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    Some Plotting Help

    So, as the title suggests, I need some plotting help. I don't know the direction to take the next ep of my story.

    To make a long story short, a potential conspiracy was discovered by the main character but she is assured by her boss that the conspiracy is minor. She accepts this answer. Fast forward and she finds evidence that one of their allies may have betrayed them but they don't know for sure. She suspects this has something to do with the conspiracy and ep ends with her holding her boss at gunpoint demanding answers.

    And then I don't know where to take it next. The original draft of my next story has the first act with her boss explaining the conspiracy to her in the hopes of having her join them, the second act have her boss send her on a mission against a very particular enemy, and the third act being her returning and agreeing to be a part of the conspiracy after being scared by her encounter. But I feel this plot feels disjointed.

    So, I don't know. What do you guys think? Where can I take this?

    sigpic
    Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
    https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5580179/StargateMillennium


    #2
    Maybe pull a James Bond? Unexpected allies of her boss subdue her, tie her to a chair next to a sulfuric acid barrel, then the boss explains his nefarious plan and the heroine agrees to help in hopes to learn how to better thwart 'em all. Except it turns out the other side is worse? P-}

    It would depend on what your "theme" is. Alien invasion? Corporate corruption? Cold War? Evil hypnotists? Time travel? Awesome new technologies? Vampire masquerade?

    Comment


      #3
      Theme is something along the lines of political disagreements and the characters are pawns of the conflict happening.

      Also the boss is amoral rather than immoral. He's not the deadly trap type. In the original draft when he tells the character about the conspiracy, she is not tied up, a gun is left on the table in front of her, and he has his back towards her.

      Also, Nova agrees because she feels the conspiracy has a point. That she ends up somewhat agreeing with it.

      sigpic
      Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
      https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5580179/StargateMillennium

      Comment


        #4
        Ok, I actually do need help plotting this out. Maybe more details will help.

        Backstory
        Spoiler:

        In an expedition to another galaxy, Nova (the main character) discovers what seems to be a conspiracy perpetuated by the IOA and the Tok'ra. Mercer (the expedition leader) assures her that the conspiracy is minor and harmless, just an attempt to try to recreate teams that are similar to SG-1 but obey orders


        Current story
        Spoiler:

        The expedition gets a new ship, the FF 305. But it runs into some trouble. Nova's team investigates and her tech officer says that the ship is infested with a Tok'ra virus. Nova keeps this a secret from her team since it seems to be a dicey situation but she suspects this has something to do with the conspiracy. Ep ends with her holding a gun to Mercer and demanding answers


        And then I'm out. I have an initial plot for where to go next but it feels disjointed. I need a plot that would explain the conspiracy in full and having Nova at the end agree to join in on the conspiracy because she becomes convinced of their ideals.

        sigpic
        Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
        https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5580179/StargateMillennium

        Comment


          #5
          Well. It is your fan fiction and your fantasy, so it is a bit hard to help.

          It looks like the Tok'Ra became hostile. Great.

          1. They could plot against the NID on Earth, who still doesn't trust any Goa'uld, so the NID are planning to eridicate them with nerve gas again from an off-world base. So the Tok'ra build an energy shield / fail safe mechanism on their stargate that if an unknow travel arrives then the gate memory should jump to an other stargate. And this one would be a catastrophical move as instead of the Tok'ra, an innocent Jaffa world would be killed and everybody would blame Earth again.

          2. Some part of the Rebel Jaffa would like to return the service of the Goa'uld, so a new Queen could rise easily. The Loyal Jaffas can have long life and a better immune system, so it causes some tension between them. The new Goa'uld Queen could spawn such larva Juniors, who are actively poision the mind of the Jaffas, so they will really obedient to her. Obviously the Tok'Ra wouldn't accept a new rising Goa'uld dynasty, so they decide to take actions and to get ride of them.

          3. The Lucian Alliance plans to use a biological weapon on Earth after their unsuccessful attack in Washington. They plan to poision our bees with a kassa field grown on Earth, so the new team must find evidence to stop our annihilation.

          4. The classic conspiracy would be that the HomeWorld Security is being compromised by aliens. You can choose whichever you like. Even the Mimikri aliens could return and General Telford (he was promoted) could be in great trouble.

          5. There would be a new alien threat in the galaxy. It looks like they are responsible for the swarming bugs (from Bane), which infected an other planet when some Tok'Ra / Jaffa / SGC team was infected.

          6. The evil Vanirs return on Asgard Protected Planets and they try act like Asgards. Only to find out that they want our Asgard database for their own evil plans. Or they could make an alliance with the Lucian alliance who started to plunder the earlier Protected Planets for technology.

          7. Or a new gate protocoll could spread in the galaxy, which inhibits the travel for humans. It looks like some evil genius has overwritten the gate protocoll and he or she added a race specific component, which make the traveller save in the gate system, but then it would send it back to the original destination. Unfortunalety it would cost a life of an Atlantis / SGC team as they would be sent back and killed via the Iris / energy shield. Or the story could be developed that the Atlantis gate has priority over the MW gates as it is more upgraded), so we would be the only one who could still travel and find out who started this madness in the first place. So your new X305 ship could take the Atlantis stargate with themself on the ship...

