# When even evil has standards...



## Ireth (Jan 4, 2013)

...what do you do with them?

The villain in my vampire novel, Conall, has a very strict rule in his city: vampires are not allowed under any circumstances to turn or kill children or pregnant women. Unfortunately, a minor character has a past history of doing just that, and the villain catches him with a seven-year-old girl he has recently turned -- his third offence, meaning no chance of mercy. The villain punishes the culprit justly (in his own twisted way, anyway), but there's still the problem of what to do with the girl. Turning her loose in the wild would spell trouble for humans and vampires alike, and Conall doesn't want to have to deal with her in his city. Given that the "don't harm children" rule is still in effect, and a vampire child is still a child, what can I (and therefore Conall) do with this?


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## MadMadys (Jan 4, 2013)

A person, vampire or not I think, will go through mental gymnastics to try and justify anything they want to do.  This usually leads to a crime against semantics.

Perhaps he gets her out of the city before "taking care of business"?  Rule only applies in the city so if you're outside those limits then it is all good!

Arrange an "accident" of sorts to befall her?  One could say there is a difference in knowingly harming someone versus a simple case of crumbling mortar leading to a wall falling at the wrong time.

I'm not sure if you actually want to kill her or not so that could change what he wants to do.  Imprisoning her for an extended period of time isn't "harming" either I guess.  "Protecting her from herself" could be his line.

Best I can do without knowing all the things at play here.


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## Ireth (Jan 4, 2013)

MadMadys said:


> A person, vampire or not I think, will go through mental gymnastics to try and justify anything they want to do.  This usually leads to a crime against semantics.
> 
> Perhaps he gets her out of the city before "taking care of business"?  Rule only applies in the city so if you're outside those limits then it is all good!



Hmm, maybe... but the girl was turned outside the city, and brought there by her "papa". Only then was the guy punished for it, once Conall found out.



MadMadys said:


> Arrange an "accident" of sorts to befall her?  One could say there is a difference in knowingly harming someone versus a simple case of crumbling mortar leading to a wall falling at the wrong time.



That's true... and the villain is insane enough to not have any qualms about doing such things, as long as it's cemented in his mind that "it's not me harming the girl, so it's all good".



MadMadys said:


> I'm not sure if you actually want to kill her or not so that could change what he wants to do.  Imprisoning her for an extended period of time isn't "harming" either I guess.  "Protecting her from herself" could be his line.
> 
> Best I can do without knowing all the things at play here.



I'm not sure if I want to kill her either, to be honest. ^^; Imprisoning her might be troublesome, since she'd still be around for Conall to have to deal with. Free or captive, she's another mouth to feed, and an unwanted one at that. And I haven't even decided whether or not things are different for a vampire child than a vampire adult, even on a biological (necrological?) level. I think a vampire child might be scarier than a vampire adult. Children have less understanding of right versus wrong, and in such a twisted place as the vampire city, it could wreak havoc on her mind. (Shame she isn't a major character, this has all kinds of potential to be fascinating.)


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## T.Allen.Smith (Jan 4, 2013)

Make part of the sentence, for the convicted, be the forced killing of his own child progeny, by his hands. The charge of murdering the child, even though it's mandated is added on to the overall charges when facing punishment.

This way Conall doesn't kill the child. In the eyes of the law, the perpetrator killed the child as soon as he turned her within the city walls.

EDIT: As soon as he brought the child in he doomed her.


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## psychotick (Jan 4, 2013)

Hi,

Notreally knowing your Conall guy it's difficult to interpret what his actions should be. Firstly why not kill the child? She may be a child but she's still a vampire, and the fact that nonvampire children should not be turned no longer applies. Does it? Or is the rule that no children of any sort should be harmed? Which doesn't seem that evil.

