Young Writers Society

Hey guys! So Colly (@UntamedHeart173) and I are working on Neverland's Curse. It's kind of a joint effort between the two of us...which will be published under one name. And we've run into a little problem. In the story, Peter's twin brother and shows up and pretty much shocks the shit outta Peter and the gang. Well, after Peter rescues him from Wendy's Mind Magick, they have to find a way to completely break her hold on him...without destroying his mind in the process. Colly WANTS to destroy his mind...but I think that would be a bad move. Wyatt, Peter's twin, is silent on the subject so asking him is kinda worthless. What do you guys think? Should we destroy his mind? Or should we keep it intact?

Let me shoot a couple of quick questions right back at you: Why does Colly think it's a good idea to break his mind? And why do you think it's a bad move? What does this mind-melding magic actually do to his mind, and would it be plausible or even feasible to remove it from him without breaking him?

Understanding the background and motivation coming from both of the writers might help us better understand what's at stake in the actual novel. Because you're of conflicting opinions, and the character's silent on the matter, it's basically going to come down to "what's more likely to happen?"

While it might be idealistic to say "keep him whole", if the magic is more like a malignant tumor and is ingrained in everything around it, that's going to be either extremely difficult to achieve or impossible. Which would be some cruel high stakes, because if one thing goes wrong in an extremely difficult task, you could destroy everything this character is or stands for.

I think that either way you go is going to be difficult for the characters, and you could come out with some delicious extra conflict on top of it, so pardon me if I fire feedback and speculation instead of offering a solution, haha.

@Arkhaion Colly thinks it would be best because it would motivate Peter to utterly destroy Wendy. But I think it would only hurt Peter and destroy any chance they have of destroying Wendy because Wyatt is the stronger twin.

Wendy, when she placed the Mind Magick Spell on him, used a double spell that would tear his mind apart should he ever break the Mind Magick. He broke the Mind Magick and therefore is being torn apart by Dark Magick. They can take it out but it will keep coming back until the person who inflicted it upon Wyatt is killed. (Wendy.)

We're leaning towards keeping him whole at the moment because he's pretty important. But having him torn just a little could also help the plot line so we're a little confused.

Okay, so let me talk through this and see if I have it right (since I'm rather tired at the moment). Because the Mind Magick has been broken, Wyatt is currently in the process of being internally attacked by Dark Magick, which will continue to exist until Wendy's killed.

While he's being torn apart by Dark Magick, is he really of any use to them? That is, how would he help take out Wendy if he's in persistent pain or a state of distraction due to the Dark Magick? He might be the stronger twin, but focus is a virtue, and he would be some degree of useless in a physical battle while he's dealing with the Dark Magick.

If there's a "downtime" so to speak between destroying it and it returning to him, that could potentially give you a window in which he could focus and use his full or near-full strength to defeat Wendy, but otherwise, I find it unlikely that him being the stronger brother has any weight on the situation speaking from a practical perspective. If there is no downtime, and the Dark Magick doesn't disappear until Wendy is killed, then Wyatt is at a strategic weak point where he could easily be taken advantage of at literally any point in time and quite possibly killed by an external force looking to get rid of him.

There might, however, be a possible compromise? Where Wyatt is useless, torn apart by the Dark Magick, and after the death of Wendy, possibly left in a state of catatonia while he recovers from the damage that's obviously been done to his mind during this whole thing. That might give Peter his motive to completely destroy Wendy and all traces of her, while having some promise that Wyatt might recover—if not wholly, then at least he could recover partially.

Either way, I still highly doubt that he would be of any use in confrontations if he's constantly being "torn apart" by Dark Magick. I think most people would find that fairly distracting, hah.

So, we've planned it out. Wyatt is going to be put in a sort of comatose state. He's aware of what is happening around him but cannot help or do anything to stop it. How he comes to be in this comatose state isn't going to be easy because it happens while he's protecting the Little Ones. (Neverland is host to four VERY special little boys. These little boys are the only beings in Neverland that will age and they'll only age until they reach seventeen. They are looked upon by Peter as the future of Neverland and are closely guarded.) Wendy, assisted by one of the Older Lost Boys (yes, a traitor) puts a Coma Curse (a curse that puts the cursed into a coma, obviously) onto Wyatt. She then kidnaps one of the Little Ones, probably the youngest Bradley. This will do two things. One, it will give Peter double motivation to disable Wendy. And two, it will give the readers something to fear.

Thanks! You helped us figure things out a great deal.

Is Peter Pan public domain now?

@OliverWilliams - There have been tons of other books written about Peter Pan, tv shows, even movies. So we figured, why shouldn't we? If it wasn't allowed, no one else would do it. Besides, while we want to publish it, we're really writing this for our pleasure. So if it ends up being that we can't publish it due to copyright issues, then we won't publish it. But I've done the research and I don't foresee any problems with publishing so far. Hope that answers your question.

@UntamedHeart173 I've since researched it, and anyone can publish a prequel or sequel to Peter Pan, or make a movie a play which is a prequel or sequel. But the original story is still copyrighted, so if you put on a play or movie of that, you have to pay royalties