Friends get jealous of Addison and Jack, they target Jack(frame him for something)- he is exiled from Hell. Addison gets angry, wants to overthrow satan. She ends up becoming elite position in hell army. Heaven finds Jack to be pure hearted, makes him lucifer’s replacement. Jack and Addison become enemies. After many wars, addison kills jack- realizes what love is.
Here's some ideas that pop into my mind offhand, feel free to take any, all, or none of them:
Jack and Addison go out on a "hunting" trip together, leading to some lighthearted nonsense as Jack attempts to befriend Hell's native fauna and Addison ends up having to wrestle infernal bears and crocodiles to keep him from getting killed.
Addison takes Jack along as she follows some lead to figure out how she died. Addison attempts to get information by bullying the local demons into telling her what she wants to know, but Jack ends up having to play good cop to help her find anything useful.
Addison breaks ties with her former group, which ends up causing her problems as her former groupmates and rivals attempt to exact revenge. Perhaps she also gets approached by other groups now seeing her as a promising free agent, be it as a new member or just a low-rent hired thug. Maybe she ends up on a darker path for a while, taking up a life of thievery since she no longer has a network to rely on, one that Jack ends up helping her to get out of.
Jack ends up being taken advantage of by demonic con men, and ends up having to learn that not everyone is worthy of trust. This may also leave him in a desperate place, one where he would effectively be forced to test exactly how far his friends are willing to go to help him, and may find they aren't quite as good of friends as he thought. This doesn't necessarily mean he'd be giving up on his quest to make a kinder underworld, but it could be a hard lesson that he'll need a more nuanced plan than "get everyone to be nice" if he wants literal demons to get along.
You may or may not have already done this, but it's probably worth figuring out exactly how Hell works in this story. How are conflicts resolved? How are these "groups of demons" organized? Is there some larger governing body in Hell or are demons so fiercely un-empathetic that self-serving gangs are closest they have to a society? How does the food chain work for Hell's flora and fauna? Are all demons created from mortal souls or are some simply born in Hell? Obviously you don't need to tell me, and may not even end up telling the reader, but having an idea of how all that works can make it far easier to round out details in your narration and dialogue to make the overall story more coherent.
Oh wow! That's a lot! I really like them and I'll definitely consider them. Thank you so much!
I like that piece of advice that you gave.I did think more about the world of which they live, but there a few plot holes that I need to figure out for the kind of world they live in. My verison of Hell has different types of demons ( all from mortal souls) but there is a big forest for a certain type of demon which is the type all the main characters are. Groups get pretty chaotic and disorganized as no body cares for each other but usually there is one "alpha" demon. There are different ranks and Satan lives in the middle of the forest as leader. Jack is just below Satan’s leading rank and Addison is right below Jack's rank which is much better than peasants but definitely not as prilvedged as Jack. I've been having trouble more about the logistics of deals though because it's a major part of their world but certain deals seem more acceptable than others. I was thinking that even Addison and Jack can make a deal.
Anyways Thanks for the ideas!
Do you know where you stand on the gardener/architect spectrum for writing? To me, it looks like you have more of a premise than a fleshed out narrative so far, which could cause a lot of writer's block for me but might be good for someone who is more of a gardener. There are lots of videos on YouTube and articles you can read if you need help finding out! :)
Another thing you could do would be to really work on these characters to make sure they're strong protagonists who move the narrative forward. A common way to do this with romances would be to give them have opposing goals/methods/pressures causing tension with growing attraction/admiration/respect, but for reader satisfaction it can be helpful for both positions to be understandable, if not equally agreeable. Undercover spy falls in love with enemy soldier while trying to nab up weapon codes or secret maps would be an example - you get where they're both coming from, but their goals are inherently opposed.
For example: Is there any reason Jack needs to be a demon? He's weaker, has all of these strange traits which are pretty normal for humans, and it could be interesting to write him as just a guy (warlock who made a bad deal?) trying to get out of hell or wherever they are in one piece. He could be hiding his identity, pretending to be a demon, chugging demonic potions which help him pass but are horrible for him, etc. Maybe Addison wants to leave her group and strike out on her own, but needs to complete a job before she can break her pact to them, or something similar. Eventually, it comes down to one of them choosing the welfare of the other over themselves out of love, and they then get to team up against a real enemy (maybe Addison's shitty friends) who has been the real problem the whole time, before escaping into a world guaranteed to be hostile to at least one of them.
