Young Writers Society

Use this thread to figure out their basic motivations, desires, and methods. Feel free to start discussions or ask for feedback! Some starter questions:

What do they want?

Why can't they have it?

What will they do to get it?

What are the consequences if they do get it?

So, I'll be focusing What Happened to Benjamin Marcos? because I'm struggling with finding Ronnie's motivation and this thread may help with that -- feedback is appreciated if you have any!

What do they want? - Ronnie wants to figure out who killed Benjamin Marcos. This case is pretty much going to be her main focus for the rest of her summer.

Why can't they have it? - She can't exactly put the pieces together? Like, Ronnie thinks she has everything to solve it but in the end, she doesn't.

What will they do to get it? - Ronnie will research and gather evidence at the local library or other resources.

What are the consequences if they do get it? - She will have to deal with, if Ronnie does end up solving the case, throwing her beloved grandma in jail or leaving the case to remain unsolved.

Again, I would like some feedback but it isn't necessary.

What pieces does she not have to solve the mystery?

It may help to figure out all the pieces at once and then take some key parts away from Ronnie.

Is there a secondary plot or anything else she wants this summer?

My question is why does she want to find the murder? is it out of sense of justice? vengeance?

Ooh, this is a great idea for a thread. I'm going to focus on Hildegarde Sneal, the protagonist of A Pocketful of Posies.

What do they want? I'm not sure she realises it, but I think she just wants approval and affection. She acts out for attention, though it's never of a good kind. She wants someone to care for her unconditionally.

Why can't they have it? Because she's grown up in an orphanage that makes a point of treating the children impartially, with a specific purpose in mind. There's also her own behaviour to contend with - she deliberately makes trouble and talks back to people, which means she gets treated more harshly still.

What will they do to get it? She'll unknowingly throw herself at Paris's feet, because he's the first person to be gentle with her no matter what. She'd throw Daisy under the bus due to her own jealousy and fear.

What are the consequences if they do get it? Well, she's never going to truly get it from Paris, because he has his own motives for being nice to her. But I think it's more important that she learns to be kind to herself, and not weigh her own value based on other people's opinions. But I think unconditional love would help her do that.

Harriet Bivens from Delta

What do they want?
No matter how dramatic or simplistic it sounds, she wants to know what happiness feels like. Real happiness. Not laughing at a joke occasionally or loving someone in a serious relationship, the pure feeling of happiness.

Why can't they have it?
Short answer: tragic backstory
Short-ish answer: She grew up in an environment that was mostly void of anything that could be described as happiness and she was designed (almost genetically) by a military to be semi-void of emotions. She was built to be a super soldier originally but the experiment failed so she can barely walk or lift anything, and depends on telekinetic powers to survive.
So lots of trauma in lots of places.

What will they do to get it?
It might sound weird in this applied context, but she will do anything. She's been in two serious relationships since arriving on Delta, mixing business with pleasure, in a hope to find a connection spark. At the moment, she's about to propose to her girlfriend with the hope that will be the something that she needs.

What are the consequences if they do get it?
The issue with this character, if all her dreams come true, is similar to that in many super hero plot lines.
scenario 1: she retires permanently to another planet and never goes back to being a detective, there by probably getting a lot of innocent people hurt.
scenario 2: she stays in the business but is now married and leaves another person open to get hurt. if Will gets hurt, she'll probably turn back more into what she was designed to do, as seen with the scenes in which she blacks out after committing violent acts.

So there's just a couple of things going on there lol.

@Darkpandemonium If Hildegarde did get her approval and real affection somewhere, how would that affect her? If she received unconditional love, would she even recognize it after being raised in such a desolate emotional environment? Or would she assume it was fake or shallower than it actually was? Is she a dog person?

@Ladybird What does Harry think of the option of her retiring? Does she weigh her own potential happiness over the well-being of others? What does she think of the option where Will gets hurt? Is Harry more afraid of being hurt, or is she more focused on experiencing happiness?

