Which Plot?

Alice.S · Sep 10, 2008

I have developed characters and a setting, for a perfect horror story, but I can’t decide on my victim/s and murderer/s.

My two different paths are;

1. Group of school friends with a strong, controlling, Psychotic Alpha, who has power over the group and convinces them to join in a group murder of the weakest in the group.
2. weakest in the group, - after continues abuse from the group- snaps and kills the others.

The alpha has the Potentialto over power the group and is quite a psychotic character whether they are the murderer or being murdered. The weakest has the potential to snap. And the others have flaws in their personality and self-esteem to be easy victims or persuaded to kill.

kct webber · Sep 10, 2008

I like option one with a little bit of option 2. Option 1 has the potential to raise a great deal of tension, with the protagonist hanging out with his future killers. But I think that you can do option one and then add in 2, wherein, finally, the weakest snaps. This would allow a very satisfactory ending, in which he kills his would be killers in terrible ways. It would be a nice twist, the weakest member finally, after much fear and abuse, snapping and going psycho on the psychos.

You could have horror going both ways. Psycho group leader convinces the group to kill the weakest. They try. They fail. Weakest snaps and kills the psycho group leader. Now his followers are freaking out going "what the hell did he get us into" as the weakest violently slaughters them one by one. Just one huge fucked up situtation in which everyone spends some time as an antagonist. Just an idea. But I like it.

Now I demand Rep points!

dpaterso · Sep 10, 2008

1. and 2. seem to blend together nicely. With the murder attempt in 1. having failed, the intended victim turns into a revenge-seeking maniac.

Edit: or what kct said.

-Derek

alleycat · Sep 10, 2008

kct's idea is interesting. Here's a couple of other possible ideas to add into the mix.

Use Option 1. The group leader convinces the group to kill the weakest of the bunch on some pretext (perhaps it's "all just a game" to the others). They go along with the idea, but the others think the leader will stop it at the last moment. They are shocked when he doesn't. They panic. Some want to go to the authorities, some want to continue "the game". Now the group divides into two groups; those led by the original leader, and those led by another (the story's real MC). It's becomes a "kill or be killed" game for real.

Another option. Use some combination of the original ideas, or one similar to the one kct described . . . but somewhere along the way have a "third party" enter the picture. This third party wants to kills everyone (it could be an unknown monster, a crazed killer, or even one of the group). Or it could be that it really was all a game to begin with to see who's the strongest and who's the weakest, but it turns into a killing game for real when the third party enters the picture.

There are all sorts of ways to make it so both the characters in the story, as well as the reader, doesn't quite know what's real and what's not, or who the true enemy really is and why.

By the way, some of this vaguely reminds me of the movie The Hole with Keira Knightly, as well as some other books and movies. But don't worry about that; you can come up with enough unique characters, strange settings, and plot details to make something original.

regdog · Sep 10, 2008

What about having the strongest of the group influence to weakest member of the group who is also a little slow to do the killings. Thereby the strongest always has a cast tiron alibi and no one would suspect the weakest because the murders were too involved and well thought out

Alpha Echo · Sep 10, 2008

Wow, all good ideas. My initial thought was what the first two posters said and combine the two.

mscelina · Sep 10, 2008

If I were the OP, I'd be taking notes. Any of the suggestions seem stronger to me than an either/or option from Alice's original post.

Alice, this is horror. You can get as freaky as you want with it. I'd sit down in a room by myself and brainstorm starting with the two options you began with. Try to string together a logical stream of events using one or both--where can the motives change? How? What makes this so terrifying? How can I make it more terrifying? What is the ultimate punch I'm looking for here and how can I give it the most impact?

Don't be afraid to unleash the terrors of your imagination here. instead of looking for the usual, look for the unusual, the icky, the gory, the supernatural, the ridiculous--whatever it takes to catapult that story idea to life.

Good luck to you.

