Rheotaxis is a Weiss Kreuz divergent AU-- divergent in that I'm ignoring the drama CDs, Gluhen, and Side B and that I've introduced an alien invasion. It currently stands at 190000 words and 23 chapters. It's dark, containing explicit rape and Stockholm syndrome.
I've been trying to get chapter 24 to work for over a year, and I'm really stuck. The previous 23 chapters have been fairly tightly focused in terms of location. I've given information about the alien empire that's preparing to invade Earth, but it's been background information, bits and pieces. I've been focusing heavily on what's going on with the canonical characters, and most of them simply don't have access to much information. They're prisoners and only learning slowly about the big picture. The story's not really about the invasion or the aliens.
The problem with chapter 24 is that one of the point of view characters (an eighteen year old villain) has been summoned to the aliens' home world for a few days of training. He will, eventually, be quite powerful in the alien hierarchy, and they want him to make social connections and learn how their laws work and all of that.
I don't feel like I can handwave this stuff even though it has little obvious bearing on the main story. This character's development is critical to how the story is going to come out, and this is an opportunity to throw him out of his comfort zone. That's important because he's happy with the status quo even though he's doing terrible things to one of the heroes. He thinks he's in love with that character and is willing to accept Stockholm syndrome in lieu of being loved in return.
I also feel that this chapter needs to be there to pay off all of what I've put in about the aliens previously. Readers are likely to want to know more about the aliens; at least, I assume so. The invasion kind of looms over the story in as much as it dictates a lot of the characters' options.
Unfortunately, this chapter has to be full of original characters, and I don't really see how to properly make it have bearing on the rest of the story.
A fair percentage of the aliens are, for all practical purposes, human. I haven't explained why that's the case (though I do have ideas. They're just not relevant to the rest of the story). Travel between worlds and between certain locations on a given world is pretty much instantaneous. A lot of the aliens have psychic powers (the villains, in canon, have psychic powers), and strong psychic powers tend to translate into rank and power.
no subject
I've been trying to get chapter 24 to work for over a year, and I'm really stuck. The previous 23 chapters have been fairly tightly focused in terms of location. I've given information about the alien empire that's preparing to invade Earth, but it's been background information, bits and pieces. I've been focusing heavily on what's going on with the canonical characters, and most of them simply don't have access to much information. They're prisoners and only learning slowly about the big picture. The story's not really about the invasion or the aliens.
The problem with chapter 24 is that one of the point of view characters (an eighteen year old villain) has been summoned to the aliens' home world for a few days of training. He will, eventually, be quite powerful in the alien hierarchy, and they want him to make social connections and learn how their laws work and all of that.
I don't feel like I can handwave this stuff even though it has little obvious bearing on the main story. This character's development is critical to how the story is going to come out, and this is an opportunity to throw him out of his comfort zone. That's important because he's happy with the status quo even though he's doing terrible things to one of the heroes. He thinks he's in love with that character and is willing to accept Stockholm syndrome in lieu of being loved in return.
I also feel that this chapter needs to be there to pay off all of what I've put in about the aliens previously. Readers are likely to want to know more about the aliens; at least, I assume so. The invasion kind of looms over the story in as much as it dictates a lot of the characters' options.
Unfortunately, this chapter has to be full of original characters, and I don't really see how to properly make it have bearing on the rest of the story.
A fair percentage of the aliens are, for all practical purposes, human. I haven't explained why that's the case (though I do have ideas. They're just not relevant to the rest of the story). Travel between worlds and between certain locations on a given world is pretty much instantaneous. A lot of the aliens have psychic powers (the villains, in canon, have psychic powers), and strong psychic powers tend to translate into rank and power.