Entries tagged with plot twist

Entry tags:

What In The Woods

The heroine has gone into the woods. Several other scholars are with her.

I know that they will threatened by monsters of shadow. Probably lions. I know that her woodcraft will be vital -- you can tell you really reached the top of a hill when you see the sky ahead of you.

Nothing else is clear.

Furthermore, this will lead into an eruption, where the villain, having been foiled at every turn by our heroine, goes all out to make her play.

Nothing about that is clear, either.

sigh

Entry tags:

maps and mausoleums

The heroine is about to walk into a mausoleum

Hmmm. . . I may need a map of this place. It's going to be plot-significant. Just a fairy-tale retelling, but the details may be significant.

It's amazing sometimes, what a fairy tale can breeze over that becomes interesting to embellish into a full novelistic treatment.

Entry tags:

the maze

So the hero sets out to find the villainess of the scene.

I throw in that it's a bit hard to get to her.

Then I realize that means he has to figure out how to get to her. And he's not thinking straight.

Entry tags:

a fight breaks out

I know what happens in it. I even have a point of view character whose job in the fight will ensure he gets a good view of what happens.

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

the mad witch's beautiful daughter

She's such a useful plot device.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1353339.html

Entry tags:

the rest of the quest

The thing about a princess going off with her army to find the prince who visited when she was sleeping. . . .

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1331750.html

Entry tags:

at least it was quick

War as a plot device reared its head in a story.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1273029.html

Entry tags:

tale of a child

There are fairy tales with child protagonists, of course.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1263156.html

Entry tags:

down the years

Ah, the bildungsroman! I know the years ahead. I know many events that will happen in them.

I even know that some will happen before others!

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1260635.html

Entry tags:

telling the tale

The hero and his sister arrive at the witch's doorstep.

A cat assures them they can wait.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1256026.html

Entry tags:

flip-flopping

Our hero is returning in triumph from his quest and going from success to success --

No.

He's going success to nerve-wracking attempt to success. It's too long a sequence to carry about without peripeteia. Even haiku and sonnets often have reversals going because it's so powerful a tool.

Denouement is all success but then it's a single scene.

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1255321.html

Entry tags:

menace

Trudging along on the journey the children are going on.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1233017.html

Entry tags:

a love story

Wrestling an idea free from its matrix, filing off the serial number -- and inscribing my own -- takes several passes.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1214353.html

Entry tags:

portals as plot device

Shoving your character through a portal of some kind to another world is not something to be done lightly. As in, not to be dropped without dealing with it.

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

surprises and revelations

Was poking at an outline. Moving along, glancing at the image I had used for inspiration -- a man and a woman, with her helping him -- the thing is, she doesn't match any of the three women I have as characters --

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1134934.html

Entry tags:

villain and view

Was reading a book recently and the end fell flat.

Part of it was that even though we had followed the villainess's point of view periodically for much of the book, we got only her narrow planning for each stage of the plot, and then, at the end, it was revealed it was not only an objective of pure selfishness, it was incredibly petty and small.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1090453.html

Entry tags:

mice, men, monsters. . . .

Had my Gamelit characters prep their spells in advance, rather than assign on the fly.

One prepped a spell three times. Another prepped another spell three times. Both spells usable on one person at a time. . . .

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1074779.html

Entry tags:

plot, plot, plot. . .

So the characters on the dungeon crawl stop to draw a deep breath and think. And the author stops in the outline to think.

At which point she realizes that actually the tactics are clear. Our heroine did point out that their objective is not to clear out the dungeon but to get to the prisoner in it (because it really is a dungeon), but all attempts to sneak past problems have gone badly. Their only prudent plan now is to wade through every trap and monster and put them out of commission.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1062069.html

Entry tags:

tales inside tales

So the characters just sent another character off with the secret of how to get to the ogre's castle.

Outline says they hear of what happened.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1042555.html

Entry tags:

decisions, decisions

Got inspiration from a gaming hook: late in the story, the party will find a doppleganger of a party member. Or their comrade, prisoner, as the doppleganger walks among them. . . or something else is going on. Down to their actually being the same person with some funny magic going on.

( Read more... )