If the issue is that the kids another mouth to feed, kill the 'papa' and give all his food to her. It seems reasonable enough. Or else make him the child's slave with the responsibility of feeding her / caring for her. And if she does wrong, he pays.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Ireth (Jan 4, 2013)

T.Allen.Smith said:


> Make part of the sentence, for the convicted, be your killing of his own child progeny. The charge of murdering the child, even though it's mandated is added on to the overall charges when facing punishment.
> 
> This way Conall doesn't kill the child. In the eyes of the law, the perpetrator killed the child as soon as he turned her within the city walls.



Well, he turned her well outside the city limits and brought her there afterward. I like the idea of making the father kill his own child, though. Adding that on to the other punishment might be tricky, though, since Conall quite literally leaves his judgments to chance. He has a deck of cards depicting various forms of punishment: they mostly involve dismemberment, but one card leads to a prohibition on drinking from humans for a certain amount of time, one is an instant-death card, and one is an "I'll be merciful and let you off... _this time_" card. As with every other criminal, the convicted is forced to draw his own card from the deck, and endure the depicted punishment. In this case, the "I'll let you off" card is removed from the deck before the convicted draws.


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## GregorsMentor (Jan 4, 2013)

Is there room in the city for a vampire orphanage/jail/Juvee?  It could be an incredible creepy place to visit.


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## Ireth (Jan 4, 2013)

psychotick said:


> Hi,
> 
> Notreally knowing your Conall guy it's difficult to interpret what his actions should be. Firstly why not kill the child? She may be a child but she's still a vampire, and the fact that nonvampire children should not be turned no longer applies. Does it? Or is the rule that no children of any sort should be harmed? Which doesn't seem that evil.



My original post states that a vampire child is still a child, and thus the rule still applies. Just because he doesn't harm children doesn't mean Conall isn't evil -- he just has a weird moral code of his own. (Plus he's completely insane, which probably helps.)



psychotick said:


> If the issue is that the kids another mouth to feed, kill the 'papa' and give all his food to her. It seems reasonable enough. Or else make him the child's slave with the responsibility of feeding her / caring for her. And if she does wrong, he pays.



That sounds like it could work. ^^ Though it would technically be what the convicted guy wants, since he turned her with the intention of adopting her as his daughter, so it might not be high on Conall's list of punishments unless he makes it more of a burden than the convicted thinks.


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## MadMadys (Jan 4, 2013)

Well throwing out ideas that may or may not work can get tricky since we only know a little about your story.  I think the better question is what you want to do with this girl?  Does she need to live?  What's her importance to the story?  You say your villain has standards but by what right do those standards rest?  I've made characters that exist by personal moral codes or listen to voices in their head so while they have "standards" they might not be what you and I consider 'logical'.

We could probably create eleventy billion options but without knowing what you want out of the character and story as a whole it's hard to give proper options.  He could kill her, either directly or by accident, or have Cornall at least _try_ to do these things but I'm not sure what you want the endgame to be.


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## Ireth (Jan 4, 2013)

GregorsMentor said:


> Is there room in the city for a vampire orphanage/jail/Juvee?  It could be an incredible creepy place to visit.



I hadn't thought of that... vampire children aren't a huge problem with Conall's rule (and form of punishment) in place, but there are some who break the law for whatever reason. A child is considered to be any prepubescent boy or girl; given that teens, especially girls, were often expected to marry and have kids quite soon after reaching puberty, they were considered adults right away, so a "juvie hall" might not cross people's minds. Any vampire is expected to be cared for by the one who turns him/her. It doesn't always work out, since sometimes the newly-turned vampires are separated from their sires for various reasons. Such is the case with the hero of the story, whose sire was driven away by the hero's human father moments after turning him, and then the sire had his own villain-related problems to deal with.


