I am not happy, I may have to kill him, one of my characters. He has stolen the plot right out from under me! ARG!

You see, I had this nice little escape from a restaurant. Our gang of merry adventurers are having a fabulous little coffee after the church service where the “Council of Reconciliation” was announced.  At this point there is suppose to be a minor riot in the cafe and our band of heroes escapes though the back door in the kitchen unscathed.

I start writing the scene, the riot starts to occur and we get out the back door, and then…instead of escape from near death, we find out that the riot is not a riot, it actually is outrage at the fact that some group tried to assassinate their Abbott. The Abbott released a video that showed all of the leaders as great heroes, they weren’t in any danger. They had over re-acted to a careful plan of the Abbott and his accomplice had planed.

I like both, in the first we have the classic escape from a trap because someone has anticipated the coming issue avoiding the fight. The second has the same resolution – someone thinks ahead and finds a way to channel the anger of the crowd, the mob, to focus on the enemy that unknown enemy.  This prevents the mob from realizing that the Religious Government has just set aside all civilized behavior to find the enemy.

I don’t know what to do. The point of the scene, and remember all scenes have a point or a purpose to move the story along, is to show the following:

1) The common person is focused on the Council for reconciliation, which will allow our team to brashly search for the real terrorists. Running rough shod over civil liberties and religious freedoms.

2) A small by-play that produces a minor romantic tone

3) The flavor and character of our main players in the story.

All of these points can be accomplished in both scenes. I think the question boils down to how clever do I need to make characters? Do I need to make the Abbott clever? Is it true to his character? To resolve this I need to go back to the character sketch that I did for the Abbott as part of my outline. As well I need to review the character sketch for the our military leader who senses the riot first and sneaks us out. Does it help his development as character more…

The answer in the next episode of “ARG! The Character who stole my plot!”

Be well – dcd