• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Need some advice on plot.

ascanius

Inkling
So here is the issue. I am debating on one of three possible scenarios here. Char A is returned home by Char B and learns that her people were attacked by demons seriously cutting their numbers. It was a devastating attack that highlights how her people are slowly dieing. Before she was taken she set a goal to find a way to help her people to redeem herself from who she is, and her past. Secondly she discovers that she is to be married to a man that she does not know (Not char B). She does not like this for personal reasons, yet will go through with it because of her sense of duty to her people and her lack of any self worth. So she is looking for a why out of the marriage.

One: Char A decides to force Char B into marriage using guilt and the fact that he owes her, playing of his guilt. She would do this using lies of what will happen to her, how she will be ostracized. She will not be ostracized because of what happened, and she is already different because of her scars and other things. She is doing this for her own ends though to save her people.

Two: Char B decides to marry Char A to protect her from the fallout from what he has done, he feels a lot of guilt and shame for what he has done. In this one she does not try to force him, he simply takes matters into his own hands.

Three: Lastly they are connected to each other because of what happened. He feels guilt for ruining her life and simply marries her to make amends. In this one after learning that they are bonded and failing to kill himself and force the guards to kill him he talks to her father.

Some background. They are not in love. Char A is trying to get char B to help her people, save them is more like it. She views it as the one way to redeem herself, and is not concerned with what happens to her nor if she is every happy. For her she wouldn't care because at this moment her people are all that matter, but she needs a way to bind her to him preventing him from leaving. He does not want to marry anyone but simply wants to go where no one can find him and eventually die, or become lost to time. He has hurt char A and is trying to make things as right as possible, such as returning her to her people. He will not help her nor her people due to the fear that he has of himself, and of harming others again. He does have the power to help though. He has a lot of guilt with regards to char A too.

I just wanted to know what you guys think. should I choose one over the other or use a combination.
 
I'm rooting for option 1. It sets up more conflict and has the promise of the most interesting payoff. Even if these two characters can settle some of their other differences, the circumstances of their marriage will be a cause for later guilt, self-righteousness and anger which will make later scenes fun to read and write.
 

ascanius

Inkling
I'm having a lot of issues making this work. I'm kinda going with a combination of options one and two. Though it's a nightmare to try to resolve.

Char B r*p*d Char A and this is really giving me a lot of difficulties. So in that sense Char B is by no means a white night. What's giving me difficulties is resolving the fact that this is the guy who r*p*d her and why in hell would she even want to be near him.

This is my reasoning however twisted it may be. Due to her very dark past she doesn't care what happens to her. To her she is inconsequential, nothing. She sees binding him to her only as a means of getting him to help her people. In a way she sees it as her chance at redemption for her past (though she is not a fault for her past, she thinks she is the lies of her past). I don't know if anyone can relate but it's like being unable to do anything for yourself and only able to do something for others kinda thing. She does not see this as a sacrifice either, she would have to be giving something up and she doesn't think she is worth any better. The one thing in her life that she values beyond all else are her people, they were the one thing that kept her going. How she feels in this is really important.

Knowing that do her reasons make sense.
You know taking the story of Persephone and Hades has a lot more issues with it than I originally thought it would especially when I've added so much to it.
 
Char B r*p*d Char A and this is really giving me a lot of difficulties. So in that sense Char B is by no means a white night. What's giving me difficulties is resolving the fact that this is the guy who r*p*d her and why in hell would she even want to be near him.

Okay, this makes things a lot different.

What I want to know now is a little more about Char. B's motivations. I remember that I ended up abandoning what was supposed to be a very groundbreaking and prestigious fantasy series because the main character raped a girl. After that I couldn't read about anything he did without inherently disliking him. So, my psychological issues aside, what are character B's redeeming features? Maybe some of those will help Char. A as well. Or maybe she hates him for his transgression but sees her alternatives as even worse. In which case, you'll need to paint her situation as really, really dire.
 

ascanius

Inkling
Okay, this makes things a lot different.