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## Ireth (Jan 5, 2013)

MadMadys said:


> Well throwing out ideas that may or may not work can get tricky since we only know a little about your story.  I think the better question is what you want to do with this girl?  Does she need to live?  What's her importance to the story?  You say your villain has standards but by what right do those standards rest?  I've made characters that exist by personal moral codes or listen to voices in their head so while they have "standards" they might not be what you and I consider 'logical'.
> 
> We could probably create eleventy billion options but without knowing what you want out of the character and story as a whole it's hard to give proper options.  He could kill her, either directly or by accident, or at _try_ to do these things but I'm not sure what you want the endgame to be.



At the start she was only a one-off character the hero meets during one scene, and then never sees again -- basically serving no purpose but to freak the shit out of the hero with her juxtaposed childlike innocence and vampiric corruption. Then I got to thinking about her and her sire a little more, and a scene came into my head where the hero witnesses the villain forcing the convicted to choose his own method of punishment by the cards. I realized there must be more to everyone involved in this -- why would the convicted break the same law three times? What do his "children" think of him, if they're still alive somewhere? There are a lot of other questions I could ask the characters. I'm not so sure I want the girl to die, at least before I find some answers. XD

As for the villain, he's completely insane, so any semblance of logic is going to be scarce. He gave up on the whole "not killing people" thing after accidentally turning his second wife into a vampire sent him over the deep end. He's responsible for the bulk of the vampire's first population spurt, until his victims began siring victims of their own, as well as for the founding of the city. Conall would have no rules in place in the city at all if it were not for his brother Luthais, who began as a co-ruler (and put a _lot_ more rules in place, such as no feeding from humans at all, which was flat-out ignored), but has increasingly less of an impact on Conall's decision-making.


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## GregorsMentor (Jan 5, 2013)

Still, a place where mistakes are put away and either cared for or forgotten, it could be a sign of the villain's mercy and an urban legend legend that haunts the hero.


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## MadMadys (Jan 5, 2013)

Well I offered my ideas as to her fate but I'll give an idea for the villain.  Make the randomness of the cards a total lie.  They're all the same card, which he chooses beforehand, or make the card choice purely a public spectacle while he goes on to do his own thing in private.  This gives the villain a bit of a theatric element which is always fun to see is bad guys while still making him a conniving jerk to the reader.


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## Ireth (Jan 5, 2013)

GregorsMentor said:


> Still, a place where mistakes are put away and either cared for or forgotten, it could be a sign of the villain's mercy and an urban legend legend that haunts the hero.



I'm not so sure about an urban legend, since the hero knows almost nothing about the villain or the city until he's taken there. His only contact with the city comes from meeting a vampire who was blinded and left to die in the wilderness by the villain's lackeys, as punishment for trying to "steal food" (i.e. free the humans who are a captive food supply). Said blind vampire is so traumatized he can barely speak of the city or Conall, or the reason why he was punished -- he doesn't even remember where he was or what he was doing when he was found by the villain's lackeys and dragged back to the city after freeing the aforesaid humans and escaping.



MadMadys said:


> Well I offered my ideas as to her fate but I'll give an idea for the villain.  Make the randomness of the cards a total lie.  They're all the same card, which he chooses beforehand, or make the card choice purely a public spectacle while he goes on to do his own thing in private.  This gives the villain a bit of a theatric element which is always fun to see is bad guys while still making him a conniving jerk to the reader.



Of the two, I think the second option is more feasible. The punishment cards are all different, or else there wouldn't be an entire deck of them, nor any sort of "mercy card". I'd initially thought of the crime-and-punishment affair as just between the villain and the convicted, with perhaps one or two witnesses, and the rest of the populace are left to wonder and spread rumors among themselves about what happened. But I like the idea of a public spectacle a lot better. ^^


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## Sheriff Woody (Jan 5, 2013)

Ireth said:


> ...what do you do with them?
> 
> The villain in my vampire novel, Conall, has a very strict rule in his city: vampires are not allowed under any circumstances to turn or kill children or pregnant women. Unfortunately, a minor character has a past history of doing just that, and the villain catches him with a seven-year-old girl he has recently turned -- his third offence, meaning no chance of mercy. The villain punishes the culprit justly (in his own twisted way, anyway), but there's still the problem of what to do with the girl. Turning her loose in the wild would spell trouble for humans and vampires alike, and Conall doesn't want to have to deal with her in his city. Given that the "don't harm children" rule is still in effect, and a vampire child is still a child, what can I (and therefore Conall) do with this?