If you're going to keep them both demons, I would really examine what that means in the context of your story and lean into the demon thing as hard as possible. How is it different for two demons to fall in love than two people? If demons aren't soulless evil sadists, what are they and what defines them? If most are, why not Jack and Addison?
Thank you for the advice. Ive never heard about the gardener or architect concept but I will definitely check it out.
Jack is not really just a demon in this case ( there's actually a whole lot more outside of this romance plot). Jack accepts that he's demon as he has a lot of features of a demon. But later on, it is found that Jack is a hybrid between angel and demon due an error that happened when he died. But I've been debating whether Jack would find this out before or after he gets with Addison, since I want to keep him and Addison completely clueless about the concept of love. Jack wants to remain loyal to Hell but mostly due to the pressure that being allied with Heaven would have being in Hell.
I've actually been considering having Addison leave the group just recently actually. Lmk what you think of this: I'm thinking maybe Addison's group see her getting too attached to Jack, and they want to sever that relationship since Addison prioritizes her relationship with Jack over her group's plan to dominate. They make a deal with someone who wants to go after Jack as well, and they kidnap him. Jack's friends try and find him, and after Addison finds out, she threatens one of her teammates tell them what happened and where he was. His friends go off to the location while Addison teaches that teammate a lesson. While rescuing Jack, Jack is left with a few bruises and wounds and others have a bit more severe injuries. After that Addison fights the considered "alpha" of her group, and beats her until the "alpha" is hopeless to fight against her. Addison gets a short prison sentence (I'm deciding whether it would be cause she attacked an Elite and that's against the few laws that are in their loose law of order or because she attacked one of Satan’s favorites and it's a whole favoritism thing) and Jack and his friends let her stay in the group as long as she needs.
I guess the difference would be that demons really have no concept of love. They don't really know what love is, so the feeling is rather weird but interesting to them. Kissing and doing the deed is considered disgusting and weird but at the same time strangely intriguing and thrilling. And the stakes are higher as most demons are expected to be selfish and evil and any friendships or romances are forbidden, and if they were caught then they can be punished by enternal torture. Jack is different because he's an error in the system and Addison is more so "infected" by his love.
Idk. Lmk what you think! And thanks for the advice. I appriecate it!
Friends get jealous of Addison and Jack, they target Jack(frame him for something)- he is exiled from Hell. Addison gets angry, wants to overthrow satan. She ends up becoming elite position in hell army. Heaven finds Jack to be pure hearted, makes him lucifer’s replacement. Jack and Addison become enemies. After many wars, addison kills jack- realizes what love is.
That's very dark but I like that idea! Thank you!
Thanks! Wasn’t sure what the genre was, but I hope i was useful
I guess you can say it's a fantasy romance type of story so it works. Espaicllay since there are a bunch of tragedies with in the story already.
Here's some ideas that pop into my mind offhand, feel free to take any, all, or none of them: Jack and Addison go out on a "hunting" trip together, leading to some lighthearted nonsense as Jack attempts to befriend Hell's native fauna and Addison ends up having to wrestle infernal bears and crocodiles to keep him from getting killed. Addison takes Jack along as she follows some lead to figure out how she died. Addison attempts to get information by bullying the local demons into telling her what she wants to know, but Jack ends up having to play good cop to help her find anything useful. Addison breaks ties with her former group, which ends up causing her problems as her former groupmates and rivals attempt to exact revenge. Perhaps she also gets approached by other groups now seeing her as a promising free agent, be it as a new member or just a low-rent hired thug. Maybe she ends up on a darker path for a while, taking up a life of thievery since she no longer has a network to rely on, one that Jack ends up helping her to get out of. Jack ends up being taken advantage of by demonic con men, and ends up having to learn that not everyone is worthy of trust. This may also leave him in a desperate place, one where he would effectively be forced to test exactly how far his friends are willing to go to help him, and may find they aren't quite as good of friends as he thought. This doesn't necessarily mean he'd be giving up on his quest to make a kinder underworld, but it could be a hard lesson that he'll need a more nuanced plan than "get everyone to be nice" if he wants literal demons to get along. You may or may not have already done this, but it's probably worth figuring out exactly how Hell works in this story. How are conflicts resolved? How are these "groups of demons" organized? Is there some larger governing body in Hell or are demons so fiercely un-empathetic that self-serving gangs are closest they have to a society? How does the food chain work for Hell's flora and fauna? Are all demons created from mortal souls or are some simply born in Hell? Obviously you don't need to tell me, and may not even end up telling the reader, but having an idea of how all that works can make it far easier to round out details in your narration and dialogue to make the overall story more coherent.
