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What direction to take this story



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Mon May 12, 2014 3:59 am
queerelves says...



A few weeks ago, I asked for advice on which novel idea I should pursue. I ended up deciding on a story I called Azazel.

It's centered around the relationship between Ian and Alain, two of the main characters, who have been close friends for years. Ian is a generally good person, kind, selfless, all that; Alain is very different. He's narcissistic, neurotic, and extremely obsessive. He feels as if he is above the law, and able to do whatever he wants. Over the years, he's developed an all-consuming obsession with Ian. He is as "in love" with Ian as he can be. His narcissism leads him to believe that he is the only person good enough for Ian.

When Ian is in his mid-teens, he falls in love with a girl named Anne, and Alain gets very jealous; jealous enough to kill her. He passes it off like a suicide and Ian is heart broken. Fast forward five years and Ian finds another girl, Elizabeth. When they get engaged, Alain is pushed over the edge. He kills Elizabeth and stages it as another suicide. After two of Ian's girlfriends are thought to have killed themselves, the police start to get suspicious.

I'm not quite sure where I want to go from there. I was originally planning on having Ian realizing it was Alain. When Ian went to confront him, Alain panicked and tried to kill Ian, but Ian fought back (and possibly killed Alain? I'm not sure.)

If I go that route, I don't know how to end it. However, I'm not sure if I even want to have it go that direction.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Anything would be helpful!
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Mon May 12, 2014 4:10 am
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JohnLocke1 says...



A suggestion. I would not have Alain, fantastic name, kill Elizabeth. Instead, have part of the focus of the novel be on the psychological torture that Alain forces Elizabeth to undergo. And, while Elizabeth slowly falls into madness, Alain attempts to seduce Ian and force Ian to love him. I think that would be quite the dark, macabre tale.
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Mon May 12, 2014 4:28 am
queerelves says...



Actually, that's a really, really good idea. Originally, I had intended for Alain to have done something similar to an old, virtually unmentioned one of Ian's girlfriends (who I later decided not to include), but I think that's a much better plot arc than simply having Elizabeth die. Thank you so much! :D
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Mon May 12, 2014 4:59 am
JohnLocke1 says...



You're welcome, my friend. I hope you'll tell me when the first few chapters are written!
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Thu May 15, 2014 8:57 pm
Tenyo says...



I'd recommend sitting butt-in-chair for half an hour to an hour and brainstorm. Write down a bunch of ideas, no matter how bizarre or ridiculous they seem, collect about twelve of them. Then from each of those write another three more. Go as quick as you can and write down *everything* that comes to mind.

Once you've flushed out the stale ideas you'll have lots of fresh new ones, then you just pick and choose which ones most excite you and stitch them together.
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Mon May 26, 2014 5:33 am
Rosendorn says...



Honestly I'd go into Alain's character more.

Why did he murder? Why did he not try to manipulate Elizabeth from the start, if he was so quick to kill Anne? Right now he is his traits: narcissistic, obsessed, jealous. That's it.

These traits have different triggers. Each trigger reveals something different about the character. Take flying into rages, for example. Somebody could get angry when somebody doesn't clear the time on the microwave, because he hates bad time management. Another could have it be every time she runs out of hair care products, because physical appearance is important. Yet another could have it be when they can't find their car keys because they have control issues, or they feel inadequate when they can't find something that should be simple.

See what I mean? You've got these traits, but they feel stock. I don't know why he's like that. Does he feel like he deserves men? Does he feel like women are competition? Or is it insecurity that he's just not good enough?

These antagonistic traits are simply painted on to make him an antagonist. He doesn't feel like a person to me, and I can't tell what to do with the story because I have no idea what Alain would do in the first place, simply because his psychology isn't there for me to pick at.
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Mon May 26, 2014 5:45 am
Snowery says...



So many good ideas ^ ^

One small thing I thought of is:

You know how you say the police get suspicious over the suicides of Ian's girlfriends? Well what if they suspect him? I mean it's the most reasonable course of action right, seeing as they were both his girlfriends, it makes Ian seem the most suspicious. This might take your novel in a totally different direction though.

Still, if you like this then you can have Alain in a dilemma. He could toss up owning up for the crime, but then Ian would know and totally hate him, or trying to frame someone else for the crime which might lead him to spiral into an even darker crevice in his mind. Poor Ian might think he needs a friend to support him but Alains dealing with the previously mentioned troubles and ends up acting cold, which makes Ian think that Alain believes that he really did kill his girlfriends and ohmahgosh your story has so many direction and I don't think I'm helping and instead making things worse.

Sorry about that, I hope it works out for you! :)
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