So my story is in large part meant to be an "epic quest" of a girl crossing a desert planet, looking for her mother. I am making good progress towards the end of the second chapter, where my character will have exhausted all her options for finding her mother in her home city. I have an outline, and that's where it stops!
The problem is, while I've given her a lot of clues to where she should go (including a lot of synchronicity about the name of the place where she should go, which is on the other side of the desert), I can't figure out why she shouldn't just stay around in the place she's familiar with and hope the constables can find her mother - especially since crossing the desert is such a dangerous proposition.
I feel like there should be some sort of catalyzing event which makes her really *need* to leave - a disaster, an accident, something. Problem is, I have no idea what that could be. I toyed with the idea of her house burning down, but she lives in a concrete apartment complex :( (Not a lot of burnable wood on a desert planet).
Any ideas for dramatic events that would push my MC to action?
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38,348 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 07 27
In light of recent events...
a plague.
----------40,575 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 07 47
I feel like there should be some sort of catalyzing event which makes her really *need* to leave - a disaster, an accident, something. Problem is, I have no idea what that could be.
Looks to me as if you've got your answer hidden in your question. If the problem is that the constables would have a better chance at finding the mother, have them stop looking: she's been gone too long, or another crisis like the ones you mentioned pops up, or the girl somehow gets herself or her mother into trouble with them (or someone else does) and they refuse to help any more. Or, hey, maybe the constables' search turns up evidence that the mother was a traitor or something, and so good riddance to her, as far as the authorities are concerned.
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39,094 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 07 48
Well, given that it is a desert planet:
1. A really bad sandstorm.
2. Famine, there is not enough food where she is. Maybe she will go to retrieve supplies for friends.
3. Along those same lines, perhaps there is a necessity that the city needs from another city and they need a brave volunteer. A key component to the machines that pump water from deep underground perhaps?
Good luck with whatever you decide! If you can't decide, just keep writing, something will come to you.
30,055 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 07 48
maybe whatever happened to her mother is happening to her. I don't know the details but maybe if someone was hunting her mother, maybe they're hunting the girl now and therefore she has to flee.
12,211 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 08 04
Perhaps the local police drop/backburner the case. Think of missing persons cases in our world: after a certain amount of time, attention dies down and searches cease. The same could happen here -- they've searched within a safe range of the settlement*, can't find her, call off the search -- but your character is (obviously) determined to find out what happened to her mother, so sets off on her quest.
*Presumably the planet is sparsely settled, if it's mostly arid, and I'd imagine canvassing the whole planet is beyond their capabilities.
(Speaking of which, I'd advise against monoclimate planets. It's a pretty hilarious cliché -- see: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SingleBiomePlanet -- and is best avoided, or at least handled with a lot of thought.)
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nov. 4, 2009 - 08 48
Thanks, all, for the suggestions. They are really making me think. One of the options that looks the most promising is to have the MC being chased by a crime syndicate that may have been involved in her mother's disappearance.
About the desert planet: yeah, it seems problematic in some ways. I'm not 100% sure if the "desert planet" is really just that - a desert planet, a la Trigun - or if it's a post-apocalyptic world where travel between continents is just incredibly difficult, and this one continent happens to have been turned into a wasteland by nuclear holocaust, plague, etc. I am kind of playing it by ear at this point, and seeing what the story tells me.