5 years ago and we developed their characters before actually developing a story, so now we have to try and write a story around the characters instead of vice versa. we’ve redone the plot probably about three or four times now. we could really use some advice on where to go with the story because we're completely at a loss here.

    the basic world rules are that there's a human world and a world full of magical/mythical creatures. there's also an afterlife-like world "in between" the two that holds ghosts and other spirits. in most versions of the story that we've gone through, the human and magical worlds are separated from each other, with the humans not knowing of the other world's existence. all magical creatures, obviously, have magic, and all of them can learn to take a human form (for plot convenience). some humans can also use magic but it's rare.

    characters (under spoilers to avoid a huge text wall) -

    the main-ish character is Trevor, a dragon lost his memories of being a dragon and thinks himself to be a human. he later runs into Diedra (see below) who wants to help return his lost memory. he and Diedra start off being at odds with each other but eventually become really close friends, the whole "showing each other their respective worlds" trope, yada yada yada. he's kinda generically nice in terms of personality, having occasionally outbursts of irritation/anger.

    tl;dr - Trevor is a dragon who in most pervious versions of the story lost his memories of being such and was "stuck" in human form

    Diedra is the other main-ish character. she is an irritable spriggan who is determined to help Trevor regain his true form because she hates humans and finds it an injustice for a magical creature to be "stuck" in a human form like this. she keeps a huge book full of information about the magical world, The Realm of the Arcane, which is usually a key plot item in most incarnations of this story.

    tl;dr - Diedra is a spriggan who meets Trevor by chance and tries to help him get his memories back

    Elaine is a changeling who also doesn't know of her true magical self because she was raised as a human (changelings switch their young with human babies in their mythology). she's pretty much the peacekeeper of the group and is incredibly empathetic, feeling upset when others are unhappy. in several versions of the story she's friends with Trevor previous to him meeting Diedra. she is also the one who ends up befriending/reforming Ethan which usually ends or helps end whatever the conflict is (it's changed a lot).

    tl;dr - Elaine is changeling who also doesn't know she isn't really human and eventually befriends/reforms the antagonist, Ethan

    Ethan is a human who has gone through so many changes with each story change that honestly, i'm not exactly sure who he is anymore. he's always been an oracle though, meaning he can see the spirit world and gets visions of the future. he's pretty pessimistic (possibly because of this - i was considering that nothing excites him anymore because he's already seen it). in the most recent version version of the story, he somehow gets himself possessed and possessed-Ethan, during the climax, starts tearing apart the borders between the parallel worlds which eventually combines them. though we're not really sure...why...? the reason he gets possessed in the first place is because he needed a way to be immortal, since his "platonic soul mate" (Elaine) is and we wanted them to be able to stay together instead of him growing old and dying in what would be a tiny blip to her. other versions of fixing this problem had Ethan as a werewolf, or dying (and then being resurrected somehow? i can't really remember), but this is the version i think works best.

    tl;dr - Ethan is a clairvoyant/oracle who has been the antagonist in all past versions of the story

    Jacob/Lakobos (not sure which name is correct here, he's not my character) is a hellhound and is the one who possesses Ethan. our thoughts for why he does this (and later does the whole reality-tearing thing) is that the spirit world basically sucks and he wants out. pretty simple.

    tl;dr - Jacob is a hellhound/spirit who possesses Ethan in the most recent version of the plot

    Brooke is a gryphon, Naida is a siren, and they're girlfriends. and that's about all we got about them. in the very original version of the story, Naida and Trevor had this like...hate-love relationship?? and there was an unnecessary love triangle (though it was really more like a diamond. basically the original story was a mess). and Brooke was there to be annoying or something. but with all the changing, they've kind of gotten left behind. but Lazy and i feel like we can't just get rid of them entirely, so we're trying to figure out their whole "deal"

    tl;dr - Brooke is a gryphon, Naida is a siren; they're girlfriends.
     
  2. TheLazy0ne

    TheLazy0ne New Member

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    A note that I think is important is that in the most recent iteration of the story, you need a spirit to guide you between the two worlds. "Fairies" (like Elaine and Diedra) can also serve this role.
     
  3. Arcadeus

    Arcadeus Senior Member

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    Where does the magic come from, or is it a soft magic system and not used to move the plot forward at all?
     
  4. Arcadeus

    Arcadeus Senior Member

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    If the magic has a source, you have a lot of options. YADA YADA is trying to corrupt the magic. Human's trying to destroy the magic's source... The magic is starting to wane and they have to figure out why.
     
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  5. OJB

    OJB A Mean Old Man Contributor

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    There is fives point you should have figured out before plotting. They are as followed.

    Lead: Your MC. Try to use nouns and verbs when you describe your MC and a single-well-picked adjective.
    Objective: What is his or her goal? It should be a physical goal that serves to satisfy a spiritual goal.
    Conflict: What stands in his or her way?
    Knockout: What would victory look like? What would defeat look like?
    Situation: With as few words as possible, what is your character's life like before the start of the story? A little bit of Background info works here.

