wanna make the innocent looking sis a bad guy

[Preacher]

Let's say there are sisters, call em Jennifer and Marci. They look quite alike but aren't twins. Jennifer disappeared for say 30 days, she shows up and follows a guy and eventually tells him that his missing sibling is alive and needs his help. Jennifer then commits suicide. As the guy starts investigating the claim Jennifer made, he is met by Marci, who says she want in on the investigation, wants to find out what happened to make Jennifer commit suicide. Marci moves along in the investigation, even gets beat up for her troubles as a way to try and scare her and the guy away from further investigation. Is there any scenario you guys can create where somehow Marci is a bad guy in this, maybe even part of the whole thing going on? That is kind of the twist i am looking for but i can not seem to find a plausible way to make her a part of the problem, even as far as possibly already knowing what happened to Jennifer and, by extension, knowingn what happened to the guy's sibling and where said sibling is.

[Quill]

I recommend long walks and entering a meditative state during them, for hatching and working through plot points. It pays to develop one's writerly muscles in what ever way works. Good luck!

[polymath]

Good and bad, good and evil in human terms for literature purposes occurs along an axis of self-serving and self-sacrificing motivations and agendas. The more self-serving a villain is the more bad or evil. The more self-sacrificing, the more noble. To a point. A purely evil villain is as problematic and incredible as a purely good hero. Even a depraved, self-serving villain believes in the rightness of his or her cause and the self-sacrificing nobleness of pursuing it.

One notable difference between a villain and a nemesis is how a nemesis can be as noble and as flawed as a hero, but from the hero's perspective the nemesis is demonized for competing with the hero for the same goal.

Give bad sister self-serving motivations and agendas and stakes for her failure and complications opposing her goal that are context appropriate for the circumstances and accessible for the audience niche.

[Mira]

Interesting question and plot.....One thing - sometimes when I have trouble with a plot. and I let it rest for awhile (sometimes quite awhile, even years), it eventually comes to me.

For now, I think one way to think about a plot is to start with questions:

What does Marci want? (like Polymath said) Is it money? Power? Self-esteem? Revenge? A love partner? Something else?
Did Jennifer really commit suicide? If so, why? If not, who killed her? Did Marci? The lost sibling? This guy?
Are people who they say they are? Is Marci - Marci? Or is she someone else? Same for Jennifer, etc. Same for this guy.

This is a complex plot - I might let it simmer for awhile. I do think you can pull off that twist though! And it could be very fun!

Good luck -

[MAP]

There is a million ways to do this, and Mira asks a lot of great questions. I think it boils down to who took the MC's sibling and why. Then you can figure out why Marci would help the villian, if she is even Marci.

Good luck with this. It sounds like an interesting story.