Furry Writers' Guild Forum

Brainstorming Plotting help

Critique
#1

I’ve written two stories about the same character and I’ve been thinking of writing more and turn them into a series of short stories with an over-arching plot, then compile them all into a book. That over-arching plot is the problem I’m having.

The Tale So Far

The character is Dagger, a cunning stoat thief and fighter, set in a fantasy world. The general “feel” are stories like Conan - sword and sorcery, very selfish or low goals at first (get treasure, get this power, do this thing) rather than Save the Blah and sweeping story of an Epic fantasy.

The first story he appears in is the RF Adult Charity Antho’s “Welcome to My Parlor”, where he delves into a set of ruins to settle a score for someone, as well as to collect the treasure.

The second is Roar 6’s “Into the Wind”, where he challenges a wind spirit to a game of wits. He wins, and earns the power to become air for as long as he can hold his breath.

Thoughts

Because of the twist at the end of “Welcome to My Parlor”, I’m thinking it should be the first in the series.

I sort of imagine that each story is one step in an overarching goal or plot. For instance, he needed to settle the score and get the treasure in “Welcome to my Parlor” as his side of a bargain to gain someone’s help. The ability to turn to air is rather crucial to something, but it’s limited by having to hold his breath.

Another story would involve him seeking a means to hold his breath indefinitely (and thus being able to turn into air indefinitely). There could be a lawman who has a ring that makes him not age, need rest or food (or air), allowing him to chase down criminals. However, that man slowly wen ta little bonkers because one is not meant to forgo all those things for too long, and now he is a criminal-hunting legend. Dagger’s goal is to take his ring. But I’m not sure - the question is “how Dagger gets the info about this guy’s ring” is more the question.

One thought is he’s looking to free someone from an impenetrable prison or the harem/mind-controlled servitude of a powerful wizard/king/spirit/dragon/whatever. Either that’s his end goal, or this person is very important to the final goal; they are crucial to the end game. What that endgame is I don’t know. Perhaps overthrowing a king, pulling off a grand heist, something.

Problems

In “Into the Wind”, he gains the ability to turn into air. He then wants to gain the skill to do it indefinitely. This is a powerful trump card, so later challenges need to not be easily solved with this.

Also, the End Goal must require all those previous steps be accomplished. Otherwise, why not do them earlier?

That’s all I have so far.

#2

Yeah, I can see your problem, that’s some really powerful **** to have on your guy. Luckily, in the realms of phantasy, you can always contrive some far greater bull**** to counteract the first batch.

My recommendation here would be to strip him of the power outright, but since I get the impression you don’t want to do that, perhaps something like a curse that limits the circumstances under which he may use it?

#3

Then he wants the skill to do it indefinitely.

Then don’t give it to him.

Period.

The power with limitation is FAR more interesting (and will make for far more interesting conflicts and scenarios) than removing that limitation.

#4

I was going to suggest the Resident Evil films Alice syndrome, too. Another way could be to add some sort of competitive element or debilitating factor. For example, he spends too long as air and starts losing bits or has trouble materializing again.

#5

Alright. My thinking was that A) it was a clever way to overcome a limitation (You are limited by your breath, so find a way to stop breathing) and B) because of the nature of the ring, he could only wear it for short times (read: only the time to pull off the big goal) because of the pitfalls of wearing it for too long; it does horrible things to your body because you shut off all this important stuff as long as you’re wearing it. Thus a limited time of removing a limitation. But that’s fair point, then he has no limitations even for the big score.

Now that we’ve said “no, he can’t do that thing”, I return to the point of the original post. What’s the overall goal? My thinking is if I determine what the goal is, then coming up with each step/each story will be easier.

#6

I thought of a limitation if dagger turns into air for too long his mind and “body” tear apart dissolves into the air becoming forever apart of it. Also he cant go near open flame or else his entire being instantly burns to nothingness.

#7

Or a limitation could be that he realizes once he has the power to do it indefinitely that he begins to lose memories if he stays air too long. Then there is the added tension of he could, but is it worth it?

#8

how about Dagger has to fight a guy that transform into a fire elemental. Something I have to ask when Dagger turns into air is he like an air elemental?

#9

It’s explored in “Into the Wind”; he challenges an air spirit to a contest of cleverness, and if he wins, the spirit teaches him how to do it.

There are various superheroes/villains that can change into ubstnaces - Sandman, Hydroman, etc. So it’s not a very story-breaking ability. Hell, I am imagining someone gets wind of what he can do and finds a bottle to trap him inside. But the conversation is focusing far too much on this one element.

#10

Have him mess up.

My idea is wind change + ring = ring mind deterioration accelerating. But that could be a long term goal.

How about a sheer tower with no visible way to get up it, and a legend that a known treasure is at the top. There are, of course, magic ways to ascend the tower, but figuring how to work out the old and iffy magic is a job in and of itself. Dagger’s solution (since he seems it in Welcome to My Parlor at least) is to be crazy solution and, instead of relying on crappy old magic, use the wind + ring combo to zip up the tower. He gets there, but completely forgets why he did so, then has to figure out a way down once he figures out the ring is causing this sudden bout of forgetfulness.