Do my hero’s actions need to work in the real world?

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While I did a little work on “Bright Freedom” this week, I put more of my time into my “The Disruptors” story. I wanted to come up with some ideas for how they do their disrupting. I wondered if I need their techniques to work in the real world.

“Bright Freedom”

Over the last few years I came up with a variety of ideas for my “Bright Freedom” rewrite. This week I started to go through those notes and transfer them to my chapter files. I got about half of that done. Some of my chapters have a lot of notes, while one chapter is now so short I will need to come up with more material, or incorporate it into another chapter.

“The Disruptors”

In my previous post about “The Disruptors” I said my goal was to have my protagonists use non-violent means to persuade the terrorists to also use non-violence. (see: https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/team-non-violence-versus-team-violence/)

The problem I ran into right away, was that I really didn’t know what kind of techniques they could use to accomplish that. This week I came up with some ideas, then did a little research on the internet to find what kind of techniques could be used.

Most of what I found so far is related to how advertising works. While not quite what I had in mind, I think I can draw on some of those methods. It has already given me a few ideas for plot elements. The outline of a story has started to form in my mind.

A question that came into my mind is “Do I need to have techniques that would actually work?” My first impression was that I do need to have the characters do things that would work. On further reflection, what I need is plausible ways the heroes can succeed. I can’t have them do something like hit the bad guys with a magic wand and have that work. Their techniques need to sound like they might work.

In many stories where the hero uses violence, much of the violence is very unrealistic. Violence isn’t as effective in the real world as it is in action movies. I’ve read many reviews that point out this problem with action movies; like the revolver that can shoot 100 bullets before the hero needs to reload. This hasn’t affected the popularity of these movies.

I believe that the important thing is to have the tools my heroes use work in the story. They need to have the dramatic effect that the story needs. A long wordy debate might be the most effective way to change a person’s mind in the real world, but in an “action” story, it would be a bore. What I need to keep in mind is that I want to create a story that entertains, not a thesis on how to persuade people to change their minds.

2 Comments

  1. James
    Re: Disruptors
    The Disruptors could/can do anything you want with nothing or everything.
    Who would have believed a man could fly?…(Super…)
    A spider could bite a man…(Spider…)
    Corpse(s) would make a multi-million profit.(Anything Dead…)
    Nothing is outside of the possible….unless…. you think it is.
    If you think it won’t work…..then it won’t.
    You have to think it will.
    If You think it won’t work…..then why would I want to invest if you the writer thinks i won’t?
    Love Ya
    Keith.
    (Always Think Happy Thoughts)

    • Thanks. I appreciate your support.

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