Help with something in my story?

Question

There are two groups, one with the main characters, and one with the bad guys. The bad group obviously wants the main group dead. I was wondering how I could keep the main group alive for a long time (this is a series, and although the bad guys are going to kill a few of the good guys, they can't kill all of them). I mean, in most series, the only reason why so many main characters manage to stay alive is because things aren't too realistic. Bad guys dont react in realistic, smart ways. Take Harry potter for example. If voldemort really wanted Harry dead, why didn't he just get someone like Draco Malfoy to kill him duing shool? Better yet, why didn't he just kill him himself at the graveyard in the fourth book? (that seems like something a desperate villain would do, but he messed everything up for some stupid speech). It's these kind of things I want to avoid. I want to use crafty methods for keeping the characters alive without resorting to these types of illogical situations. These bad guys are supposed to be smart. There needs to be something in their way that prevents them from killing the good guy group, because otherwise they would be smart enough to do it in the first chapter

Sorry if this question is confusing. Thanks

Answer 1

Maybe you could make it a pursuit of sorts? Instead of having the villain sit around and wait to be defeated, make 'em go out to kill the main group. The main characters would have no choice but to fight or flee. They could travel across the land, settling down to rest in places the bad guys would never look, and during these brief respites some sort of plot or character development could occur. Then the villains catch wind of them and the chase continues. Over time, the heroes get tired of running and start planning to defeat the villain once and for all.

It'd be a bit of a suspense story, and it would avoid the whole "why doesn't he just shoot him" conundrum by saying "because he can't find him."

But that's just my idea. ^.^;

Answer 2

I like the whole pursuit idea, how the bad guys are in teams that are meant to track the good guys. The good guys then have to constantly move and cant stay in one place for to long. Throught you book you could have many scene in which they are found and are forced to fight. They could also make friends along the way and have them make decoys. Like I remember in the movie race to whitch mountain they are running from the government and they are in a taxi, and they talk to this guy yadayada and then the police turn up and it shows the taxi they have been driving in racing through the streets etc. and it eventually gets cornered by the police and they wind down the window and its the guy they talked to and then it changes to show that they got away in his van.

Answer 3

I'm an aspiring author and editor. However, I find editing my own work difficult. I would be more than willing to return the favour of editing to anyone else as well. My e-mail address is: [e-mail]



Thanks :D

Answer 4

Sniper, laughing gas,