I figure I need things to happen to hang the characters off. The first novel was a 6 act structure, with 3 chapters per act. I’m going to stick with that. Way I see it, if people liked the first one, have it meet the same expectations
Act I
Talk to UKU and go to bar
Talk to Fatal and catch a cab
Catch the train and decide to leave to Ukraine
Act II
Go to see wife, get arrested
Break out of prison and end up on a boat, see her fuck your friend
Brief on getting to Kowloon, plan a murder
Act III
Get off boat, get dressed in costume and have second thoughts
The battle with the drones, have a stroke
Save Buck, realize what happened
Act IV
Han finds out about the murder and plans the heist
Find out the war was a lie, Buck forgives him
Discover that Buck his his future while Han hints at betrayal
Act V
Second drone battle, learn the ghost secret
Break into prefab, get taser
Finish heist, save buck, lose the team and go home
Act VI
Sail home, enshitification ensues
Take Nancy on dinner, be a new man, sell the tech
kill a dude, see his changes in the same situation as act 1
Plan is to do the same on the sequel. While I made it about Jake, I have a decision to make. How much of this is continuation vs something new? Jake had his arc. While I can make another, what would I do with that? I’m thinking I make a different character who Jake becomes the Buck to this one. I may have Jake take over near the end, switch the protagonists. I have enough things I can use here:
Bucks kid is a hacker?
Hans adventure in Japan?
Fatal search for revenge?
My first idea is to have it start in the Wireless, during the first wave of Retrovirus deaths. A kid whose parents die and is stuck in the wireless during Jakes Odessa adventure. Ask and answer some questions:
How did they vax and kill so many when the prefab had the vaccine stolen?
How did the wireless go from pristine and woke to enshitification?
What other satirical details do I want to add (mass Indian migration e.g.)
Seems a good start. So i have to develop characters and arcs, but it’s easier when I have the story in place so I can have it serve as the skeleton for the meat of the characters. My first skeleton
Act I
woke parents, rebellious hacker kid inciting incident
first amazon deaths
Kid is orphaned and has to figure out how to survive
Act II
the Scavs invade the wireless
the ghosts create a techno religion among the neurotic survivors
???
Act III
Introduce Jake, cross their paths in new issue surrounding the temple
Kid has to choose between religion and self reliance. some kind of Tyrell corporation thing?
some kind of big conflict, fail for the protagonist?
Act IV
Find out Bucks actual kid and it was step parents ,or a revelation
call back to something form earlier, sorts out the main problem
character development or planning for finale
Act V
connect the temple, ghost cult scavs and Jake into finale
character conclusions
return to the new normal
Act VI
the finished character arc sets up something happening outside of book scope
doing a victory lap, (go on date scene)
have the same intro as in beginning, but new
I’m not getting too attached. on Softbone a lot of my early plans just disappeared as I developed the story, but it gives me a starting point
Then I got to figure out the layers. Last time was man wants freedom, incel+divorced+widow+single mom wanting a family, and communists dystopia arc… I’m thinking to stick with that. something sexual RP, something universal for guys, and something satirical cyberpunk. Will have to play more with this.
6 short stories, 10k a piece. When I put it like that it sounds like a hardcore weeks worth of work. I wonder if it’s best to stick with the 4 main characters, 2 sub characters and no villans’s (man vs self) or add an antagonist. Would be easy to have an Amazon tech, religious zealot. Perhaps the world is the villain, like man vs nature?
Ideally I’d want villain and hero wanting the same thing, but in different ways… may be better just to have 3 characters chasing the same dragon from different angles.
It sucks that my best ideas come as I’m trying to sleep… only 15 minutes to get an epiphany.