    A note on irony: Either the goal or the conflict (or both) should be Ironic in terms of your MC. An example of this would be "A serial killer who tries to save someone's life."

    A note on groups: A group of characters can act as a single MC if their main OBJECTIVE is the same (The Goonies is a great example of this) however one of these characters will always be 'the lead' of the group.
     
  6. monstercandy

    monstercandy New Member

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    we had something like this a few versions ago, where the magical world was "spilling into" the human world and was causing everyone magical to kind of flip out. the most current version has possessed-Ethan trying to tear destroy the spirit world so that he (the spirit) won't be trapped there anymore. neither of these seemed quite right, however. this is probably because the main characters' goal (Trevor) was to regain his memories and that has nothing to do with any of the climaxes we thought of. maybe we should get rid of the memory loss as a plot point altogether?
     
  7. Seren

    Seren Writeaholic

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    Perhaps, rather than getting rid of Trevor's amnesia, you should relegate it to being a subplot. In fact, that sounds like what it really is. I suppose the memory loss does need to relate to your main arc somehow, but it doesn't have to be that greatly. Or perhaps he simply lost his memory because he was a dragon for such a long time, and that's what happens to dragons. Maybe he was a great, fierce, warrior dragon or something along those lines so that everyone who once knew him believes that he can take down the bad guy. Trevor has to therefore get to know himself again and believe in himself. Whether you follow that or have a completely different explanation, my point remains the same: I don't think that you should get rid of Trevor's memory loss simply because it isn't central enough to the story to relate to the climax. It's a part of his personality that should crop up as the subplot from time to time.
     
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  8. Scott Sommers

    Scott Sommers Member Supporter

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    Sounds like you main character is Trevor and the supporting main character is Diedra. What is Trevor's goal? Is it to regain his memory? If so, how does he know he lost it? Whos is the antagonist? Ill give you something pretty simple to help you figure out your plot. I got this idea from Libby Hawker's book Take Off Your Pants. I think you should pick it up. Her is how to outline your novel
    First, know your MC character's flaw. Don't let it be a silly flaw like he has a scar or walks with a limp. A flaw should be something that hinders your MC from acheiving his goal. His flaw could be that he is gives in to his anger and can't controll it. His anger causes him to lose friends. Well go with this for know.

    FLAW: Gives into his anger easily.

    Now that our MC has a flaw, we can see where he needs to be at the end of the story. If Trevor is angry then he must have control of his anger by the end of the story. He must see that his anger is causing problems. What must he learn in order to control his anger?

    END: Controls his anger by accepting what he really is...a dragon. (I say let Trevor believe he is a human. makes the story have suspense.)
    FLAW: Gives into his anger easily.

    Third. who is your main character? Trevor. But who is he? Where does he live? What kind of work does he have, if any? Who are his friends?

    MAIN CHARACTER: Trevor.
    END: Controls his anger by accepting what he really is...a dragon. (I say let Trevor believe he is a human. makes the story have suspense.)
    FLAW: Gives into his anger easily.

    FOURTH. What is your MC external goal. The overall story. This is totally up to you. But having Trevor want to regain his memory as a goal is boring. Let's say Trevor wants to retrieve something that was stolen from him, a pendant maybe, given to him by a loved one and this pendant has powers that Trevor didn't know about. again, this is just an idea to give you on how to plot your novel.

    MAIN CHARACTER: Trevor.
    EXTERNAL GOAL: retrieve his pendant
    END: Controls his anger by accepting what he really is...a dragon. (I say let Trevor believe he is a human. makes the story have suspense.)
    FLAW: Gives into his anger easily.

    Fifth. Who is your antagonist? Your antagonist must want the same thing as your MC. Lets say that a demon wants the pendant so he can be freed from his prison and release his army to rule the world. The antagionist name is Ulic.

    MAIN CHARACTER: Trevor.
    EXTERNAL GOAL: retrieve his pendant
    ANTAGONSIT: Ulic who needs the pendant to be free from his prison.
    END: Controls his anger by accepting what he really is...a dragon. (I say let Trevor believe he is a human. makes the story have suspense.)
    FLAW: Gives into his anger easily.


    Then you need your ally. The ally serves as the person to bring our MC back on the right track. He or she can be anyone who has the ability to help our MC overcome fear or give him or her encouragement to push on.

    MAIN CHARACTER: Trevor.
    EXTERNAL GOAL: retrieve his pendant
    ANTAGONSIT: Ulic who needs the pendant to be free from his prison.
    END: Controls his anger by accepting what he really is...a dragon. (I say let Trevor believe he is a human. makes the story have suspense.)
    FLAW: Gives into his anger easily.
    ALLY: Diedra

    There is a lot more that I need to explain but the book by Libbie Hawker will explain it much better than I. I'll give you the rest latter today.
     
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  9. monstercandy

    monstercandy New Member

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    he knows because Diedra can sense that he's not human via fairy majyyks and tells him, and the antagonist has always been Ethan as said above. but this story-planning structure seems really useful, we'll have to give it a try
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2017

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