I need to have my character somehow get into the "otherworld" where the story takes place. I'm thinking of having him try and hang himself, and wake up in another place, but I'm not entirely happy with the whole "wakes up somewhere with no idea where he is" trope - I feel like it's been done to death, and he'll end up spending the first two chapters working out where he is and how the world works. That strikes me as not being terribly imaginative or original, so any suggestions - either on alternatives or how to make this more original are welcome. I'm trying to think of some original elements to add to it, but it feels like I'm just tinkering and putting lipstick on a pig.
Maybe he knows where they knew where they were going, but in the process of hanging himself banged his head and gave him a serious case of amnosia. This way you can simply have him get hit in the head again to jog his memory instead of spending chapters having him figure it out. You can also have him get hit multiple times to trigger the amnosia any time you need to raise dramatic tensions. Just remember: odd numbers of hits to the head it's been it's activated and on even numbers of hits to the head they can remember everything.
The fungus growing under the south pole's ice looked like from another planet, so there's plenty of different worlds to be explored right here on earth. Maybe an underground hidden society. You can also have space exploration or simply being born in the other world. I used our own world to allow having historical references in the language itself while breaking away from our timeline with a divine intervention in 960AD which changed the ocean levels and religions.
It doesn’t matter how he gets there. People don’t get tired of plots with a start middle and end, yet people keep writing the that way. Focus on the writing.
I'm not a super fan of the hanging himself-idea. But in my mind it doesn't matter how he gets there as long as it makes sense within the story. In other words: find a good mechanism for how someone he might end up in a different world, then make sure your character gets into a situation where that happens. So if he hangs himself, how does that allow for transport from one world to the other? If he gets ubducted by aliens and dropped off on another world, why did the aliens do that? If he finds an interdimentional portal, where did the portal come from and how does it work? These are things that you should know from the start and perhaps have the character and the readers discover as the story progresses. If he's going to wake up in another world, the reader is going to have to spend a few chapters working out how the world works. Might as well have them getting to know the world through your character. It's a good oppertunity to have the reader discover the details of the world as your character discovers them.
Just enter the plot later. Start from the point where chapter three would theoretically begin, if you're not a fan of the first two chapters you mentioned. Or you can write, but not actually use, the first two chapters so that you can get to chapter three, which would technically be your chapter one. Like badger said though: the real thing you should worry about is good writing. People can easily overlook "cliches" or "tropes". Believe it or not, there are reasons we have cliches and tropes to begin with, and it's because people like them and there is meaning in them.
Maybe my previous commented sounded too glib. I know the kind of problem you mean. I wouldn’t worry about it too much though. Trends exist because they work. Just because something is cliched it doesn’t mean it cannot be executed well. It may be worth simply having him awaken in said world with no intelligible explanation. I would certainly avoid an ‘it was all just a dream ending’ though unless you can write something comparable to Alice In Wonderland EVERY narrative involves characters being put in unusual situations - being ‘thrown into another world’ be it literally, spiritually/psychologically and/or metaphorically. How you bridge the divide is what matters to my mind - something I’ve posted about here recently.
Him hanging himself and waking up in another word seems a bit extreme and cliche. Some alternatives: Maybe he tries some really hard drugs and wakes up in a new world Goes on a religious pilgrimage and during meditation session wakes up somewhere else follows a mysterious person there instead of hanging, he tries committing suicide by jumping off a bridge into water and wakes up elsewhere Good luck
Lovecraft loved adding opium dreams in his crafting of tales: The world the character explores is very visceral, yet they know they are in an opium dream... in a sense the 'soul' has traveled to a physical realm , and the body awakens once more... sort of like spirit walking in tribal shamanistic tradition. In the game Planescape: Torment the MC awakens in a morgue, knowing nothing. Yet he awakens next to a talking, floating skull who quickly reads a tattoo etched into his back which gives instructions from his past self: This is a narrative hook and the MC starts exploring an unknown city, yet he does so with a goal and soon finds signs of his previous existence. IMO this trope works well when the character is thrown into the thick of things and has to figure the world out at the same pace as the reader, while plunging headlong into the narrative (Chronicles of Amber). My point is sort of "Show, don't tell." Instead of having a historian filling twenty pages in the first chapter with establishing lore, have the MC experience a war firsthand, or participate/witness an important event and in so doing learn the lay of the land. One can say that LOTR is like this: While the hobbits are from middle earth, that which is outside the shire is pretty much terra incognita. Gandalf acts as guide to flesh out that which is beyond. (Once more, "spirit guide" in trance lore) This concept is a nice way to introduce a weird world while keeping a relatable character, and the contrast immediately creates a conflict: A drop of oil in a barrel of water. Yet is a common tactic, but then again, what tactics are truly uncommon?
The hanging isn't just a device to get him there - it's integral to the plot. However, I've decided to get around the trope by telling the story from an inhabitant of the otherworld's POV. They and the reader won't find out about the suicide attempt until later in the story.
You say the hanging is key to the story, so why not have him suffering from delusions and hallucinations to begin with? This way, it's not the finding himself in a strange place that's surprising, but rather than it DOESN'T seem to be a hallucination. That way, the hanging attempt can be a more or less normal reaction to a chronic condition. This can also work with the otherworld observer, that the newcomer seems to react strangely to various events.
More than the hanging, it's the reasons behind the hanging that are important - which also dictate how he reacts to certain events in the otherworld (which seems totally alien to the otherworlders). Several people have suggested drugs, but I'm not hot on that idea, sorry guys.
I actually really like this — it gave me that “ooh” factor that makes me love my favorite stories and mechanics. I like the thought of him hanging himself and wondered how lucid he might be about it. Does he remember hanging himself, or are his memories gone or corrupted, half forgotten? Could be he thinks he’s died and accepts it, or he thinks he could still be alive but choking and seeing things/dying due to the lack of air. Anyway I’m already interested in the story, and very keen to know how the hanged character will interact with his new environment.
