Young Writers Society

So I write Sci Fi or a Sci-Fi, Fantasy blend and since this is a fairly heavily cliched subject I want to avoid that as much as possible, or at least warp those cliches into something a little more intriguing. I can't go through the whole story at once, so I'll just post my first question and based on that see if I need to ask more.

So in the story the world was destroyed by demons. They aren't biblical demons, but simply people or things infected by rage and hate so much that it takes control of them and turns them into monsters. After the first war they were all locked away behind a large wall that stretched almost all of the way across the northern US (in the north). Its been fifty years and the world is starting to rebuild itself.

The main character is a demon, or on his way to becoming one. The infection started on his arm when he was 19 years old and even though it is fifty years after he was infected he is still in a twenty year old body and not a full demon. He does this by killing someone and possessing their body. Not necessarily the nicest guy. His method is to wait till he is almost thirty then trade his body for one that is around twenty, so only every ten years. His motivation?

His only goal in life is to find and kill the demon that killed his mother, and infected him (ironic right); the demon was sent to the other side of the wall but broke back through. His mother was killed by one of the first demons and thus one of the most powerful demons, and it has taken this long for him to finally catch up to it. The story starts with a brief fight with the demon and as the story progresses the character finds himself becoming attached to a small town, falling in love, and battling a large force of demons that have gotten through the wall and if unchecked will probably end up causing another apocalypse.

The main choice of the novel is whether or not he chooses to fight the horde of demons or hunt down the demon that killed his mother. Would it be cliched if he chose the latter and let the world be destroyed?

Cliches are cliches because somebody took a basic idea and gave no reason why behind it. Tolkien's logic is impeccable for this reason. He had a why behind everything and managed to tie it all together. Tolkien knock-offs don't do so. They just use the mould and call it a day.

So, why is he going after the demon that killed his mother?

well he hated the thing and thats why he became infected in the first place. And as time went on and he couldn't find it he just became more and more obsessed with killing it, going so far as to kill other humans so that he could stay fit and young. He's hunting it for the simple reason that he's become obsessed and he sees no other reason for him to live but to kill this thing and cause it as much pain as possible.

He does change in the middle of the story and that allows him to fall in love, which is another reason I'm asking. Is this even someone you would want to read about. I can't cover all of the details but this revenge pretty much dominates his mind from the beginning of the story until about the middle.

I think that it would be cliche if you didn't describe the world after it was destroyed and if that destruction did not affect the main character at all. To avoid making it cheesy and annoying, just make sure that you have reasons and solid story telling. If you're going to make a character that is obsessed about this idea of revenge you should research what psychological tendencies would lead to that behavior and what other behaviors he would not engage in because of this preoccupation. He couldn't be a normal person, because we don't see normal people going around and being obsessed with revenge to the point of murder.

If he falls in love, it's not going to be happy. It's going to be hard and twisted and probably unsuccessful.

If he chooses to destroy the world, it's probably going to kill him in the long run.



Um, I think.

Edit: I mean, like, kill him psychologically. That would really mess him up to go through all of that again. Maybe. Or maybe he'd be used to it. I don't know. There are many ways you can go with this.

oh nothing will be happy for him, that I know for a fact.

I'd council you not to write such a book, but I know you'll ignore me.

So... selling one's soul to the devil isn't really new. Just look
at Twilight or Fullmetal Alchemist.

The thing to do, I'd say, is to have your character look for a way to
resurrect his mother. That way, he has a different motive.