Ilami XieZhi, protagonist of Dancer of the Fire Blade

What do they want?

A lot of things, but the major ones concerning the plot: truth and justice. You see, Ilami gets into an academy and finds out there's a mystery in it, and that it has something to do with the person she is forced to kill. She wants to unravel the mystery, and if it turns out to be something bad, wants to end it.

Why can't they have it?

She basically has no power or authority, or any skill required to investigate the mystery, being just a teenage student. Her mother is the principal of the academy, which makes it more difficult because she might be behind that, and the two of them don't have a good relationship - this is concerning the killing Ilami has to do.

What will they do to get it?

Almost anything. She gets her friends' help to get into a forbidden room in the academy, which ends up with two of them in the brink of death. After that, she swears not to put her friends' lives at risk and seek other help from other students who have something to do with the mystery.

What are the consequences if they do get it?

Scarred for life for the ugly truth she's going to get. Her view of the donimating church will change dramatically, she will make it her duty to ensure no one else is going to suffer from what the mystery has done to them. What she sees and knows is going to haunt her forever.

Her opinions about her mother will change too, because not everyone is who they seem to be, and she'll learn the truth about her brother and father.

At the end, she'll be the target of the church and has to get away from the academy and live in secrecy - this goes with her other friends who eventually will help her.

Sky Ducato, main protagonist from Powerhouse

What do they want?

Ultimately he's a guy who seeks self-satisfaction at all intervals, a true hedonist. He seeks difficult challenges, worthy opponents, and constant stimulation.

Why can't they have it?

His humanity and people, whether friend or foe, he meets along the way keep him in check, as well as the whole notion of "with great power comes great responsibility" itching in the back of his mind.

What will they do to get it?

Strive for whatever power he needs to overcome whatever wall stands in his way.

What are the consequences if they do get it?

He'll turn into a monster that has nebulous intentions, but is definitely not on our side. All the people looking to him for strength or support in the messed-up world in which they live will never have their hopes fulfilled. And all the friends he ever made who ever helped him get out of a pinch will have to deal with the fact that they could've just allowed that menace to die before it ever lived.

Vervain wrote:@Ladybird What does Harry think of the option of her retiring? Does she weigh her own potential happiness over the well-being of others? What does she think of the option where Will gets hurt? Is Harry more afraid of being hurt, or is she more focused on experiencing happiness?

1. Her mentor is Jud (the ancient and undying detective) so the thought of ever voluntarily retiring is a kind of foreign idea to her? But her fiance is insisting that she move to a safer career. And maybe even go back to working for Federation Intelligence but this time as a desk jockey.

2. She's undecided, if that makes sense. Her personal emotions have always taken the backseat because she had to be focus on the lives at stake with whatever mission. She's basically trying to keep everyone else happy in her environment and hoping something will come from that equality being established.

3. She knows exactly what she'll do if a loved one gets hurt by her fault and she's not like undecided about it? There's a plan for everything and no matter how care free she seems about her strategies, it's always planned. Even if it's plan F or Z.

4. Harry suffers from a few compulsive issues and if she is involved in a risky scenario (even with the plan), she probably won't stop (because she has that secondary plan). So happiness is front and center.
The phrase "or die trying" comes to mind when I think of her goals.

This is for Asha from The Moon Needs Her Night (this title still embarrasses me)

What do they want? Asha wants to keep a bunch of people from being magically enslaved and murdered.

Why can't they have it? Well, magical enslavement and murder of humans is beneficial to the people in charge. It lets them do more powerful magic and have a better source of energy for magic. Naturally, they want to kill people, so keep Asha from getting what she wants: for them to not kill people.

What will they do to get it? Asha's a bit hot-headed, so she's not exactly sure, but Yuni seems to think that getting help from her home country will help, so they go on a journey to do that and plead for help in keeping this genocide from happening/getting worse.

What are the consequences if they do get it? She loses her magical ability because she channels so much magic. Somehow. I still need to work out the kinks so it actually makes sense.