Writing Challenge Tuesday: Shall We Play a Game?

This will likely be my most complicated challenge yet, because the concept of it requires a lot of research and planning to execute. Maybe this doesn’t even count as a writing challenge so much as a thought exercise, but I figured people would enjoy it all the same.

One of the common tropes in nerdy fiction is the idea of a game. A villain requires the protagonist to play their game to survive, or to get back something they lost. The problem with the game trope is that if your character’s motivation isn’t sufficient to really satisfy the story, the game falls flat and your audience asks why they played along. You see the game trope in a lot of serial killer stories, in nemesis/villain plots, and the like. I even explored it with one of my villains, though I was sort of bemused to have the villain subvert it later and sell out any interest in being an enemy in favor of something else they wanted.

(And as you might guess from the pun in the title, the plot of the next Faust book -- A Plain-Dealing Villain -- is all about games of the literal and figurative variety.)

So for this writing challenge, or thought exercise, I invite you to dig into a character and determine what would motivate them to truly give in to a game. What is worth enough to them to step to someone else’s dance and risk their lives for a nemesis’ amusement? Someone’s life? A huge Macguffin? Their reputation? A family member, lover, friend? For me, I found it most important to understand what was at stake to motivate Faust in that situation.

Then, what’s the game? Is it a multistep Saw-like process with ridiculous traps? Is it a series of tasks the protagonist has to do for the villain’s edification (and to further his goals?) What would a nemesis require of your main character, and how far could your protagonist be pushed given the circumstance?

See you on Thursday for a new author spotlight!