What I want to know now is a little more about Char. B's motivations. I remember that I ended up abandoning what was supposed to be a very groundbreaking and prestigious fantasy series because the main character raped a girl. After that I couldn't read about anything he did without inherently disliking him. So, my psychological issues aside

The answer to that question is complicated.
Both characters are struggling with their pasts and both have serious issues.

Char B is trying to deal with what he is. He is death, well he would be similar to a demigod, not grim reaper. He Believed what he was was a curse, but is slowly coming to understand it is simply who he is and not something he can change. However the one thing he can change is who he becomes. Currently he wants to make things right, as far as is possible, along with not becoming a dreadorath, a creature of fear that feeds of the fear, pain, terror, and sorrows of others. He has come close to that point already and it was Char A who pulled him back from his twisted view of the world, so in that sense she rescued him. He knows he must make changes to how he views the world, as a cruel game with the only goal of torment and suffering and the only escape is death. Ideally he wants to just run away and die alone where he cannot hurt anyone. That or put himself in a situation where he will be killed. He has tried to kill himself yet cannot do it when the time comes. He is haunted by the faces of those he has killed, and is only now reconciling with that part of him that did the killing. He kinda split the demigod part from himself unable to accept what he was so now he is accepting it as a part of him.

Redeeming qualities: He cannot remember anything before the past 4 years. He is thoughtful and intelligent. He can take a hell of a lot of crap yet with things that affect others he is very volatile. He is protective of those close to him. He means what he says. He is compassionate, and very caring when he chooses to let his walls down. He has two forms human and shadow wolf, he knows magic which char A and her people do not. He is dependable and doesn't ask for anything in return, he is better at giving then getting. He his daring. He is not one for bs but prefers to just cut to the chase. He knows that something happened to char A that haunts her and has helped her return from her waking nightmares. He hates himself and the things he has done. He has tried to close himself off from the pain he has caused others, and a pain he cannot place when he was little that he doesn't remember. There is a scene where he is guided through the mind of Char A and he comes across a little boy perched on a window, he does not recognize himself nor the memory of trying to jump out a window to stop the hurt. Also because of what he can see all the wicked acts others have done in terrifying detail, these are the situations where he becomes volatile but at that point he no longer has control, the demigod part does. It has made him understand to look deeper into people and not accept outward appearances.

Maybe some of those will help Char. A as well. Or maybe she hates him for his transgression but sees her alternatives as even worse. In which case, you'll need to paint her situation as really, really dire.

When he looks at Char A, she can tell that he is looking at her and not at her scarred skin. She can tell he is looking at who she is and not the face she shows the world. She hasn't gotten to hating him yet... She is still focused on previous events in her past and compared to those events he was an angel. She doesn't think her alternatives are better due to how she sees herself because of her past. She thinks she is not the heinous creature she is if she can save her people and she needs his help to do that.
 

Zophos

Minstrel
So does Char A even know he raped Char B or is that something that has been blotted out of his memory as well? Will he come to that realization throughout the narrative? If he's having trouble reconciling who he is, is it possible he's hidden these memories from himself as some kind of defense mechanism? Funny to talk about a rapist and murderer in terms we normally associate with the victim, but there might be a very deep and meaningful twist in the juxtaposition of these ideas for both Char A and B.

I'm not buying Char B's motives for hanging with this dude and certainly not for her wanting to bind herself to him in some outwardly meaningful way. I guess there could be some deeply rooted codependency there. What are the social norms about sex and rape in your story? Is the normal male/female sexual interaction good, bad, indifferent? Are women who are raped looked down upon like they are in some existing societies either explicitly or implicitly? The old, "She was asking for it" disturbing point of view?

I used a legend in one of my worlds of a woman who was being raped when her husband found her. He killed her because he thought she was being unfaithful, but it turns out she had interceded to save their daughter. The Protagonist in the legend struggles with the cultural norm that she in some way willingly accepted the crime and that made her just as wicked as the rapist. That struggle of beliefs and custom becomes one of the primary foils as the husband journeys to redeem his wife and himself. I've always kind of thought that worked in that sense, but it's a sub-narrative, not the main narrative.
 

Eeirail

Scribe
I am gonna go with option two, it has more room to not fail, the others can sink hard with the slightest fall.
 
Top