When in doubt, have the worst thing possible happen. 

Force characters to make hard decisions and do things they wouldn't ordinarily do. That is a most basic essence of drama. If your character refuses to harm children, put him in a situation where he *must* harm a child. Perhaps the child is dangerous and the only way of dealing with her is by killing her.


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## Ireth (Jan 5, 2013)

Sheriff Woody said:


> When in doubt, have the worst thing possible happen.
> 
> Force characters to make hard decisions and do things they wouldn't ordinarily do. That is a most basic essence of drama. If your character refuses to harm children, put him in a situation where he *must* harm a child. Perhaps the child is dangerous and the only way of dealing with her is by killing her.



I don't normally think about stuff like that with my villains -- they're usually the ones forcing the heroes to do things they wouldn't normally do. XD This seems like it would be a more appropriate problem to inflict upon Luthais, Conall's sane and good-natured brother-in-arms (and former co-ruler of the city), who made the rule in the first place.


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## CupofJoe (Jan 5, 2013)

I'm watching a documentary on the Nazis so I'm going back to MadMadys's post...


MadMadys said:


> A person, vampire or not I think, will go through  mental gymnastics to try and justify anything they want to do.  This  usually leads to a crime against semantics.


Following the gist of Nazi racial purity logic...
1 You can't turn a child in to a vampire. That is against the law...
2 Therefore there are no child vampires.
3 So what ever this is, is it is not a child or a vampire [it is definitely not a child and there are no child vampires, see point 2].
4 Therefore it has no rights or standing in society.
5 If it isn't a part of society's structure then it doesn't exist.
6 It is not a crime to "solve" the problem of things that don't exist. 
7 Therefore Conall [and probably lots of others] can do what they like.


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## Anders Ã„mting (Jan 5, 2013)

Ireth said:


> The villain in my vampire novel, Conall, has a very strict rule in his city: vampires are not allowed under any circumstances to turn or kill children or pregnant women. Unfortunately, a minor character has a past history of doing just that, and the villain catches him with a seven-year-old girl he has recently turned -- his third offence, meaning no chance of mercy. The villain punishes the culprit justly (in his own twisted way, anyway), but there's still the problem of what to do with the girl. Turning her loose in the wild would spell trouble for humans and vampires alike, and Conall doesn't want to have to deal with her in his city. Given that the "don't harm children" rule is still in effect, and a vampire child is still a child, what can I (and therefore Conall) do with this?



If they have laws about this, they probably also have established protocols for how do deal with this type of situation. Basically, if you were a vampire in this situation and you didn't actually care about the victim in question, what would make the most sense to do? 

Clearly this villain takes the rules seriously, so he'd probably do whatever it is they usually do when this happens.


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## Ireth (Jan 5, 2013)

Anders Ã„mting said:


> Clearly this villain takes the rules seriously, so he'd probably do *whatever it is they usually do when this happens.*



...which is basically what I'm trying to come up with. XD It's clearly not a first-time thing for the _characters_ to have to deal with this, but it is for their writer.


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## GregorsMentor (Jan 5, 2013)

It would be great if the hero came upon her again, once he understands better what her existence means and why it's a crime.  If that sounds good then it might work best to approach it from the question of where in the hero's travels and travails would she make sense.  An elite kiddy assassin squad?  Frozen in a lake (a lake of lost souls, if you will)?  Locked in a closet?  Taken in by other semi-feral vampire children who run as a pack?


