lightning round plot revisions

[dragonlady7]

[added]since this began i've added more stuff. See your votes at work in the Plot Summary![/added]

For anyone who hasn't figured that out yet, I've been working on a novel.
i've been blogging that in its own tidy, neatly separated place, and I have to say, I've impressively received not one comment, not even from the comment spammers that dave is valiantly battling on this blog. So yes, I know, nobody cares that I'm writing a novel, but I'm involving people in it anyway.
How?
By instant-messaging people who I think might care (but not deeply), with rapid-fire, context-free questions.

me: Think fast: once the Scheming Villain is eliminated, should Big Badass Evil Bad Guy be killed by the hero in single combat, or is that too cheesy?

This is having mixed results. Corey gave me a plot summary of Angel in which some guy mad for vengeance kidnaps Angel's son and raises him in an alternate dimension and I think there's someone faking his own death and there's delayed vengeance and it's pretty baroque and probably not something I want to model my story after. (Without visuals, such stories are impossible to sit through.)
But I've had some pretty good advice, as well.

I would here like to say that this novel is nowhere near as cheesy as my context-free plot nuggets and Capitalized Generic Names are making it sound.

Anybody else care to cast any votes on the following topics? I'm not making a poll for three reasons-- I'm not a paid member, I want non-lj people to be able to vote (since this is crossposted to movabletype...), and I'd rather have comments than just yes/no votes. I'll have lower participation, though. Oh well. C'est la internette.

So, if anyone cares, I'm asking for feedback on the following topics:

1.) Sinister, Plotting Villian's plots must be foiled. Once that has happened, should he
a) be slain by the hero, who he done wrong
b) be slain by the heroine, who he done really wrong
c) escape to gnaw the ends of old plots and perhaps cause small mischief later (not that i'm stealing that)
d) take his own life
e) be slain by the until-now totally spineless king he misled?

2.) Big Bad Guy (who sinister, plotting villain was working for, sort of) wanted to kinda conquer the world, and must be prevented from doing so.
a) the hero slays him in single combat
b) the heroine slays him in single combat, sick to death of the hero getting the shit kicked out of him as he does repeatedly throughout the book
c) his generals stage a coup and assassinate him
d) a secondary character, who has opposed him for a long time, slays him in single combat
e) he dies in a battle melee at the hands of any of the above (please, specify which)...

3.) The hero is exiled from his kingdom and his cousin takes the throne. At the end, the hero comes back and is redeemed.
a) his cousin gives him back the throne and there are no more plot twists
b) his cousin refuses to give him back the throne and there's additional angst

3A.) if b), the fact that the cousin has possession of the hero's infant son then becomes important and possibly melodramatic.
a) yes, it does, doesn't it.
b) no, that's just cheesy. leave the stupid baby out of this and just finish the book already.

You see how this is getting? I've been working on this in near-complete isolation for so long that I'm getting really eccentric.
But other than that, the plot is tightened up a lot and is going really well. it's just that I've never quite had an ending, so I don't really know how to revise what I never finished in the first place.

If anyone wants to help me out in alpha and beta reading, please do let me know. Poor Ann can't do it all; she's at midsemester and actually has work. but I'm going nutz in my isolation chamber here and am reaching a point where i nearly have things ready for feedback-- nay, where I am in dire need of feedback for the things I have nearly ready.

Added: If you leave a comment, please indicate whether you want me to keep you posted on the novel. Like, next time I post questions, should I email you and let you know? Or should I not bother you?

Comments

this is from kat

[(Anonymous)]

1.) Sinister, Plotting Villian's plots must be foiled. Once that has happened, should he

d) take his own life
e) be slain by the until-now totally spineless king he misled?

I'm torn between the two. E is too much like Tolkien, as well aspossibly unrealistic because the king has no spine. D would be more enjoyable, but why would he kill himself? Perhaps...to avoid something the hero is just about to do to him, like torture him for information? Alas, that will make him somewhat noble (dying the protect someone else's secrets).


2.) Big Bad Guy (who sinister, plotting villain was working for, sort of) wanted to kinda conquer the world, and must be prevented from doing so.
c) his generals stage a coup and assassinate him
d) a secondary character, who has opposed him for a long time, slays him in single combat
Again, torn. If the king kills the villian, the generals should not kill the big bad guy, as that would be too repitive. But if the villian kills himself, then having the big bad guy who the villian has just died to protect being killed by other henchmen is a nice twist.
I don't know anything about Mr. Secondary Character, but I like to cheer on the underdog, so it might be nice for Mr. Unappreciated or Unnoticed to get in the final blow.
Possibly doing it just as Mr. Nice Hero is going to do something stupid, like an evil act (torture?) or a too-good act (jail! exile!). Or maybe he justs darts in to kill him when Mr. Hero is going to do it, thus depriving Hero of the pleasure.

3.) The hero is exiled from his kingdom and his cousin takes the throne. At the end, the hero comes back and is redeemed.
b) his cousin refuses to give him back the throne and there's additional angst
If you were a king, why on earth would you give it back? I'd negotiate: I'm king, but your son will be crown prince, and you can raise him.
But If I wasn't particularly trusting, I'd say, your son will be crown prince, and I will raise him. Go jump off a cliff, Mr. Too-late Cousin.


3A.) if b), the fact that the cousin has possession of the hero's infant son then becomes important and possibly melodramatic.
a) yes, it does, doesn't it.

See above for uses of baby.

:)
P.S. -- Trust me, you don't want to include anything in that season of Angel. It was awful. The only thing worse than it was that season of Buffy.

PPS -- Sure, keep me posted.
Kathleen