Young Writers Society

so I am writing a novel in which the main character is an american who has been assimilated into communism. there is a war going on, and he is seperated from his platoon. an american sergeant is trying to track him down, so he can convince him that communism is wrong so that he will fight for america. if you want to understand completely the story is here topic73681.html
anyway, I'm in need of a plot device. you see, I'm trying to have him discover that he is fighting for the wrong side while he makes a journy from alaska to russia. I want him to be saved from freezing to death by an american family, and then have the family get killed by the russians. this is were the first split happens. I could either have him regroup with the russian soldiers, somehow explaining how he is actually a fourteen year old russian super soldier and not an american boy like he looks like, or I could have him run away. I also want him to visit a russian town, and see how evil one of the communist leaders is, and how terrible it is for the people there, but I have no plot device to get him there. why would he cross the sea back to russia? why would he stay with civilians and not the military? why isn't the military sending him on missions? I would also like McClellan (the sergeant) to catch up to him at some point but this doesn't have to happen.
if anyone has any suggestions that keep the first two events happening, please post them.

I'm not sure I completely understand what you're asking, but here goes anyway.

What needs to happen (from what I see) is that

a) He needs a reason to go from Alaska to Russia
b) There needs to be a reason that he's both a trained soldier and not currently with the military
c) McClellan needs a reason to track him down.
d) He needs motivation to either go back to the Russians or flee


Ok, so the first thing I can think of is that you need to develop his backstory. You need to know where he's coming from, who he is, and how he will react. He is very, very young to even be in an army; why on earth would he be important enough for the other side to track down? Does he have special skills? Is he in some kind of super-soldier training?

Now, as for the reason he'd separate from the others and go to Russia might be a little easier. You said a war is going on--anything can happen. Plus, this is Northern Alaska. It's COLD! Put him in a mission that went wrong, and make him have to survive. If he's in enemy territory, fleeing back to Russia might become his only hope of surviving, and if he's wounded, that might give him a reason to accept aid from "the enemy".

Now, "d". They just killed the family he was with. He might still be injured from exposure, or not know what's going on. Even better, maybe they get caught up in a battle between both sides? If I knew how you wanted to kill them, it would be easier. Let's say they're just shot. Maybe a stray bullet hits him. Maybe he's just in shock from witnessing them die. Maybe they come after him and he panics. Or maybe he's already left, returning to the soldiers, when they are killed, and then he runs away. Who knows; the possibilities are endless.

But, if he joins the soldiers, it feels less likely that they'd all go back to Russia.

All in all, I have no idea if this was helpful at all, but I would like to read your story, so if you want I could review it. Just let me know.