Reluctant questors?

[Ireth]

The main four characters of my novel are a group of humans and Fae who have been ordered by the Kings of Faerie to search for a fugitive princess and bring her to justice, or else face lengthy prison terms. Problem is, the princess is a friend of theirs, and the "justice" they're bringing her to is a fate worse than death. The whole plot revolves around the four of them trying their hardest not to do what they've been ordered to do. But the Kings are tracking their every move, so that becomes more and more difficult as time goes on.

How can I deal with people who are being coerced by the antagonists at every step and trying to avoid it? They do find ways to come up with plans to keep the princess safe without the Kings being able to hear them, but carrying those plans out is another matter entirely, since if they try to escape and are caught, their prison terms will triple in length. The Kings are stubborn enough to drag them back to Faerie if they do manage to escape. And leading the Kings on a wild goose chase will only work for so long before the Kings catch up with them and get really pissed. And what'll they do when what they seek is right under their nose, but they don't know it and she's sure as heck not going to tell?

 

[The Dark One]

Interesting problem.

It's hard to (believably) compel people to do stuff they seriously don't want to do. It sounds like you've already got part of the solution - I guess you need to focus on the dilemma they face. If their potential punishment is so bad they can rationalise it as the lesser of two evils then their unwilling quest is feasible, and they might somehow be likeable for the reader. If not...

It reminds me of a friend who invented a game back in the 80s and tried to interest a few games companies in it. It was a reaction to the yuppy era and was called Downwardly Mobile - the point of which was to start out rich and be first to lose everything. It's kinda funny...once...but the whole point was contrary to the naturally acquisitive character of competitive gaming types and never really worked.

In your case, questors are usually desperate to achieve something, as opposed to desperate NOT to achieve something. You need to find a way to turn that around and get the reader to identify with the conflicted choice.

 

[Ireth]

It's hard to (believably) compel people to do stuff they seriously don't want to do. It sounds like you've already got part of the solution - I guess you need to focus on the dilemma they face. If their potential punishment is so bad they can rationalise it as the lesser of two evils then their unwilling quest is feasible, and they might somehow be likeable for the reader. If not...

Hmmm. Well, let's see. The three humans' prison term, if they were to accept it, is roughly ten years long; if they choose the quest and fail, it triples to thirty. The prison term of the Fae who is their guide is initially roughly 30 years, but will triple to 90 if he fails to lead the mortals rightly. The thing about spending time in Faerie is that once you're in, you don't know when you'll end up when you get out again. It could be anywhere from a matter of weeks after you initially went in (as happened at the end of the previous book, but in that case the mortals asked for the specific date, and the Fae who took them out of Faerie was nice enough to comply), to over a hundred years later. There's a huge risk for the humans to lose everything they hold dear if their captors are nasty enough to send them back to a time that isn't their own (which they are). For the record, I don't intend to expand the duology any further by mucking around with time like that.

In your case, questors are usually desperate to achieve something, as opposed to desperate NOT to achieve something. You need to find a way to turn that around and get the reader to identify with the conflicted choice.

Yeah. Well, there will be a lot of discussion along the lines of "are we doing the right thing here?" and "how can we possibly keep the princess out of harm's way without failing the quest?" between the four of them. They'll explicitly have it known that if they fail, even though the princess will be out of harm's way for a while, the mortals will risk losing absolutely everything they have except each other.

 

[topazfire]

It sounds like a really interesting plot to work through. My first instict was that you need a loophole, but that is dependent on the outcome that you are planning.

If you want a happy ending, then it seems like there needs to be a way to keep the princess safe and keep everyone out of prison - a win-win for everyone.

If you are planning a more tragic ending then you will have to have a win-lose or lose-lose situation. Based on your brief outline, I would be rooting for a happy ending for everyone. Is there no chance of some sort of reprieve from the Faerie Kings? Perhaps a side quest, or discovery that appeases them?