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## Ireth (Jan 5, 2013)

GregorsMentor said:


> It would be great if the hero came upon her again, once he understands better what her existence means and why it's a crime.  If that sounds good then it might work best to approach it from the question of where in the hero's travels and travails would she make sense.  An elite kiddy assassin squad?  Frozen in a lake (a lake of lost souls, if you will)?  Locked in a closet?  Taken in by other semi-feral vampire children who run as a pack?



That just gave me an idea. ^^

The hero meets the vampire child around the middle of the book, and escapes the city not long after that, while committing a crime of his own (rescuing his father, a captive, after being commanded to eat him). Conall sends some lackeys after the hero and the father, resulting in a fight scene just when they thought they were safe. I could easily have the vampire child be among the lackeys, whether as an excuse to get her out of Conall's hair for a while, or because he thinks she'll actually be of use (or maybe he's just hoping she'll get killed and he won't have to worry about her anymore). That would put the hero in a predicament of whether or not to harm or kill a child, even to protect himself and his father. (I could even increase the hero's qualms by giving the little girl an unfortunate resemblance to his little sister who died years ago, of disease rather than vampire attack.)


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## Anders Ã„mting (Jan 5, 2013)

Ireth said:


> ...which is basically what I'm trying to come up with. XD It's clearly not a first-time thing for the _characters_ to have to deal with this, but it is for their writer.



Again, my suggestion would be to try to imagine what these vampires are most likely to decide to do. Maybe they just kill the vampire child? That's certainly the _easiest _solution. They consider this a terrible thing to do? Well, _that's why turning children is illegal in the first place._ 

Or they have some other solution. But I don't think this is going to be very complicated - they'll probably pick a quick and simple solution that minimizes potential damage, rather than go out of their way for the sake of this one kid they clearly don't care enough about to take care of.


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## Ireth (Jan 5, 2013)

Anders Ã„mting said:


> Again, my suggestion would be to try to imagine what these vampires are most likely to decide to do. Maybe they just kill the vampire child? That's certainly the _easiest _solution. They consider this a terrible thing to do? Well, _that's why turning children is illegal in the first place._
> 
> Or they have some other solution. But I don't think this is going to be very complicated - they'll probably pick a quick and simple solution that minimizes potential damage, rather than go out of their way for the sake of this one kid they clearly don't care enough about to take care of.



Very good points. ^^ I'll keep thinking about this.


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## PaulineMRoss (Jan 5, 2013)

Ireth said:


> (Shame she isn't a major character, this has all kinds of potential to be fascinating.)



And there's your sequel, right there. Lock her up, for now. Then, in the next book... ;-)


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## Penpilot (Jan 5, 2013)

This is one of those moments where what Conall does will say volumes about him. If he breaks or bends the rules it says one thing about his character. If he spares the child, it says another thing. What type of character is Conall in your eyes? 

This seems like a delicious problem to give someone. I could see the sparing of the child comming back to bite him. Or even helping him depending on what you want. What ever his choice make it have consequences, good or bad.


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## wordwalker (Jan 5, 2013)

Penpilot said:


> This is one of those moments where what Conall does will say volumes about him. If he breaks or bends the rules it says one thing about his character. If he spares the child, it says another thing. What type of character is Conall in your eyes?
> 
> This seems like a delicious problem to give someone. I could see the sparing of the child comming back to bite him. Or even helping him depending on what you want. What ever his choice make it have consequences, good or bad.



Especially, you've said Conall's insane, and relies on his cards. This sounds like a defining moment to show how, compared to what he's done before, just what kind of insane he really is when he's pushed this way. Follow his code to the point of seeming "goodness" but show that being adopted by a villain is no blessing? Follow it but with a nasty twist, like Eternity In The Closet? Or someone like the Joker (non-movie version) would respond to pressure with some whimsical copout that removed the problem (almost certainly nastily) and laugh all the way to the next scheme. And especially, how much does he follow or twist or defy that card system that ought to have the readers fascinated?

