: Re: What makes a siege story/plot interesting? I will have to write a story arc where the main characters will be trapped in a town during a siege. What are the key points I should address /

@Sue2132873

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Unless there are reinforcements en route, the besieged town may already have lost.

They are surrounded, running low on the essentials. Water might be tainted.

Their fields and herds are feeding the army, the townspeople lacking the time to prepare.

Smaller than a city, it is less likely to have multiple wells within its walls, so water is at a premium.

The characters could wonder if this rebellion is worth the suffering caused by this siege. Might they be able to negotiate fair terms of surrender? If their presence is the only reason the town is besieged, those rioting townsfolk might be coming after them. Divide and conquer might be happening to them.

Will the lives lost should no surrender be possible be worth it? Would they be willing to potentially give their lives to save those of the citizens?

What has the enemy commander been ordered to do? How much leeway will he have? Must the town be razed for having harboured these rebels?

Their hope might be in the overstretched supply lines of the encamped army, but they have few advantages, few options.

Choose if your town will be destroyed, if a massacre will occur and what, if anything, your MCs can do to help. If they are bystanders or lower ranked members of the resistance and potentially unknown to the authorities, they can try and blend in with the civilian population and hope not to be discovered or betrayed.

Perhaps the siege makes them question their methods if not their cause. Les Miserables has the barricade - a handful of idealistic rebels trying to improve the world by defying France and dying. They make their stand and do not leave, though they do wonder if it is worth it all.

Perhaps they disagree

Standing in the bell tower, he watched the unchanging scene. The rich
farmlands, covered by the encamped army led by Demarque. Completely
surrounded. The cries of the hungry, frightened children barely
reached him.

“Low on water, low on food. We cut the rations again - three ounces of
food per adult. People are dying because of us.”

“No, because of them. We did not do this. Those deaths are not ours to
prevent. The King’s army is killing his people. We need to stop them.”

“No, we need to stop this, prevent the next child from dying. They
don’t see the starvation. We do.”

“They know what is happening here and they allow it. Each death is on
Demarque, not on us. We will be remembered, that is our victory and
their defeat.”

“Remembered? How? By whom?”

“
Dismissed.”

His lieutenant lingered before leaving,had a point, but regrets would
do no good. The cause mattered, these deaths could not be in vain.

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