 

[Bear]

I like the idea of reluctant 'questors'. I don't necessarily have quest but usually characters are stuck in a situation that isn't of their own choice or free will. However, most of them are given chances to choose a path within the story. Some choose the right thing and some don't. That being said the idea of reluctance opens up a ton of opportunities for betrayal and things like that as the party may be on one way of thinking but something offers them an out of sorts. It's kind of a common thing that you see in stories.

 

[Caged Maiden]

They need an answer.

A mad witch that can spoil the kings' spells, a law loophole that says anyone who kills the dragon gets honored as King's Champion, a grove of magic mushrooms that take them off the radar, whatever.

I would caution you to keep "don't know what to do" scenes to a minimum though. I have a novel where a small group of people find themselves in a captivity situation but not quite. A group of mercenaries are escorting a young woman and her teen brother to safety for her grandfather, and she befriends the mercenary assigned as her personal guard. Well, throws herself at him really, and they instantly have this really open way of talking. Anyways, on their second day traveling, some strange decisions are made by the leader of the guards and my MC mercenary pulls this woman aside a couple times to relay his fears.

Those sort of "What do we do now? We're powerless to change our situation." scenes can be very tricky, so if I were you, I'd carefully plot those out, and as others suggested, throw in some other possible solutions.

 

[Ireth]

It sounds like a really interesting plot to work through. My first instict was that you need a loophole, but that is dependent on the outcome that you are planning.

If you want a happy ending, then it seems like there needs to be a way to keep the princess safe and keep everyone out of prison - a win-win for everyone.

If you are planning a more tragic ending then you will have to have a win-lose or lose-lose situation. Based on your brief outline, I would be rooting for a happy ending for everyone. Is there no chance of some sort of reprieve from the Faerie Kings? Perhaps a side quest, or discovery that appeases them?

I'm pretty sure the story's going to end on a bittersweet note at best; I really can't see a perfectly happy ending for this. The Kings did say that the mortals will be released from Faerie with no prison term if the princess is found to be deceased, in which case the quest is completed but kinda pointless. So a lot of the plans to free the princess will likely involve "let's see if we can find a way to fake the princess' death so we can be freed and she can get off their radar." Whether or not that will actually happen is still up in the air, but it's a definite probability.

I like the idea of reluctant 'questors'. I don't necessarily have quest but usually characters are stuck in a situation that isn't of their own choice or free will. However, most of them are given chances to choose a path within the story. Some choose the right thing and some don't. That being said the idea of reluctance opens up a ton of opportunities for betrayal and things like that as the party may be on one way of thinking but something offers them an out of sorts. It's kind of a common thing that you see in stories.

Indeed. I'm not sure about outright betrayal, but I think interpersonal relationships and opinions will come into play a lot, since the mortals will obviously have different views than their Fae companion, probably along the lines of "what measure is a non-human?". It could turn out to be a very fun thing to play around with.

They need an answer.

A mad witch that can spoil the kings' spells, a law loophole that says anyone who kills the dragon gets honored as King's Champion, a grove of magic mushrooms that take them off the radar, whatever.

I would caution you to keep "don't know what to do" scenes to a minimum though. I have a novel where a small group of people find themselves in a captivity situation but not quite. A group of mercenaries are escorting a young woman and her teen brother to safety for her grandfather, and she befriends the mercenary assigned as her personal guard. Well, throws herself at him really, and they instantly have this really open way of talking. Anyways, on their second day traveling, some strange decisions are made by the leader of the guards and my MC mercenary pulls this woman aside a couple times to relay his fears.

Those sort of "What do we do now? We're powerless to change our situation." scenes can be very tricky, so if I were you, I'd carefully plot those out, and as others suggested, throw in some other possible solutions.

*nod* I'll definitely work on keeping the WDWDN scenes to a minimum. The questors will have other stuff on their minds, like interpersonal relationships and such, not to mention just trying to stay safe along the way. I think a side quest might come in handy, though. It'd keep the story from becoming too repetitive and stagnant.