Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

So this week's writing post is self indulgent. It's part of my process is to talk to others when I get stuck and that often helps me to get things moving. I was talking to evil_little_dog last night and thought this would be a neat thing to continue here.

I'm ready for the penultimate chapter in a former nano novel. Up until now, the older magic user (rogue, think of her as Ethan Rayne for all the Buffy fans out there) has been using a teenaged minion to wreck havoc and do the monster summoning. After the last chapter this is no longer possible for her and that chapter had a huge battle scene.

However that leaves me with how to stop the rogue. I have no idea how I want to deal with her and honestly after a couple reviews of the last novel have me second guessing myself especially after a reviewer who is usually really good with my reviews didn't like the ending because I think they were expecting a Ghostbuster's style ending but I did a more realistic paranormal investigating end.

Even though you know that it is impossible to make everyone happy, it rolls around in your head. I was also thinking that I've seen all the endings you can have for this (heck I think all the ones I can come up with have been in Harry Potter). My options are:

1. the teen monster hunters go after her in her house and there's another big battle (with a different monster)

2. the teens mentors step in (which is my least favorite option) because it's mostly their story

3. She comes for them but that probably takes me to another big battle (which I'm afraid might feel redundant)

4. She's summoning demons and they haul her to hell (i.e. Hellraiser)

Anything I've not thought of? Anything you're sick of seeing? I'm interested in your input.


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Comments

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> However that leaves me with how to stop the rogue. <<

I'm always a big fan of villains causing their own downfall.

4. She's summoning demons and they haul her to hell (i.e. Hellraiser)

That would fit this approach, but it has been done many times and is thus fairly predictable. Given your character, her flaws, the story context, etc. can you think of another way for her to screw herself?

And ideally, to avoid leaving the heroes with nothing to do, they should either have to save something other than the villain from her self-created clusterfuck, or stop the damage from spreading.

So for instance, maybe she succeeds in summoning the demon, but has foolishly done this in ... well, pretty much anywhere in the western 2/3 of America being bone-dry in the now 6+ months of fire season ... and the demon is flamey, which starts a fire, and the villain is not actually fireproof. Not only is she now dead, the heroes have to stop a demonic wildfire before it eats 100,000 acres including their town.

Alternatively, she succeeds in summoning a demon, in a skyscraper, but the thing weight approximately as much as an elephant, thus plummets through floors not designed to support either elephant or demon, and the villain also falls to her death. The heroes may need to locate and extract a dangerous artifact or tome that she used to summon the demon, from the rubble of a collapsing building, while eluding emergency services.

I mean, if she has a hot temper, she could just run her car into a tree, which happens to lots of people with anger management issues, but that's a bit anticlimactic for the heroes. Readers generally want them to seem useful -- other than putting enough pressure on the villain that rushing contributes to her making mistakes.

Re: Well ...

[shanachie_quill]

I love these ideas! I was going to suggest the pulled into Hell, but all of those make it so much better!

Good luck!

(I am also writing my last two chapters of my current story and feeling like I rushed the ending... but since I have no time, it's gonna have to stand until the re-write.)

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I love these ideas! I was going to suggest the pulled into Hell, but all of those make it so much better! <<

Yay! I really enjoy exploring how bad people can screw themselves. There are so many possibilities.

>> (I am also writing my last two chapters of my current story and feeling like I rushed the ending... but since I have no time, it's gonna have to stand until the re-write.) <<

Go you!

I often do that when I'm writing. Get the first draft done, and then when I reread, I think of more ways to tie things together or flesh out the ending.

Re: Well ...

[cornerofmadness]

Same here with the first draft and what comes next

Re: Well ...

[cornerofmadness]

Good luck with your ending too. I feel you. That's how I have to do it a lot of time. Just get the bones down and fix it in revision.

Re: Well ...

[cornerofmadness]

Ooo, these are great ideas, thank you. I like them very much. Yeah that was the stone wall I was standing at either anticlimatic or predictable (or with no agency for the heroes of the piece as she manages to obliterate herself which would have been the outcome whether or not the heroes were there)

We're at a small rural college with an old 1800s boom town but kinda past its prime setting in SW PA (i.e. my old college) so the villain is in an old Victorian in a street full of them so yes if she manages to bring down the house on top of herself we'll be going with 'gas explosion' as the official story. That would actually work nicely. thanks again

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Oh, that's a perfect setting! An old Victorian house is likely 2 1/2 or 3 stories tall, and being made of old wood, very flammable. An attic would make a great ritual space, if most of what she does is smaller and more contained. But with the heroes hounding her, she might push for bigger and bigger spells, without considering the physical consequences. Falling even 2 stories alongside a big heavy demon is certainly enough to kill someone. There's ample grounds for both fire as extreme hazard and for needing to extract an artifact or tome (readily available in an old college town) from the mess.

If the villain and heroes are racing at the end -- she's trying to cast something big enough to kill them or take over the town or whatever, and they're trying to stop her -- then it also sets up a need for the heroes to switch focus. Dead is stopped, for her, but the trouble she brought is still going and they need to address that immediately.

It's a good test for their heroism. Are they general heroes who can respond nimbly to a natural or future danger? Or are they really just pursuing a vendetta against one nemesis? Happily for the author and story conflict, if you have even 2 heroes, they can split on this issue; and with teens, they can have a tense little argument over it before leaping into action.

Heh, especially if not all of them live actually in the town. A professor's child whose house is 2 blocks over will have a lot more skin in the endgame than one living on a family farm just outside of town. If the issue is a tome or an artifact, a teen wanting to become a librarian or archaeologist or magical scholar will have a very different reaction than one who wants to play football or go into business.

Re: Well ...

[cornerofmadness]

That works. SHe would be worried about being captured because this world has something along the lines of Azkhaban and memory wipes. She knows one of those two things would be her fate (and her father had gotten killed in a fight when he went rogue) That could easily cause her to summon something she can't quite control.

And we do have all kinds of heroes in this, one who got into this band of basically Watchers (without the patriarchy) only after something killed her grandmother and activated her abilities, two who were born into the group and have known nothing else and one who is part supernatural himself. The morality of being judge/jury and the mind wipes has already come up. None of them are from the town but it is their job to protect it which they take seriously so there's that.

A fire demon would be the easiest to explain away (even without needing a mind wipe especially if it happens mid afternoon when most people are not home) though cold or something controlling vegetation could be interesting too (but would probably require those magical mind adjustments since people are primed to accept/fear fire but aren't going to write off ivy whipping off a house and strangling people