          Or something similar. These ones were just quick improvisations, which could happen in a new SG spinoff. Secret groups can have some many motivations. Just plan ahead how to build the story : how they started to make bad things, how the good guys find it out and how this threat can be stopped with logical steps and with the current technological knowledge.
          "I was hoping for another day. Looks like we just got a whole lot more than that. Let's not waste it."

          "Never underestimate your audience. They're generally sensitive, intelligent people who respond positively to quality entertainment."

          "Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all."

          Comment


            #6
            I actually have the conspiracy made.

            Earth's allies have become wary of earth's new found power. So they've enacted a series of preventative measures that can be used at a moment's notice. This includes viruses on Earth's ships that can shut them down with the press of a button (the one on the 305 wasn't supposed to go off). The Tok'ra are the current face of this since they are the experts in covert ops but almost all of Earth's alien allies are in on this. The IOA's agreed to this because while they want earth to succeed, they have similar fears of the SGC and felt that they and the alien allies have enough fears in common to work together.

            My struggle with the plotting is where to take it with a story around this. I need to have it begin with Nova learning all this and adamantly refusing to have any part in this and ending with Nova sincerely agreeing to help. An alternative is to have Nova learn all this slowly over the course of the story.


            The initial plot I came up with had Mercer reveal the conspiracy in the first act, in the second act intentionally send her and her team into a conflict with the first fifth race, who is responsible for mass genocide across the galaxy, and in the third act she would return and agree to help because she becomes convinced because of her innate fears. But this plot feels disjointed. Too many ideas shoved into one thing with no real focus.

            sigpic
            Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
            https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5580179/StargateMillennium

            Comment


              #7
              See? You don't need any help. Just let the story tell itself and you can focus on the next story arc in the next chapter. But this is really your SG "reality", so you have to know what dangers and political situation is lurking in your new galaxy and how these effects your characters and the future of Earth. Even tech related discoveries or character moments can move forward the story or affect each other like in a triangle.
              "I was hoping for another day. Looks like we just got a whole lot more than that. Let's not waste it."

              "Never underestimate your audience. They're generally sensitive, intelligent people who respond positively to quality entertainment."

              "Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all."

              Comment


                #8
                But the plot I came up with is disjointed and lacks focus. It has one act focusing on the conspiracy, then two acts focusing on a different conflict before turning around and focusing on the conspiracy again.

                sigpic
                Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
                https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5580179/StargateMillennium

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by StargateMillennium View Post
                  But the plot I came up with is disjointed and lacks focus. It has one act focusing on the conspiracy, then two acts focusing on a different conflict before turning around and focusing on the conspiracy again.
                  Have both of them as parts of a bigger whole, maybe?

                  Also, how do I make a spoiler tag?
                  Price for Pain What do you mean violence isn't the answer?

                  Burn It All Away Blood moves the heavens. Fire purifies the land. Legends change worlds. Destiny burns.

                  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Fiat justitia et pereat mundus. Fiat justitia ruat caelum.



                  All are PG-13, each with a single act of rated R violence. Adults situations and other, tamer violence.

                  Ficta voluptatis causa sint proxima veris


                  I'm creating a fan comic and I want input from as many fans as possible. Please PM me if you want the discord link. You can also chat, show off your own creations, and rp.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by WraithRichard View Post
                    Have both of them as parts of a bigger whole, maybe?

                    Also, how do I make a spoiler tag?
                    Well, both of them are part of the bigger whole. They both focus on the fear and question of unchecked power even in a force that is good as well as growing tensions between earth and its allies. But I've been teasing at the conspiracy for a while so having the story just drop everything to go on a mission seems like a bad payoff.


                    Also, the tags are
                    [ spoiler ]

                    [ /spoiler ]

                    Just remove the spaces.

                    sigpic
                    Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
                    https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5580179/StargateMillennium

                    Comment


                      #11
                      A) thanks for the spoiler thingy.

                      B) Make it look like a drop-off, but have something in the chapter(s) add to the bigger plot. JLU is a great example of this where even the silliest episodes contributed to the bigger picture. Also, y'know, stargate did it too.

                      C) Yes, I know I did this backwards
                      Price for Pain What do you mean violence isn't the answer?

                      Burn It All Away Blood moves the heavens. Fire purifies the land. Legends change worlds. Destiny burns.

                      Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Fiat justitia et pereat mundus. Fiat justitia ruat caelum.



                      All are PG-13, each with a single act of rated R violence. Adults situations and other, tamer violence.

                      Ficta voluptatis causa sint proxima veris


                      I'm creating a fan comic and I want input from as many fans as possible. Please PM me if you want the discord link. You can also chat, show off your own creations, and rp.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by StargateMillennium View Post
                        I actually have the conspiracy made.

