I need help...

C

Ciuva

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Jan 11, 2002
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Just was looking through the plot and all that for my novel, and did NOT like what I saw. There is something very important missing, and I can't figure it out. That's where I hoped some of you maybe could help.

If you are to attack someone - start (or continue) a war against someone - what reasons would you have for that? (There's always a good idea to have a reason to start a war...) The clue is this: You are a traveller who has something valuable with you. Someone is following you, trying to get what you've got with you. And attacking you and your friends. But since a more natural reaction would be to hide somewhere or... (well, my imagination IS a bit limited... and my explanations are terrible...) at least, not start a war - what reasons would you have to turn around and attack this person? What would make you change your mind?

Maybe I should just give up and make a new story instead...
 
Damage to a friend. You can put up with damage to yourself but damage to a loved one is guaranteed to provoke a response.
 
The solution seems simple to me. If I were that traveler and a certain person attacked me, then I would strike at that person to keep myself safe.

What has this anything to do with war? It's self-defense, the way I see it...

Perhaps, I've misunderstood something here?...
 
Having already tried to hide and to figure out a peaceful solution I would then turn to the next alternative which is violence. As for starting a war, if the enemy is supremely strong (i.e. a monarch rather than a rival), it might be the only way to make them stop.
 
I would suspect that if your character (or band of characters) are being pursued they have already opted to try and flee the problem. If this is working then there wouldn't be too much reason for changing their minds. What would make them turn around and start fighting would be some kind of change in circumstances - ie. they're chased into a corner and have to fight.

This kind of thing could take many different forms. (I don't know the context of the story so bear with me.)
1. One character in the band could fall ill - making travel impossible - the band then decides to make a stand where they are.

2. The pursuer could be causing too much damage in the character's wake - say every village he visits is later burned to the ground. The character then may decide to face the threat rather than allow it to cause any more problems.

3. There is something to be gained by defeating the pursuer - money, power - that kind of thing. Generally this kind of motivation is associated with more "evil" types of characters.

4. They could also have been simply leading their pursuer into a trap - after having intended to make war on him all along.

Generally circumstances have to be rather dire to justify starting a war though.
 
Well.

One reason one might go to war rather than hiding is (assuming your characters are Human) how long can one live hiding? Humans especially can not live in a state of having to be paranoid and ready for anything for extended periods of time without going mad. So eventually Humans do and will get tired of running and hiding and will think war a better option than constant fear.
 
Cuiva -

Sounds like a writer's block.

Personally, I'd simply recommend you take a break from it to relax, maybe read, watch some films, and try and cast the writing from your mind - then return to it refreshed and see if you can suddenly find what you were missing.
 
I agree with I, Brian here, as the sub conscious can provide the best solution.

Myself though, the best reson for turing and fighting, especially when an artifact of immense power is involed would be mis-direction. You can't turn and fight if wyou are of a weaker force as you would inevitably end up losing what you are carrying, but if you sent it somewhere else then a little mis-directing, giving your patsy a chnace to get away would be an ideal way to make more time. In this though you'd have to make it a slow war, pulling back, pretending to protect something that isn't there.
 
A war suggests to me that you have armies involved.

From the way it sounds to me you only have a few characters involved. Maybe you mean a war between just the few characters but telling the readers its a war tends to make them think that they will see armies lining and charged to their deaths.

If you mean a war betwenn the few characters then fine, but if you mean there will be hundreds of men fighting over this then where are they? What sort of relationship do they share with the few characters you mentioned? What do they get out of fighting the war?

I suggest you revise it all. Go back and edit the plot. Change the events to your meaning is clear. A way of doing this is by not deleting your old plot but starting it again doing it similar to your old one and then changing the order of events. This can take some time its up to you if you want to spend more time revising your plot but if your taking a break from writing your story then this might help clear your mind.

Its only a suggestion,

Marc.
 
Hmm...

I still think Ciuva must edit his (her?) post first. :)

I had the same problem: Couldn't understand if there was actually WAR involved in all this or was something personal between some characters.
 
He might just do so if they were mean to me. (If your character is a bit mad, like me.)
 
You could have the characters run into a different trouble, something that forces them to turn and fight.
 
Helper

Well, a motive could be the knowledge of knowing you can't run forever, you can run, but you can't hide. I myself am having a problem with my book. This isn't it though. Actually, because of your problem, i just now realized how to ask for help for my problem! Cool! Thank you!

Mike-(no, i'm not on prozac):D
 
Just to sort things out (about the war and that stuff)...
The "war" as I called it, doesn't start as a war. It begins with five persons travelling. It is at this point that they are getting pursued by someone. As they are travelling, they end up being about 15 people travelling together, because of things that has happened. At some point at this time of the story, they have been on an island, hiding, but they can't stay there very long because they'll risk a lot of innocent lives if their enemies discover that they're there. Somehow they stop hiding and fleeing and decides to fight their pursuer (they are travelling to his country to fight him there, but I haven't sorted out why... I thought that maybe it could be something HE had that they wanted, but then they would have travelled to his country from the beginning...) . Even though they're fifteen people and their enemy has a big army... In the end they get help from some people they met at their journey, so they'll have a small army, but that's later in the story.

When I read through it, it didn't seem very good, that's my problem. Sounds weird when I wrote it now, at least.

Well, that was more about the situation - understand why I'm frustrated? Something is VERY wrong in here...

Anyway, thanks for your help. At least, it has helped me to START thinking about new ideas...
 
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If this mean guy killed one nice (innocent) member of your party, wouln't that make them mad?
 
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I guess so... Haven't even thought of that. But it could work - at least it could be what finally makes them change their minds. If it has happened something before, and then one of them is killed, I guess that will be enough to make them want to fight instead of hiding...
 
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