Young Writers Society

I'm stumped.

So, for the next scene of my story I need to get two characters alone - Nalien and Liehne (with possibly another character- Sophie). Problem is that Nalien dislikes Liehne and Liehne is avoiding Nalien at all costs, and they are in a huge group of people.

I have to isolate them, or the main group of characters is going to butt in and slaughter the scene, but the main group would not leave Nalien, Liehne and Sophie alone because that would mean separating Liehne and Coglia (Liehne is Coglia's caretaker).

Help! Anyone have any ideas on how to isolate them from the main group?

Get them in a fight? Doesn't exactly isolate them, but it gets them together, which is a start.

Lock them in a room. But not literally, but figuratively.

Couldn't you have them ignore each other or be nice to each other and secretly backstab each other? That might be fun!

Maybe the group decides that it's about time they got along, so purposely leaves them alone? Or maybe one wanders off for some peace, and the other wanders in later, discovers they're not alone, tries to leave, and finds that they're stuck somehow. Which is a very umm ... soap-i-fied way of doing it, but y'know, whatever works. ^^

Hey darlin',

Well, in some early chapter of Guttersnipe, Chapter Four, most-probably, I had the same issue. I needed for Archie and Regan to be together so something else could happen. But there was no reason for them to be together, let alone on speaking terms, especially, especially without Henry, (i.e. Henry is the only one with any finesse in getting Archie to do anything he doesn't want to, and talking to strange people, let alone people he knows is not something Archie does on a regular basis).

So, to clear up that problem, I had their paths intersect, Archie, Henry, and Regan meet. Regan was heading to her room at Mulberry House from the Pawn Shop, Archie and Henry were heading towards Henry's gentlemen-club. Archie, who is not particularly thrilled about going to this club, edges out of that by offering to ferry Regan home.

Thus, problem solved, they are in the same place, same time.

So, about, your problem. Well, you could have them heading towards the same place, or they cross paths. I don't know Nalien or Liehne that well, but maybe one decides to confront the other, because of a number of reasons. Maybe Sophie is tired of some such thing and decides to hold a conference with the other two. Maybe they hold conference in a public place, well maybe not too public, so that Coglia is not out of sight but can't hear them. Like with a man, or playing with something, or with a tutor.

Hope this helps,
Cal.

Thanks you so much for the tips everyone! It is much appreciated. *hugs everybody*

I finally finished the scene. Sophie threatened Nalien into talking to Liehne because she was sick of the tension, so Nalien ended up confronting Liehne, and I ignored all the other characters aside from Coglia and Sophie. Coglia was preoccuped with Lusien for the first half of the conversation, but then he interfered and sat by Liehne, causing some nice, conclusive dialogue. It worked, even though Liehne's reaction was rather unexpected.

Thanks again!

A fun little excerpt (in dialogue form):

LIEHNE: I don't want to. I don't want to kill you. I don't want to kill you.
NALIEN: What do you mean you don't want to kill Nedrad?
LIEHNE: I don't want to kill Nedrad; I loved you.
NALIEN: He was insane! He tried to kill both of us. Why do you still love him? He deserves your hate; why would you love him?
LIEHNE: You weren’t always insane. You were once a good man. I once loved you.
NALIEN: I hated him.
LIEHNE: I don't hate you. I don't hate you.
NALIEN: I am not Nedrad, Liehne. I want nothing to do with him.
LIEHNE: Then you are not my son. For I surely would have raised my son to love his father.

And yes, Liehne repeats herself a lot.

Maybe in their extreme avoidance of each other, they end up running into each other. Kinda like in cartoons where each character backs away from the other around the house/tree/whatever and they end up backing into each other.

I know you've already finished the scene, but I thought I might throw in my two cents anyway (In case you come across the same predicament again)!