/lit/ - Literature

>>9178033
You know I like your point, I actually recently had a sort of plot-element idea that I really reaally reaaaaaaaaaaaally liked and lusted after so hard to put into something, but came up empty and saved it for later

I absolutely fucking loooooooooooooooooove The Count of Monte Cristo, absolutely makes me rock hard everytime I see it on my shelf, I've given away so many damn copies of that sexy as hell Barnes and Noble leatherbound classic version (golf leafed and everything, its so sexy I can't believe it exists, sometimes I wake up at night and look at the shelf to make sure its real)

Ahem, anyway....I love the idea of a character going into some kind of longterm prison that changes them. When they come out, they are like a stranger in a strange land. Someone who just doesn't belong somewhat, but when people who know who they are see them, they shit their pants, "Oh my god, you are still alive?! This can't be! You're dead!"

There'd have to be some major rewrites to those around the protagonist, and I'd have to decide just how long of an imprisonment, and I'd have to explain how to keep the character from aging those years, and other minor details

But again, this would still make things difficult, as the information about how they got into their situation would still not be transferred.

If we put it into terms of the Count of Monte Cristo...

My problem is everything before Dantes goes to Chateau D'Iif needs to be explained without it occuring in act1, because in order to get the reader into the speed of the real plot faster, they need to skip to him as he makes his escape in act2, and what exactly happened in act1 needs to be presented some other way

But doing it this way removes the sympathy and less we'd feel for Dantes when he sees the people he used to know, and how much it hurts him to see his fiance' and his former best friend