He may not be the hero, but he's still a major character at a crossroads. Like they say, never waste a crisis.


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## Mindfire (Jan 5, 2013)

I honestly think you should keep her. The idea of a vampire child has potential. You might find out you need her for something later. Never burn bridges if you can help it.


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## wordwalker (Jan 5, 2013)

Mindfire said:


> I honestly think you should keep her. The idea of a vampire child has potential. You might find out you need her for something later. Never burn bridges if you can help it.



I don't know, I think half of writing is made up of strategically burned bridges, whenever the statement it makes then is worth the opening lost later. (Okay, maybe a quarter, but the juiciest quarter in a book.)

So: "kiddie vampasassin squad/ waif in a closet" or "the villain's just that bad"? Whichever's better for the villain and the story... unless you've decided it's the child's story after all.


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## Ireth (Jan 5, 2013)

After thinking about this some more, I think this could open up a lot of opportunity for the hero as well. Perhaps he takes pity on the child and volunteers to care for her so she won't have to be killed, or cared for by someone like Conall who'll lead her down a destructive path. He might even try to take her aboveground with him when he rescues his father, which could add a whole new layer of complication to that plotline. Could be very interesting any way I take it. ^^


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## Penpilot (Jan 5, 2013)

Ireth said:


> After thinking about this some more, I think this could open up a lot of opportunity for the hero as well. Perhaps he takes pity on the child and volunteers to care for her so she won't have to be killed, or cared for by someone like Conall who'll lead her down a destructive path. He might even try to take her aboveground with him when he rescues his father, which could add a whole new layer of complication to that plotline. Could be very interesting any way I take it. ^^



Exactly what I was getting at. There's so much story potential there.


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## Ireth (Jan 5, 2013)

Penpilot said:


> Exactly what I was getting at. There's so much story potential there.



Indeed. I'm not sure whether I want to try outlining any one plotline now, or wait for the story to grow organically when I reach that point in my writing. Any advice?


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## Shockley (Jan 6, 2013)

Some thoughts:

 - While you seem set on keeping the child, perhaps there is a very good reason for there to be a rule against turning children outside of population concerns. Since they're tiny, pure, young, what have you - something about them is particularly problematic for the vampires. Perhaps they're just rather unstable and quickly decline, wasting away to non-existence without dying (which removes them as an issue, solving the moral quandary in the first place), or maybe they become an uncontrollable abomination that threatens the existing population. Maybe a child's blood is particularly problematic for a vampire, creating a kind of illness that transmits from the child to the vampire by blood but then goes from vampire to vampire as a pneumatic illness.

 Lots of possibilities here.

 - Bury the child in a grave. It fits with the vampire motif, and lacks the ease of escape that exists with a mausoleum or crypt. Kid is sealed underground and no way of escape - they won't die, per se, but they certainly won't matter at any point in the future (unless someone digs them up - possible plot point).

 - This is just a reality question: If this guy is so insane, why on earth is in he in charge of the community?


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## Penpilot (Jan 6, 2013)

Ireth said:


> Indeed. I'm not sure whether I want to try outlining any one plotline now, or wait for the story to grow organically when I reach that point in my writing. Any advice?



Personally, I'd do a rough outline and see where each path could lead you. Make the outline quick and dirty and don't dwell on it if you're not sure about things. Just choose a path and outline it. Your not committed to anything. After, mull over it as you go about your day and as you writing toward that point. For me when I do that, ideas will start to appear. Good ideas pop up to replace the bad ones and more ideas flow out to fill the holes in the outline.

It's a way to get your unconscious mind to think about the issue. Maybe once you catch up to that point in your writing, you'll have a completely different take on what you want to do OR possibly you'll see one of your outlined choices feels like more of a right choice.


