Weekly Plot Help - Week of October 27th

[alison-sky.livejournal.com]

Wow, by Saturday NaNo will have begun and we will be heading into the craziness. Are you ready?

... come on, that was weak. ARE YOU READY?!

*grins* Ok, that was better.

Anyway, here's your plot help post for the week. Simple as always.


Add a comment with the help you need. Don't be shy. We're all writers here, and you never know, someone might give you a new plot bunny to add to your NaNo.

Reply to others and help them. You might be the one holding that bunny.


And just be awesome :)

Comments

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

I have a character who seems to be on an ambiguous quest (she's off making wishes at a far-off lake for true love... don't ask)... and I can't figure out why she's coming home (the quest doesn't have an endpoint, really).

[happymediocrity.livejournal.com]

for some reason, I misread 'lake' as 'bake', and it gave me an idea that's hopefully good. Maybe her hometown has some sort of amazing bakery, and it sells her very favorite pastry with some sort of emotional attachment to it.

I don't know. I hope that helps.

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

Perhaps, though with the number of (intentional) cliches in this novel, that might be going over the top! :)

[debc.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest 'her love was at home' too, but if you think it's too cliche, how about this, instead...

Her love is at home because he, too, had gone to the lake and was told to follow his quest to her home town? So they're both looking for each other and crossed paths without knowing it?

[telscha.livejournal.com]

maybe while she's at the lake she see's a reflection of her true love in the water and realises it's the boy next door.

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

Hm, I like that.

[i-speak-tongue.livejournal.com]

Most people who run off, come back home out of a sense of obligation. Or desperation. If it's obligation, then maybe a family member is sick or has died, or maybe needs some kind of help that only your protagonist can offer. Maybe the family business is going under. If it's desperation, then pehaps she's discovered that something very essential to her quest is back home, or she needs something from home in order to get it. Money maybe? Very specific information?

hope that helps!

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

Hm, makes sense. I think I might go the information route, that hadn't occurred to me.

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Why does she even need to come home? She could just keep wandering forever.

Alternatively, she could just get fed up with having to travel all the time, camping out in the wet and the cold, making a fire every night and cooking her own food. She doesn't see the point anymore.

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

That sounds kind of like her. I think she'd keep going, but there's a certain part of her that likes to be warm, clean, and sleeping on something comfortable.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Everything has to be driven by what the character wants - so what does your character want? Think about what she wants more than anything, and then think of a reason why she's going to have trouble getting that.

[jenny-1260.livejournal.com]

Ran out of money? Travelling does have its costs, she might've just ran out of money eventually. What about if she found out her true love is... a prince, or some kind of rich guy, or someone really far away, so that she'll need money to reach him? Or maybe money to make extravagant plans/plots to ensnare that guy?