I've got this Setting and Characters, but no Plot

Reposting this from the Worldbuilding forum, mostly because its more of a question of plot and characters than setting, and the Worldbuilding forum is all kinds of not getting any reply posts.

I've been wanting to write a Wuxia genre tale for some time now, and I think I have a decent setting and characters, but absolutely no idea where to take the plot. To sum it up, I have the following characters so far:

• Our hero, the son of a thunder deity (Susano-o in all but name, if you are fans of Japanese mythology) and a celestial handmaiden. The pregnancy involved a drunken tryst, and was embarrassing for both parties involved, so they gave the kid away to the only monk left on Earth that actually worships the thunder deity (he's kind of unpopular, what with the bad combination of being a deity of thunder and spirits, he tends to get drunk and strike random victims with his lightning, then regret it in the morning). The monk tried to raise the boy in austerity, but being the son of a drunken thunder god, the boy rebels and runs away from home to find adventure. Also, the thunder deity decided to give the boy a magical bronze sword that manifests itself whenever the kid is in trouble, which I was thinking of playing for laughs (think back to those awkward teen years when your "sword" seemed to have a mind of its own).
• A forest goblin that takes the form of some sort of cute fuzzy beast (think My Neighbor Totoro), but is a lewd Dirty Old Man that thinks he is a gift from heaven to all women (species doesn't matter to this guy). Decides to make the hero his "disciple" after the hero saves him from a wild pack of demons. Encourages the hero to get into trouble, and is the first to put all the blame on our blameless hero when things go south. Terrible at actual fighting, but he will bravely run away when danger nears (then brag about how helpful he was after the dust settles). Also is a Henpecked Husband - his main motivation for seeing the world is to escape his duties at home.
• A cute villager girl. At first I wanted the main love interest to be another supernatural creature (I was going to base her off of the legend of the girl in the bamboo originally, which if you aren't familiar with the tale would make her an alien from the Moon who was found living inside a stalk of bamboo by an elderly lumberjack and raised as his own daughter) but I think I like the idea of putting a normal human amongst all these wierdos and having her be the voice of reason would be fun. I'd love to know what you all think, though - do I go with the bamboo girl from the Moon idea after all, or just make her a normal girl amongst the wierdos?
• Now, I'm not sure if I should stick with these three for the main characters, or add on two more for a Five-Man Band?

So far as setting goes, I've got some fun ideas so far. I mean, there's plenty of interesting potential here - in addition to the expected rice paddies and mountain forests, our cast could end up in the depths of volcanoes and under the sea, or even back up in the Celestial Realm where the young hero meets with his parents. There's also a few scenes that I'd really like to include, like the protagonist and friends spending a night in a castle haunted by giant spiders, and a moment of silliness involving a hot spring resort and forest goblin shenanigans.

The problem, of course, is even though I have a few scenes planned out, I have no idea how to tie them all together, or even what the characters' motivations are outside of See The World. Any help is appreciated!

edited 31st Oct '11 10:24:23 AM by MyGodItsFullofStars

Put in both :P

When you're trying to find a plot, usually, you find a person that opposes your protagonists for some reason. This conflict will vary depending on how epic you want this to be.

The fun is figuring that out yourself :D

edited 31st Oct '11 10:31:00 AM by SnowyFoxes

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

So you think I should use Villain Drives The Story instead of just having them wander around defeating weekly monsters?

edited 31st Oct '11 10:37:49 AM by MyGodItsFullofStars

I will quote Lois McMaster Bujold on how to find a plot for character-centered novels: Ask yourself "What's the worst thing I could do to this person?", then do it.

edited 31st Oct '11 10:39:48 AM by alethiophile

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

That would probably be to attack his friends. Hey...that's not such a bad idea...

^^^ You don't have to. If it's a webcomic or something episodic in nature, Monster of the Week could work fine. If it's something like a novel, finding a villain is the quickest way to get a workable plot.

edited 31st Oct '11 10:55:21 AM by SnowyFoxes

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

There's always the evil twin scenario. Susano-o has one bastard running around, why not two or seventeen? Each one has a power like the protagonist's but different enough to keep things interesting. Perhaps the thunder god has made it known that he will recognize/reward one of these children, but that one child has to prove him/herself worthy by killing off all the others ... which makes his life a little easier.

For a political angle, there might be someone trying to establish a new thunder-god church. He tries to make it palatable to the average person by subverting the message (where have we seen that before?) or exploits the natural fear of thunderstorms. He may even have some kind of electrical ability or artifact.

Under World. It rocks!

While this sounds like a pretty slick idea, my original goal was to make this a bit more light-hearted and fun - its something I want my brother's kids to read and enjoy once they get old enough. What you are suggesting amounts to an epic clash between good and evil, possibly even going into Lord Of The Rings territory with the two thunder brothers forming armies and trying to battle each other over the throne of heaven - perhaps the Susano-o deity falls into a drunken stupor for a thousand years or is killed off in some way, and the remaining pantheon decides to split off into factions and battle each other for supremacy.

