artiestroke she/her Posted June 28, 2019 Posted June 28, 2019 Since going by the seat of my pants hasn’t worked so far, I’m trying to actively plot out and plan my story- and I’ve hit a snag in act one. Thus far, our main character is a young lady from a frontier town in a fantasy world, long after a magical apocalypse has occurred. She’s been secretly studying arcane devices in a building that was once a teleportation hub, learning to read the language of magic and make her own spells. An incident occurred where she activated one of the teleportation circles, which by happenstance saves the life of a more experienced adventurer as it whisks her away from a dead end battle in a corresponding hub. My problem comes with figuring out how to get my MC to leave town- I don’t want her to just lie to her mom or leave a note, running away with the adventurer. I’m also not keen on pulling an Aunt Beru and killing her/the town off. What can I do?
Pagliacci he/him Posted June 28, 2019 Posted June 28, 2019 (edited) 17 minutes ago, artiestroke said: My problem comes with figuring out how to get my MC to leave town- I don’t want her to just lie to her mom or leave a note, running away with the adventurer. I’m also not keen on pulling an Aunt Beru and killing her/the town off. What can I do? Why does the MC want to leave town? I'm just asking so I can help formulate an answer. Edited June 28, 2019 by Pagliacci
artiestroke she/her Posted June 28, 2019 Author Posted June 28, 2019 20 minutes ago, Pagliacci said: Why does the MC want to leave town? I'm just asking so I can help formulate an answer. Much like why any young girl wants to leave their small town- feeling stuck in a place where nothing new happens and you already know everybody by name, staying with the family more out of obligation- plus a little bit of envy that she’s still stuck there when her dad’s been long gone and her brother went off to join the service of their relatively fresh country. She feels almost trapped there and chafes against that feeling. Maybe I could have the adventurer offer to hire her on?
Kureshi Ironclaw Posted June 28, 2019 Posted June 28, 2019 What if she accidentally teleports herself away in the teleportation hub? From your description it seems like you already did that but brought her back to the town. You could just leave her stranded somewhere else.
Pagliacci he/him Posted June 28, 2019 Posted June 28, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, artiestroke said: She feels almost trapped there and chafes against that feeling. Maybe I could have the adventurer offer to hire her on? That'd work. Though perhaps make it so that the Adventurer is reluctant at first but is convinced by the MC? Just to give her some more agency. Edited June 28, 2019 by Pagliacci Correcting foolish grammatical errors.
artiestroke she/her Posted June 28, 2019 Author Posted June 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Kureshi Ironclaw said: What if she accidentally teleports herself away in the teleportation hub? From your description it seems like you already did that but brought her back to the town. You could just leave her stranded somewhere else. Ah, no that’s not what happened- she just teleported the adventurer to her, not herself to the adventurer and then back. 23 minutes ago, Pagliacci said: That's work. Though perhaps make it so that the Adventurer is reluctant at first but is convinced by the MC? Just to give her some more agency. That’s a good point- I’m thinking now maybe the adventurer gives her like a secret test of character type thing before offering to hire her on. The MC does hide things from her mom that the adventurer picks up on because she was still conscious when magic happened, and probably does a “hey why are you lying to your folks?” Bit, where we get MC’s I Want moment
Eagle of the Forest Path he/him Posted June 28, 2019 Posted June 28, 2019 Ok, how about the opposite of Pagliacci's question: What's keeping her in the town? She wants to leave, so why is she still there? Now you can have a problem to overcome, instead of an action to justify.
artiestroke she/her Posted June 28, 2019 Author Posted June 28, 2019 19 minutes ago, Eagle of the Forest Path said: Ok, how about the opposite of Pagliacci's question: What's keeping her in the town? She wants to leave, so why is she still there? Now you can have a problem to overcome, instead of an action to justify. The big thing keeping her in town is her mom- both pressuring her to stay emotionally and MC’s perceived responsibility to stay and not leave her to run the bar mostly alone
Xardan Ta'Caran he/him Posted June 28, 2019 Posted June 28, 2019 (edited) Quote her dad’s been long gone and her brother went off to join the service of their relatively fresh country. What if the adventurer has met dad or brother somewhere? That would be a good enough reason for me to leave, knowing that my family could be found or are in danger. Plus that would give a good reason for mom to encourage the MC to leave. That way rather than it being a reluctance to go it becomes a matter of leaving to help someone. It would greatly depend on where you want your story progression to go, but you could easily have the MC be drawn away from her search for family if given other motivation. Edited June 28, 2019 by Xardan Ta'Caran 1
Ixthos Luke/Luke Posted June 28, 2019 Posted June 28, 2019 Another possibility is, if you want the leaving to be more abrupt, to have further experimentation at the location where the first teleportation occurred to later pull her along with it, either her doing further experimenting, or accidentally when she tries to sent the adventurer on their way?
artiestroke she/her Posted June 28, 2019 Author Posted June 28, 2019 After developing a bit, I think I’ve got the solution- the MC will entrust the Adventurer with the secret that she’s been secretly studying magic, and proves her skill in it. Adventurer will go to the mom, explain her daughter is brilliant in this field, and on a more equal adult ground convince her to let the Adventurer hire her on so the MC’s talents don’t wilt out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to really challenge her. An offer of mentorship- the Obi-Wan to her Luke, except less Alec Guinness and more Ewan McGregor
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