NaNo Plot Help!!!!! - November 5th - 8th

[alison-sky.livejournal.com]

Hey folks... need help with your plots?

THIS is the place to post your requests. Get help with your plots, and help other people with the snags that they have in theirs.

please do not post individual call outs for help in your plots. We set this system up for a reason, otherwise you'll have about 4000 people a day wanting to do so. Thanks.

Comments

[foulds.livejournal.com]

A very strange and gruesome murder has been committed in a city, which has encouraged a mysterious man - who most had believed to be just a character in stories - to appear in private to the city's leader, seeking to stop the party responsible, as he believes the murder may be part of a larger plan.

The question is; how is he going to find and stop those responsible?

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

What are the specifics of the murderers' approach? What that larger plan IS will tell him where to start looking, and where they might strike again.

[foulds.livejournal.com]

The murder caught the city's attention because it was very gruesome, but it caught his attention because it involved magic, and magic died out a long time before. The fact it involves magic tells him it's important, but I don't think he knows why magic's been used, just that it has, but it's enough to get him to come to this city.

[sativa]

How would he know magic's been used if all he's seeing are what I'm assuming are newspaper reports/tv news casts? Is there a special signature to magic that he can sense? I.e. even if a photograph is taken, it picks up some symbol/magic spell (kind of like a pentagram, etc.) that can't be seen by the naked eye? Or maybe there's some trademark on the body or in the murder itself that tips off your protagonist?

Maybe, said protagonist could go to city's leader to demand he's given access to the crime scene in order to fully determine if the murder was magical in nature. Of course, he'd probably have to give evidence of his abilities or proof of identity since I'd imagine most would be skeptical.

As for finding the murderer, why not have your protagonist focus on the magic and methodology used rather than the victim itself. Most crime scenes try to figure out a motive using the victim as the basis and widening their circle from there. It can be assumed that since magic hasn't been used in a long time, then either said person must be very old, or is descendant from a mage who passed the secrets down through the generations. another option could be the murderer is self-taught but that still suggests he had to learn from something. So, tracking the magic would be the first step I'd go and protoganist can leave the victim-murderer connection in the hands of the normal police.

Maybe that helped?

[foulds.livejournal.com]

Some interesting ideas there, thanks :)

[foulds.livejournal.com]

I should add; he's a very odd chap. I really want a quite unorthodox method...

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

I think delving deeper into his character might tell you his methods - but you could start by riffing, from his POV, on some of the standards such as finding out more about the murdered person to see who might have a motive.

[foulds.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much of the opinion that the murdered person was A. N. Other, and that it was what was done that was important, rather than who he was... and I've only just realised this second that assuming his identity personally matters more is naturally what all my characters should do. *headdesk*

[sophiedb.livejournal.com]

My MC is meeting another woman she met 10 years ago while backpacking. They reminisce and do a little business to justify putting the meal on an expense account. Friend comes up with OMG!coolidea on which the rest of the plot is based, namely seeking out another character who is legendary but neither have ever met her.

..but something else needs to happen before my MC begins her quest. I have no idea what, it just feels like there should be something else that galvanises her determination *sigh*

Ok, scratch that. Obligatory sexpot has just entered the building, and he's the friend's other half :D

[alison-sky.livejournal.com]

and I was just about to say... does she have a s/o that she could break up/fight/runaway bride from? LOL!

[callita623.livejournal.com]

as i start out my MC is in college. she's in a passionate relationship with a friend (first true love type thing). he dies. she ends up traumatized by the death and whatever caused it. she does not witness him die. she finds out from someone else.

so how does he die?

[manynames.livejournal.com]

Car accident? She might not ever want to get in a car again.

[wordbox.livejournal.com]

I agree, a car accident could be good. Especially if he had borrowed her car, so it was wrecked and she then had to deal with getting a new one, and hating it because it was a constant reminder?

[writers-sword.livejournal.com]

My MC's father just died, but it turns out he's not her biological father. She has no idea. I want to introduce her bio father's son into the picture, in a way that her mother will realize who he is.

Since the mother is a teacher, I was going to make him fill in for her while she was taking care of her dying husband. But a teacher friend confirmed for me that if you're taking a long leave of absence, you will usually know who's going to fill in for you.

So help. I need a plot device to introduce him into the story!

[loyal2theroyals.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you can have the leave of absence substitute come down with an illness and needs a sub for the day? I'm pretty sure they would inform the classroom teacher at some point if anyone else was involved in her classroom.

Another option could be to have him subbing in another room?

[chibiku.livejournal.com]

Okay so I have two MCs. A young woman, and a young man. And also this little boy who is on the run from a group of scientists who want to experiment on him. :(

The boy first means the young man and explains his plight, and the man decides to help him.

I need a way to get them to meet up with the woman. At the moment the males are in a port town, and the woman is an hour north in a giant more industrialized city. The problem is, if the men were to run, they'd just take the man's ship and flee to sea.

[foulds.livejournal.com]

Then have them head to sea, and have the woman head to see on an unrelated matter, and their meeting be a matter of collision. Literally, if need be.

[etzyofi.livejournal.com]

OKAY.

My MCs' family is in the Mafia. In the second chapter, the Don of the family is murdered by a Russian mob faction living in New Jersey. The Don was handicapped in the seventies from getting shot three times, and the family has been considered a joke in the mafia ever since. The Don, the uncle of the MCs wants one of them to be his successor and to lead the family to *~*~*glory**~**~. After the MC takes his place as Don at the age of 18, he begins to draw his family out of drug trafficking and other very unsavory things that led them into ruin. His family's rise to success causes an all out war in the Italian American mafia.

This is just the subplot btw LMFAO.

How would this take place without sounding stupid and unrealistic? Does anyone have any more info on the mafia's dealings? What could they be involved in, how could a war be executed without drawing the attention of the FBI?

[terenewen.livejournal.com]

I need a strange condition for a will. Something that would be my seventeen year old secondary character from inheriting his parents' few worldly goods for a few years.

Maybe some condition or something? Aaah, it's too late at night to think about these things.

[liadan-celt.livejournal.com]

Marriage is a common condition, as are clauses regarding education. Most people don't do these things anymore, so no cases come immediately to mind, except for Leona Helmsley (http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/property/2007/10/leona-helmsley-.html). (Her will requires her grandsons to visit their father's grave once per year in order to inherit, and there were also some odd clauses regarding the care of her dog.) There are also common examples in this incentive trust (http://www.deathandtaxesblog.com/2006/01/incentive_trusts.html) article. (Education, family, and job achievements; overcoming a substance abuse habit.)

(Can you tell that I'm studying Wills and Trusts this semester? :-P )

[verdika.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd be able to write around this, but apparently I can't.

I need a viable reason why various Middle Eastern countries would join with China in a war to eliminate the USA/Europe/allies. Or more accurately, what's in it for China. My story is present day, but obviously with alternate history. And it would be helpful if the explanation involved a reason why most of the initial fighting was in China, and then in the Middle East & eastern Asia (my story takes place in Afghanistan) and Europe, and then finally in North America.