Notebook.ai

Share your story's biggest loopholes (and tear out your hair with me)

@Young-Dusty-the-Monarch-of-Dusteria group forum 13 comments schedule
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Offer helpful thoughts and advice if you like, or just share your struggles and take comfort in the fact that you're not the only one with these problems lol
Here are some loopholes of mine that roadblock my stories like bricks in a smoothie machine:

  • I have a character who, according to the backstory I made for him, is middle-aged when the big war in my book happens. I forgot that he's supposed to be the same age as another guy who….wait for it…..was born during the war according to his backstory.
  • One of my main characters is ace and that's kind of an important part of his story. I also somehow managed to forget that long enough to plan out his love life in great detail and saddle him with a wife and child by the end of the book. -_-
  • Speaking of that character's wife, I know there are MAJOR issues within her timeline in relation to the story timeline, I just….haven't found them yet. And that worries me.
  • I just realized after probably three years of working on this book that it has no actual plot.
  • I have a bandit warlord who's supposed to be tough and cold and murderous and feared by all. At this point, he acts more like a softhearted grandpa.
  • In a different story, I had to bend over backwards, tie myself in a knot, cross my eyes, and wear tinted glasses just to figure out my villain's motivations and give him a solid reason to target the main character.

There are more, but I'll leave it there for now T.T Join me, friends, I want to know the parts of your story that keep you awake at night.

person_off
Deleted user

  • So it turns out…I have a plot, a beginning, and an end…but I dont have a middle.

  • I built one of my characters for this specific plot, but then I kept changing her and her motives and backstory and now she doesnt fit the plot.

  • I tried to make one of my stories scientific… it turns out I dont know anything even remotely close to science.

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pats shoulder sympathetically

person_off
Deleted user
  • I have a character poised for power… but no other reason than the fact that he just likes having power.
  • There is no clear protagonist, for one of the three MCs I have lined up will die by the end. The last one is an idiot.
  • There’s no clear way to the end of my story. There’s only one charrie who suspects him, and he’s essentially the equivalent of a Drowsee bc of how much his head is in the clouds.
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  • There is no clear protagonist, for one of the three MCs I have lined up will die by the end. The last one is an idiot.

LITERALLY same, omg, figuring out who the protag is can be the hardest part sometimes TvT

@RedTheLoveless
  • By the end of book one, the MCs are supposed to have earned permission to leave the Capital, but that whole plot point became useless when I decided to add the other plot point of hosting the Competition for the next Kien.
  • Additionally, I don't know who I should make to be the next Kien. They have to be willing to work with the MCs, but also be strict enough to run an entire United Nations system.
  • Issalok was supposed to be blonde-haired and brown-eyed, but he didn't seem to fit anywhere ethnically (in my world). So I had to change his entire appearance multiple times to fit in with any ethnicity that fits his backstory. I'm still not happy about it.
  • The Nine Nations have developed distinct regional variants, which is interesting, but also that means I have to figure out what the hell happens to halfbreeds.
  • I had to add another member to the group of MCs to make the team a bit more balanced… and I still have yet to figure out the repercussions of my action, which is terrifying.
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Y'all reminded me of more of my personal waking nightmares:

  • I still don't know my main character's last name, the name of his adoptive mother, or the name of the city he lives in.
  • Remember that story that doesn't have a plot? Actually, it does have a slight plot….one that only works if I find the time and energy to write a whole extra book explaining the villain's backstory and lineage.
  • The guy that's supposed to be the antagonist for my entire series has literally no reason to do any evil stuff, and in fact he's a pretty chill guy most of the time. Causing chaos and misery "for the lolz" is NOT a good enough reason, but for now that's his entire motivation.
  • I have a character that appears in at least three different stories, all set in wildly different time periods. He's not immortal, I was just….lazy, I guess. I put time travel into my universe specifically for him and the story STILL doesn't work.
  • Have you ever tried to design a reference sheet for a magical species that has no consistent traits at all? I have. It's impossible, especially when it comes to a standardized visual ref.
  • I have a pair of characters in the story-with-no-plot that are just friends, but I have a sinking feeling that everyone's going to ship them. Even I ship them, but I don't want to make them canon because guess what? One of them is the ACE guy I mentioned earlier. (And no, the ship isn't between him and his future wife lol.) I still have no idea how I'mma handle that mess.
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@Starfast group

I have two main ones right now:

  • Alexis' name doesn't match the setting of the story. I know that I should change it, but she's had that name since at least 2012 (maybe even earlier? I can't really remember when I cam up with her). Either way it's been a really long time and I've gotten kind of attached to that name, nor can I find a suitable replacement.
  • I have these two characters that have potential to be in a f/f relationship, but I'm kind of afraid to do it because even though I think they have pretty good chemistry I don't really know what their role in the rest of the series would be like. So I'm kind worried of putting them in a relationship but then having them end up as side characters with not a lot of page time (because lets face it, that's not very good rep). The rest of the cast is also straight, so I don't want it to seem like I just made this random lesbian couple just for diversity's sake. There's potential for them to have a larger role in the next book, but I don't really want to bank on that since I have next to nothing planned for it and anything could happen.
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Those struggles speak to my heart, fam, I wish you the best of luck finding solutions to them TvT

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Ah, it's always nice to have a friend to weep with lol X'D

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sucks in breath This is my page.

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So my protag in Althalos lll, Perados, (formerly known as Alek for those who know what's up) was in his mother's womb in book ll. Book lll was supposed to be like twenty years later. Perados is only fourteen. And Areni's son was supposed to be sort of significantly older than him except now they would have to be the same age.

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cries in big mood energy