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## wordwalker (Jan 6, 2013)

Penpilot said:


> Personally, I'd do a rough outline and see where each path could lead you. Make the outline quick and dirty and don't dwell on it if you're not sure about things. Just choose a path and outline it. Your not committed to anything. After, mull over it as you go about your day and as you writing toward that point. For me when I do that, ideas will start to appear. Good ideas pop up to replace the bad ones and more ideas flow out to fill the holes in the outline.
> 
> It's a way to get your unconscious mind to think about the issue. Maybe once you catch up to that point in your writing, you'll have a completely different take on what you want to do OR possibly you'll see one of your outlined choices feels like more of a right choice.



A good idea, sometimes. A trick I've used sometimes is:

Pick a few turning points or key decisions in a concept. Then outline at least _three different ways_ to do the story, making sure to make those points very different and following the process just far enough to start to get into what it might lead to. The hope is that making each plan separate and distinct from the other, and having not just one alternative but at least a couple to distract from the early view, helps loosen up the mind.

Then again, there's a lot to be said for the _City Slickers_ approach ("Nothing matters in life except one thing (that you choose yourself)"): pick one effect you want the story to max out and always build toward that. Though that works mostly when you think you've already done enough exploring to pick the key.


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## Ireth (Jan 7, 2013)

Shockley said:


> Some thoughts:
> 
> - While you seem set on keeping the child, perhaps there is a very good reason for there to be a rule against turning children outside of population concerns. Since they're tiny, pure, young, what have you - something about them is particularly problematic for the vampires. Perhaps they're just rather unstable and quickly decline, wasting away to non-existence without dying (which removes them as an issue, solving the moral quandary in the first place), or maybe they become an uncontrollable abomination that threatens the existing population. Maybe a child's blood is particularly problematic for a vampire, creating a kind of illness that transmits from the child to the vampire by blood but then goes from vampire to vampire as a pneumatic illness.
> 
> ...



Ooh, those are good ideas. ^^ As for why Conall's the leader if he's so insane, that's because he's the oldest and possibly the strongest of the vampires, and he uses force and magic to keep his people in line. He used to have a co-ruler, his brother-in-arms Luthais, who did his best to rein Conall in and keep him from making all of his people as corrupt and crazy as he is (which, sadly didn't always work). But as Conall grew more and more crazy over the centuries, he stopped listening to Luthais, making the title of co-ruler nothing more than a name. Luthais won't have power until Conall dies.



Penpilot said:


> Personally, I'd do a rough outline and see where each path could lead you. Make the outline quick and dirty and don't dwell on it if you're not sure about things. Just choose a path and outline it. Your not committed to anything. After, mull over it as you go about your day and as you writing toward that point. For me when I do that, ideas will start to appear. Good ideas pop up to replace the bad ones and more ideas flow out to fill the holes in the outline.
> 
> It's a way to get your unconscious mind to think about the issue. Maybe once you catch up to that point in your writing, you'll have a completely different take on what you want to do OR possibly you'll see one of your outlined choices feels like more of a right choice.





wordwalker said:


> A good idea, sometimes. A trick I've used sometimes is:
> 
> Pick a few turning points or key decisions in a concept. Then outline at least _three different ways_ to do the story, making sure to make those points very different and following the process just far enough to start to get into what it might lead to. The hope is that making each plan separate and distinct from the other, and having not just one alternative but at least a couple to distract from the early view, helps loosen up the mind.
> 
> Then again, there's a lot to be said for the _City Slickers_ approach ("Nothing matters in life except one thing (that you choose yourself)"): pick one effect you want the story to max out and always build toward that. Though that works mostly when you think you've already done enough exploring to pick the key.



Good ideas. ^^ We'll see which one works better for me. Thanks!


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## Varamyrr (Jan 9, 2013)

Hmmm, I would say that if you ruler is such an evil person. Would it be better if you gave your situation a twisted end?
It was not clear to me why the child was bitten in the first place(could be my fault) but if their is a emotional connection between the two you could let the 'biter' execute her. Torment the guy psychologically before he gets his final punishment.


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