KHV Original Story Collaborators : Plot discussion

Plot number 1 was the clear winner, so we shall be going with that.

Here's a refresher for Peace-and-War's great idea:

This thread is for discussion about the overall plot-line and to decide on a few core characters. Once we've gotten those decided we'll decide on the writing order, and start the writing process.

PS. I'm terribly sorry about slacking off with the maintenance of this group, I know it's not really an excuse but I've been busy with moving, my great-aunt having surgery (and the extra baby-sitting hours that brought), getting my drivers license, classes, and the assortment of injuries and sicknesses I seem to attract like a magnet.
I'll try to be a little more hands on from now on (and not give dead-lines I can't clearly keep >.<).

Hopefully we can get this in order soon and start writing!

 

As long as we get on track, even if slowly i'll be happy. The amount of projects that never get anywhere, though... I don't want this to be one of them.


Alright core characters:
We'll need to decide on a limit of characters in the group that we will follow. I was thinking 5-6 people? We'll need someone to rally the group together as a leader type figure. But the rest I'm not sure. Old man from before the apocalypse? Young street urchin? 21 year old heir of the Mayor of the settlement they are being exiled from? I wanna hear what you guys come up with.

Basic start plot:
I was thinking an introduction like, all the characters that have been blamed for a crime are gathered together, are sentenced by the mayor of the town to be exiled for the murder of a vital member of the town, like maybe the guy who supplies clean water or something. We then see the characters, who at first attempt to go their seperate ways after distrusting each other since one of them is the actual murderer of the important person, even though they were all blamed. However one of the characters knows from past experience that they won't survive by themselves, and convinces them to go to the next settlement over before they decide if they want to go their own way.

What everyone think?

 

I'd like to spend a bit of time on their backstories as well. We need to explain why such a diverse group was actually booted out of the village all at once in the first place. Why would all of them be suspected of the crime? Perhaps there was an ulterior motive behind kicking some of them out. Will we, as readers, discover which of the characters was the killer? I'd quite like to spend a bit of time delving into the backstories, slowly figuring out the answer. We've got six people, so we could spend 2-3 chapters covering them. Some could be simpler than others, and in some cases, plain tangential to the primary story. For example, one of them could have been a bum on the street, liked by no one. It was a good chance to get rid of him. We could touch into why he's homeless, how he lives, etc.

The backstories could be dealt with in one block, or we could learn them as we follow the band of characters, getting a flashback occasionally.

 

Pehaps maybe one of the reasons for some of them being in framed is that they got to close to finding out something they shouldn't and by piecing together little hints in the different backstories it shows what it is. Also I'd like if some of the characters weren't what they first appeared and the back stories explain why they are like they are now, like if one was a recluse, it would show why. We could even miss things out in the backstories, if someone was hiding something, then return to them later but include an extra bit which changes that changes people's opinion on them completely.

About the characters, I would also like if we didn't follow the regular steriotypes, eg. a little girl that isn't so weak and innocent.

 

I'm starting to see the plot of Vantage Point form in my head... Not that that's a bad thing, it's just a very tricky style of writing to try and get several characters in twinned with the plot, with their back stories, personalities, traits, and son and so forth becoming so complicated that it won't be easy to understand for the reader (and us I'm sure).

My post earlier was just an idea. Murder was obvious for them to be pinned on and exiled for. In an age where society as it is now has crumbled and we are starting over again, I'm sure that the law is flawed enough to pin murder on six people. All of them co-conspirators. Someone may have intentionally pinned it on them or it could have happened by bad luck.

I also think we are going to have to talk eventually about the type of apocalypse we are going to have. Plague? War with the machines? Nuclear fallout?
And also how long ago the apocalyptic event occurred.

 

@Midnight: I approve. As an addendum, I propose that whatever the 'secret' is, we never get told it outright. We can make the reader work a bit, and draw their own conclusions.

@PaW: Managing multiple people will (hopefully) be easier if we plan it out first, and divide the backstories up between them. Not sure about the apocalypse though. We could make them fourth-generation apocalypse survivors, and that'd clear up any problems of dealing with the apocalypse itself. Heck, we could have each character report a different story for how the apocalypse happened.


