Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29891
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29891
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

One way to think of plotting is in terms of desire and accidents. The point of a story is (usually) to bring one or more characters to the point where they must face a defining moral choice. What drives them towards that point is desire. What boxes them into a situation where they have to make that choice (since they will otherwise try to avoid it) is accidents. You have reasonable freedom to invent any accidents you need to box your characters in, but you have to be true to their desire.

If you want them to act in a particular way at a particular time, therefore, you have to invent an accident or accidents that force them to choose between that action and the loss of their desire.

For one character to betray another, therefore, you need the following conditions:

1. A must have a desire.

2. B must know what A's desire is.

3. B must also have a desire.

4. An accident must put B in a position where they must either give up their desire or pursue their desire in a way that prevents A from attaining their desire. 

In many cases, A does not know what B's desire is, and so does not know that their friend in tempted to betray them.

If your issue is that you do not know how B can betray A, then it may be that A has no desire, B has no desire, B does not know of A's desire, or you cannot contrive a plausible accident that would force B to choose between A's desire and their own.

Of course, B's desire may simply be to frustrate A's desire as revenge for a past wrong, in which case B does not need an accident to force him to betray A (or rather, the past wrong is the accident that forces him).

Original score: 5