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| Ann VanderMeer |
DONALD MAASS WRITE TIP #94
Pick an ally of your MC. What’s their shared
history? What’s their unshakable trust? Shatter it
“No
one wins when two countries convince themselves they’re right.” she said, but
even to her the words sounded limp.
Guido
glared at a point over her head, it seemed he could not bear to bring her face
into focus. “I never thought about nations, I thought about you and me–and did
whatever it took to keep us alive.”
“I
know, and you did.” Heels off the polish marble floor, Perry tried to stand as
tall as she could. She’d never felt so far below him.
With
a gasp, Guido doubled over. “So many battles. Scything through fields of men.
Wading in their blood.” Guido cried anguished. “All for nothing?”
“No.
The power is new.” She shook her head, fervently. Her stomach churned. How
could she convince him that her abilities had manifested late? That no
allegiance that had ever been important to her could have made her turn them on
him? “This – it’s all new. That’s the truth—”
“Lies.
It was all lies.”
Perry
reached out a hand towards him. If only she could return to the moment on the
castle wall. Instead of looking to find that dormant ability, if she’d just
thrown herself under downward arc of the sword, sacrifice herself to save him,
was snuffed out before the talen changed her green eyes to this unnatural
violet, then, she would have died loved. “But, it came out all right. Neither
of us were hurt.”
Guido
pulled his shoulders back. In that moment, he became something more than human
too. He became royal: regal and removed. “At least, stab wounds have a chance
to heal–betrayal can’t.”
Does you MC have an ally? What could make the trust between them shatter?