Okay, so shall we try to get some character traits down for our six characters?

Here's a basic template.

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Body type:
Personality:
Place in village:

Once we've got that sorted out, we can start piecing a plot together around them.

 

Okay ^,^ but if there is a secret we will need to figure it out before we begin so we can start to put hints in right from the start. Though murder does work as I thing they get thrown out for.

Also 4th gen sounds good, though I'm not sure as to what the apocalypse was.

I've filled in one of the character sheets, though I'm not totally happy with the character, it's very short and it definatly needs some work. Also, I wasn't sure by what you meant by body type. Anyway, here it is:

Name: Gemma Heart
Age: 15
Gender: Female
Body type: Petite, very small and short causing her to look even younger than she is, though also fairly flexible and adgile.
Personality: After spending a lifetime of everyone expecting her be the perfect polite innocent little girl and not allowing her to do anything the slightest bit dangerous has had the adverse affect on her personality. She’s a complete tomboy who is not afraid to get her hands dirty and take on someone twice her size, and who would love the chance to not constantly mind her manners. Though she is able to act the complete innocent girl and is able to manipulate those around her. Although after living such a protected life, when she actually has to ‘rough’ it, it may not be quite as she expected.
Place in village: Daughter of someone infuluential in the village.

 

I suppose I will try to contribute. I don't really have an idea for a character yet, but I created this story sheet last year sometime.

Since I don't really have any ideas of my own yet, I could organize the information you guys come up with and fill out this form for us with all of the characters and everything. That way, when we're all done it'll just be one word document we need to look at for reference.

Spoiler: Detailed character sheet, when the time comes

Name:
Gender:
Age:
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Living arrangements:
School:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Turn ons:
Turn offs:
Talents:
Race//Species:
Eye color:
Accessories:
Hair color/length/style:
Predominant features:
Health:
Hobbies:
Attitude//personality:
Attitude//personality (interior):
Outlook on the world and why:
Goals:
Darkest Secret:
Other:

You guys can disagree with this, but I think that before we actually start writing, we should know these things, lol. That way it brings consistency to the table, and someone doesn't go "She loves spicy food, so she nommed it." and later someone else goes "She hates spicy food, so she refused it."

It also gives us a clear image of what they look like and how they generally behave. Anyway, when you guys come up with a decided set of characters, then I'll add them to the sheet. Also, non-applicable stuff can be ignored in the form and the form can be revised to be more specific.

Also, here is an example of what the full form would look liked filled out, if it doesn't make sense.

 

I have to admit, Jayn's got a very good point. If we have detailed main characters we as a group can refer back to something and keep track of each others characters. I'll fill out one of Jayn's sheets, but if we agree on something simpler then I'll cut down info when it suits.
Question, whats the difference between turn ons/offs and likes/dislikes? One could be more sexually orientated but I doubt that suits a new category in itself.
And will we changing these characters characteristics overtime to suit a plot when we get one?

 

I've always associated likes and dislikes with things the character likes to do/eat/look at, blah. And turn on/turn offs as things the character likes to see in other people. Like if someone's a hard working, and it's a turn on for that character, they'd be drawn to them or admire that trait, vice-versa.

And I'm all for changing/tweaking characteristics overtime if needed, but that's just imo.

 

I really think Jayn's detailed character's sheet will be quite useful for planning. It would need to be edited to fit the plot we're going for, I believe, such as adding "Place in the village", etcetera.

 

Yeah, anyone who uses the form...Feel free to dismiss/edit anything that would be more fitting to this specifically.

 

I've had a go at your form, I didn't change it for the most part. It probably still needs editting a bit and you don't nesscessarily need to use her but it's an idea, please let me know what you think.

