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Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:33 am
SadieM says...



So basically, two of my main characters have issues: they both have this little thing called "darkness" messing around with them throughout the book, and it's like a demon inside of them that tempts them to do horrible things and disobey the ones they love and trust. It usually is a really rare occurrence, but I've been doing it more frequently since an enormous plot twist is approaching.

So, I can only use word count to describe how this is going.

Word Count for Draft 1, Chapters 1-13 : 80,374 [I will cut this down A BUNCH when the first draft is complete...]

Character 1 Darkness Attacks: 7
Character 2 Darkness Attacks: 9

Yeah, I feel like that's a ton. But what are your opinions? Should I find a way to omit a few, or space them out a little more?
The one who lights the night and darkness the day with fire and dark...here we are.

Na ddywed mewn galar nad ydynt mwyach, ond mewn diolchgarwch iddynt fod.
  





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Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:22 pm
Kale says...



Quality; not quantity.

Wordcounts are meaningless when it comes to determining pacing because it doesn't take into consideration things like style and clarity.

The best way for you to get the feedback you're looking for is if someone looks over all of what you have so far.
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
There are no chickens in Hyrule.
Princessence: A LMS Project
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Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:48 pm
Dynamo says...



I agree with Kyllorac. There is no mathematical equation for plot points in stories, it's up to the judgement of the writer how and where to put them.

Again, like Kyllorac said, quality over quantity. If you rely on the same plot twist so much in your story people are going to start expecting it and find it less threatening each time. It's not so much the spacing between each attack that matters, but rather the situation that warrants it. Does the darkness offer the character great strength at the cost of his humanity? If so, then when the character is in a losing fight and gives in to the darkness in order to win, you can make it even more tragic by having him kill not only all his enemies, but a few of his allies as well. Is the darkness like the devil on a person's left shoulder, a voice that tries to make the character fall for temptation? Etc.

Not only is the way the darkness attacks the character important, but the way the character responds to it, too. You said two characters in your story are constantly attacked by it, right? Does one character have a strong willpower and tries his very best to fight against it? Is the other character weak minded and accepts the darkness without a fight? The struggle we see with these characters is also important.

As a reader, if I had the choice to read a story with less well developed plot twists than one with more undeveloped ones, I'd choose the former every time.
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Take that, science!
  





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Fri Jul 08, 2011 4:13 am
SadieM says...



Those are both spectacular answers! This does give a lot of advice, more than you guys could possibly know. I always feel like something is missing when I put each character through a different one, and now I know what it is. Even I've started to feel like they're a little less threatening each time now that I really think about it (which makes me REALLY glad that I put this question here), so I should definitely omit some.

Quality over quantity. Damn, that should be a motto of some kind. It probably is. x3

Thank you both so much! If I could give you 1000 extra points each I would but sadly I don't have that many. (;
The one who lights the night and darkness the day with fire and dark...here we are.

Na ddywed mewn galar nad ydynt mwyach, ond mewn diolchgarwch iddynt fod.
  





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Fri Jul 08, 2011 1:58 pm
Dynamo says...



No problem. I actually have a similar plot element in the story I'm currently writing. The main character is half human, and half Uxlian, which is basically a race of savage humans with enormous physical strength. When the main character is under life-threatening stress or extreme anger his self preservation kicks in and he goes into a blood lust rage of sorts, but from his perspective he blacks out and doesn't remember a thing he did during his rampage. The first sign of this blood rage appears when he's a child and he gets so angry at another kid for hurting his friend that he punches him so hard in the face that it breaks the other kid's nose, knocks out a few of his teeth, and gives him a concussion.

The first time his rage completely takes over is when he gets conscripted into the army and their convoy gets ambushed by the enemy. The enemy starts completely slaughtering everyone, and during the fight the main character gets knocked out, or so he thinks anyway. When he wakes up he finds everyone, ally and enemy, dead on the battlefield, and the main character's body drenched in blood. At first he chocks it all up as a dinosaur attacking during the battle and killing everyone, but later when he finds out about his really heratige he realises it was actually he who killed everyone.

Foreshadowing and excicution are important for these kind of plot twists, so a lot of effort has to be put into pre-planning if you want to make it work. The less the reader expects it to happen, the more powerful it becomes when it actually does happen. Yet at the same time you need to give subtle hints to your readers, otherwise when it happens it'll seem like it's coming out of nowhere and feel out of place. Anyway, I'm glad I could help.
Chicken <-- Egg <-- Rocket Powered Fist
Take that, science!
  








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