Not a bad idea for a Time Skip plot, in which the characters are a bit older and the violence is more acceptable, and I already was considering giving the character a brother for a rival if I decide to expand to a Five-Man Band cast (possibly involving the storm deity coupling with a volcano ogre god, for a good fire vs. thunder theme), though I was kind of hoping for something a bit like James And The Giant Peach for round one of this series.

edited 31st Oct '11 1:39:17 PM by MyGodItsFullofStars

Well, the evil twin thing wouldn't have to go all epic like that. I was actually thinking more along the lines of Highlander. Every so often the hero gets ambushed by a half-brother who acts like a drunken frat boy. He may meet another half-brother who is using his power to rule a small fiefdom. These encounters could point out the choices the hero might have made or could still make. That "There can be only one" part is optional.

Under World. It rocks!

The village girl should be human - surprisingly, it makes the cast more diverse.

I love Japanese mythology and culture, so I use a lot of it in my own work. It just so happens that Susano-O is my fav deity.

Here's a possible villain-driven plot: what if Ninigi-no-Mikoto (by another name) was hunting your young demi-god? Why? Maybe he never forgave the thunder god for insulting his mother. Maybe he's just a mean-spirited jerk who has decided to pick on your thunder-god-kid.

Level 3 Social Justice Necromancer. Chaotic Good.

What if the hero's motivation is trying to locate his father? Maybe there is some special ritual for summoning the thunder deity that would require the hero to travel around, or maybe he's attempting to actually get to the realm that his father inhabits.

I think the girl would be more interesting if you went with the whole 'moon child' angle. The voice-of-reason-girl-character is a bit overdone, anyway. A supernatural background would help make her more distinctive, as she seems to be the least fleshed out of all the characters. Have you considered what her motivation is for traveling with them?

I was thinking I might go with him wanting to beat his father up and take his place as Dragon-King of Heaven.

As for the bamboo girl, I'm thinking that she could be in engaged to some jerk through an arranged marriage. Said jerk turns out to be orochi, the eight-headed and eight-tailed serpent, in disguise, and he basically intimidated bamboo girl's parents into the whole thing by threatening violence (bamboo girl did the whole "I'll do anything, just leave them alone..." thing). Not sure what orochi's plans behind this are yet, though. Maybe bamboo girl could be a princess of the Moon and orochi knows this and wants the Moon kingdom for himself, but bamboo girl is unawares?

I'm also thinking that this group could use a foil to the main character of some kind - I was thinking of a samurai character who swears he will vanquish the "evil thunder demon" protagonist but first wants to just follow him around because he realizes he can't outright slay the main character at his current level of swordmanship.

This sounds like a perfect set up for a Coming of Age Story. Typically these sorts of stories do involve reconnecting with the father, as well. Sounds like a worthy goal.

If you do do something Coming of Age Story-ish then you'll need to know: What are my characters faults and childish actions/feelings/views? Coming out of this story how should they have changed to be more 'adult'? What would make this character change that way?

Say if they always lie, then having a lie backfire on them out of control and put someone they care for in danger, as well as having them have to tell the truth somewhere in order to fix things. That sort of thing.

I don't think you should try to be too epic here (honestly, I think Epics are highly overrated anyway), have a much smaller scale villain, if you even have one, like a villainous daimyo, or bandit gang or evil spirit tormenting a town. Basically a town-sized threat.

edited 8th Nov '11 11:55:20 PM by NoirGrimoir

SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)

Why would a Tennyo not want to have a babby?

Teens dress as Batman to catch pedophiles; cops not impressed

Because she is in service to the expy for Amaterasu, and Amaterasu is pissed off at her brother Susanoo for a variety of reasons (he ended up getting drunk and doing something unspeakable to Amaterasu's prized horse, amongst other various misdeeds that have accumulated over time to the point of utter contempt between the siblings). So getting one of her handmaidens knocked up would be bad for Susanoo as it would piss off the sun goddess even more, and would be bad for the handmaiden because hey, she is sleeping with the enemy.

I'd suggest coming up with a villain who would have intentions on interrupting the character's journey. Like someone said earlier, find the worst thing you could do to your character, then do it. Typically I create a goal for my protagonist(s), and from there, develop a villain that would purposefully get in their way, using means that are symbolic for both parties.

Monster of the Week is more of an episodic thing. It could potentially work for a novel, but if there's nothing in the plot that acts as an adhesive for it all, it can come off as sloppy or pointless. Tie things together - why is the monster here? why is it attacking the protagonists? what do the protagonists need to do and why is it urgent they take care of it? Those sort of questions can really string together a good plot, especially when you take the time to connect the dots of story points you have planned.

I'm pretty sure the concept of Law having limits was a translation error. -Wanderlustwarrior