Mar 2017
3 / 5
Mar 2017
Mar 2017
pingc0306
Mar '17

i'm writing my series and i'm hving a bit of difficulty trying to think of a way to tie the whole plot together ,anybody got suggestions ? a little more info on the part basically i'm trying to have the main character be pushed to make a decision but utilizing the kidnapping trope of a loved one seems a bit like....cliche so I don't know how to push him in the direction i've been revising the plot over and over again and everytime it just doesn't work out....>o<

  • created

    Mar '17

  • last reply

    Mar '17
  • 4

    replies

  • 764

    views

  • 2

    users

  • 1

    link

shazzbaa
Mar '17

First, an aside: try not to start several different threads on the same thing when you can! For something like this, you can just edit your previous post1, which is only a couple hours old, to add the additional info, rather than start an entirely new thread! (as it is, a mod might end up merging them).

But re: the question:

Okay, generally, a couple of the really important components of a character are: the things that they're afraid of, and the things that they want. These can be really obvious things, like "I want treasure" or "I'm afraid of snakes," but they can also be less obvious things, like "I'm afraid of responsibility" or "I want to prove I can be brave." Characters themselves don't always know these things (there are plenty of real people who are afraid of commitment without realising it, for instance) but it's good for you, the creator, to know these things about them.

A lot of times, really important moments in the story are going to reveal these things, because those are the things that drive your character's decisions. A character does something to avoid a thing he's afraid of, or to try to get a thing he wants. The most interesting decisions come when two of these come into conflict. So if you have a character who wants to help people, but is afraid of snakes, and she suddenly sees someone being attacked by a snake, what does she do? Which is more important to her, her desire to avoid snakes, or her desire to help? That tells you a LOT about the character and where their priorities are.

So when you're looking at a character and you need him to be pushed towards something he wouldn't normally do, you can use a lot of these principles. Can something about that decision play into what the character wants? Can something about that decision play into the character's desire to avoid the thing they're afraid of?

A character is afraid of being useless, so even though this quest looks hard he's more afraid of sitting it out and being unable to help. Another character has always wanted to do something important, so even though her life is comfortable she's willing to risk everything for the chance to make a real difference. One character is terrified of stepping into the role that's being asked of him, but it's the only way for him to be close to his closest friend, so he takes the job because he wants nothing more than to stay close to the people he loves. Another character doesn't want adventure, but she's much more afraid of everyone else thinking she's a coward, so she accepts the quest.

"Fear of losing a loved one" is just a very specific use of this -- it's easy, because an audience can assume "he probably wants to rescue his loved one" and you don't have to do the work to establish the character and why he's willing to make the decision. But there are a million other ways to motivate someone, depending on what matters to them, and decisions like this are a great place to reveal what matters most.

shazzbaa
Mar '17
pingc0306

If you're looking for specific advise for your specific story, I'm gonna say that's tough for anyone to offer without knowing more of the basic beats of your story and what you're trying to achieve. Something as vague as "there's a character, he's afraid of losing a person he loves, he thought she was dead but then maybe she isn't??? and I want to motivate him to do (???) without using kidnapping" could go in a million different directions.

But I will say, he probably has more desires/fears than just this single loved one. People are complicated, and can be motivated by a lot of different things. Even just "he's afraid of being alone" could lead to a lot of places -- a character who is afraid of being alone might be more likely to join an group or a cause or connect too quickly to a stranger in response to the loneliness of losing someone important. He might join a stranger on a quest he wouldn't ordinarily join because of how much the stranger reminds him of her. He could also be motivated by qualities of the person he lost -- if he admired her bravery, he might try to be braver in the face of danger for her sake. If she would've wanted to see the Empire overthrown, he might be willing to throw himself into that cause more than he would normally want to. And again, those specifics probably won't be relevant to your story -- it's just an example of how to look at other possibilities.

And his connection to her doesn't have to be the source of motivation, either. It might even be an obstacle -- if her loss devastated him, and he doesn't want to chase the bad guy anymore ...... but ultimately his fear of failure/his desire to protect others/his connection to other members of this quest/[insert literally any motivation here] is more important to him, then he might do it without needing her as a motivation at all.

I had a character in my story, and the first decision she made seemed contradictory.... which instead of being a problem, taught me a lot about her. She's shy, and afraid of confrontation, and doesn't like talking in front of strangers... but her very first decision in the story is to argue with her family and insist on leaving home to help her friend talk to strangers. When I thought about it, it made me realise that her desire to be needed by her friends must be much MORE important to her than those other things, so in that instance, she's willing to do something that she normally wouldn't do.
So that's another way to look at it -- instead of wondering what carrot you can dangle in front of your protagonist to get him to do this thing, you could think about it the opposite way. Your character obviously did make the decision to do the thing -- what does that tell you about the things that are important to him? What might've made that choice worth it to him?

pingc0306
Mar '17

ok so.....instead of going after her he should do something else?In a way yes it would be contradictory for him to go join other people but the other people in the story are kind of the people that are sent to kill the one that he loves ,it's kind of against his character to kind of just outright trust people ....idk hmmm....

shazzbaa
Mar '17

Oh, geez, no, I'm saying that it's impossible for anyone to suggest what he should do because we don't know your story.

I don't know what he should do. You haven't said what it is you want him to decide to do, so I just made up some examples to show how a character who's lost someone might decide to do something without a loved one getting kidnapped. I don't know if they're good ideas for your story. Those were just some examples of how many different options there are.

Since I don't know very much about your story, all I can really say about your story specifically is, if you don't want her to get kidnapped, there are a lot of other things that might make him want to do the thing you want him to do, depending on what kind of person he is! Most people don't need kidnapped loved ones to motivate them to go after the things they want.