So you wrote yourself into a wall...

[Lord Rae]

how bad could it be?

Yikes... I realized tonight that I have written myself into a corner and have severely limited the amount of danger my protagonist will face. So in the world of my story there is magic and people know it exists... but its rare and the ones displaying it are almost always unhinged and dangerous people. So the counter to them is the government (and godly) mandated and approved counter group. The problem is that in scenes I've already written (and there are a lot of them) it is made abundantly clear that normal people shouldn't attempt to fight the magical powered folk or the counter govt group and doing so guarantees you a quick and painful death. But that means that unless I create an extremely large number of both I'm not going to have much for anyone to fight I need mooks, faceless minions and people for the heroes to fight but if I make too many of them then we wind up with essentially a world of badasses that for some reason common people don't realize even though the culture, religion and goverments are all built upon a foundation of magic. Ugh. I realize the solution but I'm just dreading it.

What do you do when you realize you've screwed up thoroughly in your preparation that you thought was complete?

I don't want to have an all magic world where everyone knows magic... but it might be the easiest change at this point. I also can't have a world where magic is completely hidden. It won't work. I was planning to have magic be cause for people to mistrust a character... but have the heroes using magic although in a different form that people don't recognize as traditional magic. But there are plot holes galore going about it that way. Ugh. What a mess.

Or maybe I'm just realizing the world I created doesn't match the story. That would be really upsetting.

[Snowleopard]

Oopsie.  Sometimes it happens, LR.
As I understand it - Larry Niven's character for whom things always worked out the best no matter what - put him into a wall because, if I remember rightly, no matter what happened she was gonna come out of it smelling like roses and all the other characters around her would be moved by fate or luck or whatever to make things good for her.  He was not best pleased because she'd already been introduced into the stories.

As for your problem in regards to Mooks/Fuego fodder - how about some form of necromantic mooks.
The bad guy magic users can create a limited number and for a limited time and/or with someone they know or someone who is a blood relative of their enemy - a type of zombie.  Alive/dead.  The good guys can't just take out these possessed souls - Pombies - because many of them are still alive.  (Perhaps the longer they stay under the spell the closer they go to being truly dead.)  So the good guys are forced to work, quickly, carefully, and very circumspectly.

[Lord Rae]

That might work although I was going for an antagonist base that is much stronger than the "good guys" and it is essentially the reason the heroes team up and the bad guys are usually solo. Although I guess having a numerically superior enemy is also a good reason to team up. I just feel like the bad guys usually outnumber the good guys in most fiction. How many times have you seen heroes plowing through wave after wave of enemies? I know stronger bad guys aren't a new idea either but it seemed more sporting to have the good guys be outgunned through sheer force and not numbers. Also technically necromancy won't really work for the story... but I can figure something else out. Maybe. Doesn't change that I have to make huge renovations to what I've already written. I just need to find a balance between the heroes not having enemies and having a swarm of undead dominating the planet.

hehe ouch.

[Snowleopard]

You know your story best.
(A major rewrite is a serious pain in the tuchis - you have my sympathy)
Well, you could perhaps use the - good guys can't just blast the bad guy's Fuego Fodder because
these beings/people are still alive and/or salvageable.
Could they use a part of a living person's life force (not soul that seems too close to JB) to animate
a, not sure if this is the right term, simulacrum.  And blasting the simulacrum or engaging it in battle for a long time will use up the life force?  Bad guys can't control too many of these so are limited in numbers and scope for their mooks.

[meg_evonne]

Or maybe I'm just realizing the world I created doesn't match the story. That would be really upsetting.

Ach... Rewrites are horrors, but often they are required. I would stick the whole thing in the drawer for a few months and play with something else. You might find that the perfect solution comes out of the blue or in a re-read later realize that the rewrite definitely needs to be done. You may never come back to this story and end up canabalizing it to incorporate sections and scenes into another work. That isn't a bad option either.

Several times I start a work thinking I have the most unique and fascinating premise, but in the details it just implodes on me. Luckily, after experiencing this the hard way several times, its happens less and less.

Keep your hopper full and your head above water. Putting it away in that drawer to 'ripen' or to 'spoil' is far better than investing countless hours into something that simply refuses to work effectively. Not all stories are meant to be told at this point in time.

Best wishes and a virtual hug.

[Darkshore]

So is the problem that the people your characters would face are simply too powerful? These renegade magic users would most likely have lots of henchmen and have their hands in the pockets of organized crime and even the local police. You could make these magic users very rare in your world. There aren't many of them, but the ones that can are essentially packing a nuclear bomb in the palm of their hand.

[Lord Rae]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm not sure if anything is gonna work but I might be able to adjust it slightly. Smooth out some of the roughness and at the same patch up plot holes and inconsistencies (more like logic gaps that I've thought of while trying to work this out)....

Oh well. It's gonna take a while but that's how you learn right?

[Snowleopard]

Good luck.  In my writing I always hated the gaps in logic
you could "Drive a starship through".  Messy and time consuming to fix.

[Lord Rae]

Eureka! I think I got it... and I had the tools already planned I just hadn't brought them into the story yet. I just have to alter their origin and influence a bit it and it fixes several issues at once. Thanks again for listening and giving suggestions everyone.

[Snowleopard]

Is good!

[The Deposed King]

If one of the bad guy powers is the rare ability to temporarily 'puff' up vanilla mortals.  You'd have hordes of vanilla fodder.

Alternately you could have edgers, people with minor abilites who want into the big league but just aren't suited for it.  A bunch of one hit wonders.

Also if the bad guys could have a power that they could use to temporarily neutralize the good guys, then the vanillas start to come in strong again.

All depends on your magic system.  Heck cryptonite is a bit cheesy but it worked for superman.



The Deposed King