Spoiler

Name: Gemma Heart
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Ethnicity: White British
Occupation: None / student
Living arrangements (before leaving): Lived with her parents
Place in the village: Daughter of someone infulential in the village
Education: Home schooled to a high standard and taught by the best people in the village.
Likes: Adventure, freedom, archery, getting what she wants, attention, exploring, anything sweet
Dislikes: Being left out, being told she can’t do something, bullies, people talking behind her back/judging her, spicy food, know-it-all’s
Turn ons: Intelligence, leadership, sensitivity,
Turn offs: Smoking, bullies, cockiness and mustaches
Talents: Archery, manipulating people, acting
Race//Species: Human
Eye color: Blue
Accessories: Hair clip and a star necklace she always wears hidden.
Hair color/length/style: Blonde, mid to long legnth, straightish
Predominant features: Very small and deep blue eyes.
Health: Good/ excellent
Hobbies: Archery, reading
Attitude//personality: When with her parents she behaves as a perfectly poilte innocent young girl but as soon as she is away from them, she is very tom boyish. She loves the idea of freedom and adventure, always curious and loves to explore. She acts hard as nails and has the courage to match, though sometimes getting reckless. She will happily take on someone twice her size and age. She is quite positive about things and once she has made friends, she will protect them and do everything she can to keep them.
Attitude//personality (interior): She was quite lonely before so she felt it was nessesary to prove herself to everyone that she isn’t some weak little girl. She has promised herself that she wouldn’t show fear but sometimes her fearlessness is as much as an act as being a innocent little girl. She just wants to be accepted into the group and cares deeply what others think of her.
Outlook on the world and why: She is fairly positive as it is her method of coping with things by convincing herself that things will get better. She had a fairly sheltered life, so only now is she coming to terms with that the world isn’t all good.
Goals: To be recognised/respected for her skills not just because of her parents, to make friends and to find somewhere safe.
Darkest Secret: She manipulates the people around her to get what she wants.
Other: While getting curious about what her parents did when she wasn’t about, evesdropping and looking through their stuff, she may have come across something she was not supposed to.

 

Now we're getting somewhere. We still need to exile her. At the moment, we can either have her parents betray her and have her exiled, or we can have her parents killed off in the crime, and her blamed for it due to her tomboyish ways.

I prefer the second option. I'd like to go down a route where she has a loud argument with her parents after they discover her doing something unfitting. She runs off, and returns to find her parents dead. She is blamed for it, as her (previously friendly) elderly neighbours testify to the fight occurring, as well as to her unfitting ways. This way, we also get her betrayed by her neighbours. We can potentially work her friends into that too.

 

Hmm, I'd imagined it more with her discovering something she shouldn't that her parents were part of, so they betray her but that could work too. The only little thing about it was that I had wanted her to appear like an innocent little girl to most of the village beforehand because that's what her parents want her to be and they controlled her a lot, stopping her doing anything even slightly dangerous or exciting. She hates this, hence why she has become so tom boyish in secret and it's so suprising to everyone else when she turns out to be not what she first appeared. Though her revealing this could be shocking to everyone and add to the betrayal.

 

I personally think her parents couod betray her, if only somewhat. Angered, she would get into an argument, etcetera.
It may be a compromise.

I shall begin creating a character sheet.

 

So first thing, are we starting just before the exiling of the characters, learning why they've been exiled? Or are these ideas that are swirling around, about some backstory that we'll referrence later on?

As long as I know what we'll start with, I'll be happier.

 

I thought we were going to start off just before they get exiled but we need to figure out what happens before so there backstory fits with how they react to it.

 

I understand that, I just wised to know what we had actually agreed on in the end. Whether we start the story before the exiling or present the exiling in flashbacks.

 

Ah fair enough, well from my understanding that's what I thought we were doing.

Also, I know we need to start answering some of these questions instead of adding more but here's another to add to the mix. How far advanced are they? What kind of technology do they have? It is possible that before the apocolypse they were quite advanced but after it they would have had to go back to almost medievil as they wouldn't have electricity or much of it, though they would still have the non electrical stuff. Also what kind of clothes would they wear? There would be normalish clothes from before the apocalypse if they can get their hands on it but these are 4th gen survivors so the 'mordern' clothes would be old/hand-me-downs and they may have started to make their own clothes. I'm also guessing phones wouldn't be much good as all the phone signal towers would be down, satelitte phones may still work.