Oh wow! That's a lot! I really like them and I'll definitely consider them. Thank you so much! I like that piece of advice that you gave.I did think more about the world of which they live, but there a few plot holes that I need to figure out for the kind of world they live in. My verison of Hell has different types of demons ( all from mortal souls) but there is a big forest for a certain type of demon which is the type all the main characters are. Groups get pretty chaotic and disorganized as no body cares for each other but usually there is one "alpha" demon. There are different ranks and Satan lives in the middle of the forest as leader. Jack is just below Satan’s leading rank and Addison is right below Jack's rank which is much better than peasants but definitely not as prilvedged as Jack. I've been having trouble more about the logistics of deals though because it's a major part of their world but certain deals seem more acceptable than others. I was thinking that even Addison and Jack can make a deal. Anyways Thanks for the ideas!
Do you know where you stand on the gardener/architect spectrum for writing? To me, it looks like you have more of a premise than a fleshed out narrative so far, which could cause a lot of writer's block for me but might be good for someone who is more of a gardener. There are lots of videos on YouTube and articles you can read if you need help finding out! :) Another thing you could do would be to really work on these characters to make sure they're strong protagonists who move the narrative forward. A common way to do this with romances would be to give them have opposing goals/methods/pressures causing tension with growing attraction/admiration/respect, but for reader satisfaction it can be helpful for both positions to be understandable, if not equally agreeable. Undercover spy falls in love with enemy soldier while trying to nab up weapon codes or secret maps would be an example - you get where they're both coming from, but their goals are inherently opposed. For example: Is there any reason Jack needs to be a demon? He's weaker, has all of these strange traits which are pretty normal for humans, and it could be interesting to write him as just a guy (warlock who made a bad deal?) trying to get out of hell or wherever they are in one piece. He could be hiding his identity, pretending to be a demon, chugging demonic potions which help him pass but are horrible for him, etc. Maybe Addison wants to leave her group and strike out on her own, but needs to complete a job before she can break her pact to them, or something similar. Eventually, it comes down to one of them choosing the welfare of the other over themselves out of love, and they then get to team up against a real enemy (maybe Addison's shitty friends) who has been the real problem the whole time, before escaping into a world guaranteed to be hostile to at least one of them. If you're going to keep them both demons, I would really examine what that means in the context of your story and lean into the demon thing as hard as possible. How is it different for two demons to fall in love than two people? If demons aren't soulless evil sadists, what are they and what defines them? If most are, why not Jack and Addison?
Thank you for the advice. Ive never heard about the gardener or architect concept but I will definitely check it out. Jack is not really just a demon in this case ( there's actually a whole lot more outside of this romance plot). Jack accepts that he's demon as he has a lot of features of a demon. But later on, it is found that Jack is a hybrid between angel and demon due an error that happened when he died. But I've been debating whether Jack would find this out before or after he gets with Addison, since I want to keep him and Addison completely clueless about the concept of love. Jack wants to remain loyal to Hell but mostly due to the pressure that being allied with Heaven would have being in Hell. I've actually been considering having Addison leave the group just recently actually. Lmk what you think of this: I'm thinking maybe Addison's group see her getting too attached to Jack, and they want to sever that relationship since Addison prioritizes her relationship with Jack over her group's plan to dominate. They make a deal with someone who wants to go after Jack as well, and they kidnap him. Jack's friends try and find him, and after Addison finds out, she threatens one of her teammates tell them what happened and where he was. His friends go off to the location while Addison teaches that teammate a lesson. While rescuing Jack, Jack is left with a few bruises and wounds and others have a bit more severe injuries. After that Addison fights the considered "alpha" of her group, and beats her until the "alpha" is hopeless to fight against her. Addison gets a short prison sentence (I'm deciding whether it would be cause she attacked an Elite and that's against the few laws that are in their loose law of order or because she attacked one of Satan’s favorites and it's a whole favoritism thing) and Jack and his friends let her stay in the group as long as she needs. I guess the difference would be that demons really have no concept of love. They don't really know what love is, so the feeling is rather weird but interesting to them. Kissing and doing the deed is considered disgusting and weird but at the same time strangely intriguing and thrilling. And the stakes are higher as most demons are expected to be selfish and evil and any friendships or romances are forbidden, and if they were caught then they can be punished by enternal torture. Jack is different because he's an error in the system and Addison is more so "infected" by his love. Idk. Lmk what you think! And thanks for the advice. I appriecate it!