                        Earth's allies have become wary of earth's new found power. So they've enacted a series of preventative measures that can be used at a moment's notice. This includes viruses on Earth's ships that can shut them down with the press of a button (the one on the 305 wasn't supposed to go off). The Tok'ra are the current face of this since they are the experts in covert ops but almost all of Earth's alien allies are in on this. The IOA's agreed to this because while they want earth to succeed, they have similar fears of the SGC and felt that they and the alien allies have enough fears in common to work together.
                        I was initially going to ask "Why would I.O.A. agree to sabotaging Earth's own space-fleet?" but thinking about it some more, I realized this is not as strange as it would first appear. By this time Stargate Command had several instances of high-ranking officers, including at least one ship commander, becoming compromised by hostile alien forces (examples of this include Col. Telford & the L.A., Col. Caldwell and the Goa'uld, Sam Carter and Jolinar/the Entity, the whole "Hathor incident", and so forth). Furthermore, you have a history of soldiers & operatives on Stargate-related assignments going rogue (e.g.: Cap. Jonas Hanson, Lt. Ford, N.I.D. agents forming the Trust, etc). As implied in the episode "Full Alert", in the event of hostilities even a single early-model Earth-built ship like the Prometheus & its beaming technology could be a seriously out-of-context problem for a nuclear-armed power. Plus the various ships in the Tau'ri space-navy are all equipped with powerful atomic weapons to fight against opponents with energy shields.

                        Given all of the above, it starts to make sense why the I.O.A. might like to have a secret "kill switch" on Earth's vessels in case a ship's crew becomes compromised or the Captain starts thinking he is actually General Ripper protecting Americans' "precious bodily fluids".

                        It might also explain why the I.O.A./S.G.C. decided to keep Athena around -- she was part of Ba'al's/the Goa'uld-controlled Trust's plan to infiltrate the highest echelons of power on Earth, so she might have some insider practical knowledge on how to prevent future infiltration.

                        Originally posted by StargateMillennium View Post
                        My struggle with the plotting is where to take it with a story around this. I need to have it begin with Nova learning all this and adamantly refusing to have any part in this and ending with Nova sincerely agreeing to help. An alternative is to have Nova learn all this slowly over the course of the story.


                        The initial plot I came up with had Mercer reveal the conspiracy in the first act, in the second act intentionally send her and her team into a conflict with the first fifth race, who is responsible for mass genocide across the galaxy, and in the third act she would return and agree to help because she becomes convinced because of her innate fears. But this plot feels disjointed. Too many ideas shoved into one thing with no real focus.
                        Hm, I see your dilemma. My first thought for solving it is "what if you do a classic Stargate parallel universe/alternative timeline "episode" & have Nova end up in an AU where, say, no one was able to figure out Col. Caldwell was a Goa'uld and he destroyed Atlantis/subjugated Earth/is now head of the Millennium Expedition or something?" but that feels exceedingly lazy & hamfisted.

                        I'll see if anything else comes to mind later.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Stargate has made it's own side story that only in the end or background had importance to the overall plot. Plus, in Heroes and Sunday, it was all slice of life and comedy until the Big Horrible Event happened.
                          Price for Pain What do you mean violence isn't the answer?

                          Burn It All Away Blood moves the heavens. Fire purifies the land. Legends change worlds. Destiny burns.

                          Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Fiat justitia et pereat mundus. Fiat justitia ruat caelum.



                          All are PG-13, each with a single act of rated R violence. Adults situations and other, tamer violence.

                          Ficta voluptatis causa sint proxima veris


                          I'm creating a fan comic and I want input from as many fans as possible. Please PM me if you want the discord link. You can also chat, show off your own creations, and rp.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Hey, what is a good way for a not tech guy to discover a conspiracy and not have the conspirators seem utterly incompetent? Or can I get away with not revealing how said not tech guy found out? Or would that seem like a cheap cop out?

                            sigpic
                            Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
                            https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5580179/StargateMillennium

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by StargateMillennium View Post
                              Hey, what is a good way for a not tech guy to discover a conspiracy and not have the conspirators seem utterly incompetent? Or can I get away with not revealing how said not tech guy found out? Or would that seem like a cheap cop out?
                              Hmmmm. Depends what you mean by "not tech guy." I'm guessing you just mean someone who isn't like a hacker who found out about a conspiracy that way or saw some weird online stuff while doing a hackity hack?
                              If it were me I guess the easiest thing would just be the idea of luck and happenstance. Your guy is there when one of the conspirators is being all conspiracy and the conspirator tells him something that just by dumb luck your guys knows not to be true. Like:
                              "I have orders from General Whoseawhatsit to pick up the prisoner."
                              Lieutenant "Not a tech guy" Johnson looked over the papers the shady man gave him and saw everything was in order.
                              'Strange' he thought, as he handed the papers back. 'General Whoseawhatsit' said he was going to be in Washington DC this week.'

                              And then just go on from there letting that little niggle or nugget of information grow and force your guy to realise something more is afoot. Never underestimate the ability for a regular Joe to notice something iffy in a job they do repteatetively day in day out.
                              Please do me a huge favour and help me be with the love of my life.

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