Mad Queen · Sep 10, 2008

My initial idea was also combining the two, except that the weakest becomes the leader after he kills the former leader. The story would end with the group planning to kill the new weakest member.

bramble · Sep 10, 2008

What about a secret master mind in the group? Sees the weakness (overblown alpha personality) of the group leader and subtly manipulates the group leader to engage the group to killing the weakest member. Then, horrified at what they'd done, the group turns on the alpha member. Thus the crafty one wins- the group disposes of the weakest and the strongest.

roseangel · Sep 10, 2008

Maybe, the weakest one is actually in control, the alpha is just a figure head and the 'weakest' controls it all from the shadows, safe from censure or backlash.
The alpha doesn't want to be the figure head anymore, so he influences the group to try and murder the 'weakest, but fails.
The 'weakest', decides to cull the group and start over again with a new group.

s.w. Gamble · Sep 10, 2008

roseangel said:
Maybe, the weakest one is actually in control, the alpha is just a figure head and the 'weakest' controls it all from the shadows, safe from censure or backlash.
The alpha doesn't want to be the figure head anymore, so he influences the group to try and murder the 'weakest, but fails.
The 'weakest', decides to cull the group and start over again with a new group.

I love this idea! but what if instead of starting a new group he just gets his hands on the new leader of their group.

Alice.S · Sep 11, 2008

Wow! I love all these suggestions! Maybe I could write a hole bunch of short stories about the different structures in groups/cliques and use everyone’s wonderful ideas

My original story came from an actually event in my life, in one of my old schools, where I was friends with a bad group of girls, we actually weren't really friends –just draw together because of different struggles in life, the leader and some other girls came from abusive and bad families, another girl struggled with weight and two other girls had came from overseas and had a hard time adjusting to Australia, and once people (in this snobbish town) found out my parents were only teens when they had me, I was basically shunned by other kids parents and by kids themselves ,

The leader of the group was a controlling psycho bitch, two other girls in the group were also very strange -- burning them selves and the others in the group with matchsticks, pushing us around, stealing, they smoked, drank, slept around and were complete misses, they were also very controlling, I guess they where Betas. The rest of us were very weak and let the others walk all over us and this all happened when we where 11-12 yrs old. I managed to pull why from this group—and moved schools a year later. I'm still friends with the other three girls who were being abused like me.

The event was when (not naming them but I’ll use the first letter of their name.)
N (one of the Betas) was having her birthday, and she invited the whole group to sleep in her backyard in a tent. T (alpha) talked us into scaring one of the other (weaker) girls, C, in our group—because it was her first sleepover and she was easily scared. T’s originally idea was to pretend to be a murder or something like that and shake the tent and “kill” us off one by one ‘til C was left Thing was that N’s mum warned us not to get to out of control and scream and carry on, because (I can’t remember the exact reason) apparently some kids in the neighborhood had been followed or kidnapped or something like that, and the mum didn’t want to alarm the neighbors. T said that she would go out side the tent and pretend to be getting attack then N and Z (other beta) would follow, then the rest of us. When most of the girls had left the tent me and another girl H, told C what was really happening and she calmed down. T figured out that we told C, and she got mad and lashed out on us.

mlhernandez · Sep 11, 2008

Mad Queen said:
My initial idea was also combining the two, except that the weakest becomes the leader after he kills the former leader. The story would end with the group planning to kill the new weakest member.

Ooh! I like this!

willfulone · Sep 15, 2008

I am with MQ. Although, a little different too. I was thinking in the vein:

The weakest is not really the weakest at all (similar to MQ). But different in that - he just appears that way (weakest) for he has an inner conflict with his fantasy life that focuses on murdering people or torture of some sort. He shows weakness and no power to fight back when picked on for he is afraid if he lets his anger rise; the potential of his "mass murder" personna taking the fore torments him. And, your scenes getting to the plot of his unravel could be the ways the meanest dude and the others try to kill him and fail building his rage to snapping point. Oh, well. That is just what I thought when I read it anyway.

It sounds like a good story - good luck!

Christine

Which Plot?

Alice.S

just ate all your candy

kct webber

Squirrel, Sekrit type, 1 ea.

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

alleycat

Still around

regdog

The Scavengers

Alpha Echo

I should be writing.

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

Mad Queen

California Mountain Snake

bramble

roseangel

Crazy Young Cat Lady

s.w. Gamble

Alice.S

just ate all your candy

mlhernandez

willfulone

I am a zebra...