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need help with argument scene between characters!!!



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Sun Nov 20, 2016 8:50 pm
Chandy23 says...



Okay so here's my problem: I'm writing a young adult fantasy novel. I want to create a scene where my main character and her brother got into an argument because he found out that she slept with my other main character who he doesn't trust. Now normally he wouldn't care but her brother is under a curse that is making him slowly lose his humanity and rational thought. so he says some really unkind and hurtful things to her but I can't think of exactly what he'd say and what she'd say in response you think you could help me out with my little problem Here's a summary of the book so you could get a better idea of what the whole universe and concept of it is about:
Seventeen-year-old Charlotte “Charlie” O’Connor and her family are part of The Covenant, a secret society of witches and warlocks sworn to eradicate all vampires from existence. When her dad is kidnapped by Santiago, an ex- Covenant member turned vampire leader, Charlie knows she can’t take him down alone. So she and her brother head down to New Orleans, hoping for the help of the city’s head witch.
There she meets Caleb Mathieson, a night club owner with a secret. He’s a vampire/warlock hybrid, something she never believed possible. She doesn’t trust him because of his former allegiance to Santiago, but she has no choice when her brother is ambushed by a voodoo priestess. Loyal to Santiago, she curses him with an ancient voodoo spell which will cost him his sanity. Charlie vows to do whatever it takes to find her father and save her brother. Even if it means taking the spell into herself, and allying with a potentially dangerous—and attractive—hybrid.

they love and care about each other very much and they would do anything for the other including sacrifice themselves

She does know about the curse even casting a counter spell where she takes the affects of the curse on to herself

That being said I want it kind of like a small battle between the two where she ends up hurting him and regrets it and he really doesn't have any feelings so it doesn't matter

set in the present
i want him to says something that he would never say to her and it would really hurt her deep down. It needs to make her angry enough to let go so she can release some of those feelings but I don't know what that would be I mean in the book her dad tells her that she is basically useless because she can't control her powers but I don't think that's something that would really hurt her deep down it needs to be something that questions her values or integrity and I don't know exactly what that would be I'm kind of lost with the whole situation I can see it in my head I just can't quite translate it to words on paper plus both of them are a little rough around the edges they've never really had chances to be teenagers they've had to grow really quickly so I don't think they would talk like normal teenagers or argue like ones
  





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Mon Nov 21, 2016 7:00 pm
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Tenyo says...



Hey Chandy!

This is really complex! I like it. In particular I'm quite fond of sibling relationships because they seem to be under represented in modern mainstream literature.

There are a lot of things that can hurt someone, and you've hit the nail on the head in deciding that it should be something that questions her integrity.

Preferably in this circumstance when you want her to explode and argue it's probably best to take some kind of pent up emotion and make it pop. Insulting someone when they're melancholy will make them hide in a corner, insulting someone when they're hostile is more likely to cause the reaction you want in this scene. Also, a really horrible insult is easy to define as horrible, a mild insult at the wrong time will give your reader a great moral dilemma to chew on.

You could find something your MC is passionate about that she is already battling for, and accuse her of insincerity. The combination of passion and insult would turn a lot of her focus and energy to aggression.

Or take a day when she'll be exhausted and worn out from trying her best and getting only frustration in return, then accuse her of not trying hard enough. The pent up frustration she's tried so hard to restrain for the sake of maintaining face will make her shoot off like a rocket when someone suggests that it's not good enough.

Hypocrisy is also a great one. Find a trait or habit she's endured with for a long time that has worn her down for the purpose of being kind or peaceful, and then have someone yell at her for doing it once. Usually in this case the under appreciation will have played over and over in a persons mind enough so that when the circumstance arises they'll have years of niggling ready to pour out.

Hope this helps!
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Tue Nov 22, 2016 11:08 pm
Rosendorn says...



One thing I would ask you:

What are the stakes each person has in this conversation?

Characterizing individuals involves figuring out what they have to lose in critical interactions. Ideally, you know what they have to lose (and/or gain) in every situation, but critical ones are really only tense if there's the sense the characters can lose something.

If you don't have stakes, don't have tension, then the conversation falls flat. So what does she have to lose? What does he have to lose?

Once you have an answer, you'll have a much better starting place.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

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