In my story, the protagonist waits twenty+ years to do something. I can't think of something good that justifies this, and I come to you for help.
A comet might make an appearance 20 years from now, and it spikes earth's gravitational field allowing new research to be conducted..
A novel chemical, like wine, takes twenty years to cure/mature and become usable.. which is what the protagonist needs to stop
Or alternatively, can you think of a pre-planned crime which was planned decades in advance? Any book/movie/story on this?
Can you help me out /lit/? Looking for ideas/pointers that can get me moving.
Being imprisoned, you faggot.
>>7748504
Its not like that. The subplot is of a character who seems innocuous and unremarkable in his regular job, but over the decades he had been planning to commit that one crime. He waited a precise number of years for a certain reason, I need to invent that reason.
Prison would be forced, and he can't plan in prison anyway without resources and all.
You will not find a better answer than revenge
>>7748517
Have you seen Se7en? The crimes had to have been planned years in advance. Most of them anyway ;)
>>7748744
>why would I wait for revenge?
I haven't read it, but doesn't Count of Monte Cristo do this? Waiting years for revenge?
>>7748744
if you're in prison, you wouldn't have a choice.
>>7748744
The Cask of Amontillado
Yeah. Revenge. He waits to corrupt, defile and dispose of his enemy's daughter
He has a large amount of money held in trust from an inheritance which he'll gain control of in 20 years. He needs this money to carry out his plan.
"The Bet" by Anton Chekov.
Rich banker bets a 25-year old he can't spend 20 years in total isolation. The young man goes for it. 20 years later the banker is near-bankrupt. Can't afford to pay the debt amount, so he plans to kill the young just a day before he would be released.
Turns out that self-imprisoned young guy had been reading philosophical/religious cool aid and got convinced that money aint about it at all. He releases himself a couple of hours before the scheduled end of the debt and relieves the banker of his burden.
Not exactly what you're looking for, but its a ten minute read available online.
>>7748971
This was a Twilight Zone episode iirc, except the ending wasn't as happy.
>>7748490
Rum takes 23 years to properly mature, make it a guy who knows where some is being stored and he hatches the plan to steal it on maturity. His plot, which takes 20 years to plan, buy all the gear for and execute is destroyed by some pesky kids who are investigating a local ghost.
>>7748984
Wasn't this a Scooby Doo episode?
>>7748989
Are you implying that Scooby Doo episodes aren't the apex of the Western canon? Fucking pleb.
>>7748977
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_%28The_Twilight_Zone%29
Holy shit. I would kill the man. Then my wife. Then every man she slept with. Then everyone else in that shitty club who allowed this stupidity. Then myself for being so fucking stupid.
>>7748944
Very nice.
>>7748490
>>7748744
You should ask /lit/ about long-term revenge rather than give such a convoluted condition.
One that I can remember is John Grisham's Last Juror.
Wasn't The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo about something similar as well? A CEO's niece was killed in the 60s and he doesn't think till the 2000's to get investigators on her case. Don't remember much though.
>>7748490
THE TUNNEL
took a bit over two decades
>>7749013
I've certainly learned more from Scooby Doo than I ever will from here.
>>7749078
/lit/ always says start with the Greeks, but they don't know that the Greeks started with the myths and legends of Scooberticus the Solver.
Didn't they read the chapter in Plato's Republic about how a true philosopher must attain the perfect balance between zoinks and jinkies?
>>7748490
If you can't even think of why he should wait then why wouldn't he just do it now?
>>7749102
The main plot takes place over twenty years. This character's subplot requires him to do something at the end of twenty something years, the genesis of which happened twenty years ago.
It cannot be prison like Count of Monte Cristo or The Last Juror, as the character was a functioning member of society and contributes here and there to the main plot over the course of time.
It can be strategic, long-term revenge. Or something relating to statute of limitations which can be 15-20 years. Or as >>7748944 gave the idea, money that is time-locked in a trust for decades. Or something, still searching for ideas.
>>7749156
But if he has no reason to wait 20 years then why doesn't he just do it right away?
>>7749156
>tfw this guy is going to resort to deus ex machina for a subplot HE created instead of modifying the subplot
>>7749170
Is this where I admit I've written myself into a corner and I'm trying to wriggle out of it?
>>7749179
Isn't that a great part of the fun? We all know of normal/regular stories of revenge - you get hit and you hit back immediately, almost instinctively. But how awesome a story would it be to have a twenty-year long strategically planned out revenge that plays out to the t? The few and far (and some excellent) examples anons have posted testify to how rare and awesome these stories are.
The protagonist finds out that he has gotten his lady (or a lady) pregnant.
He fulfils his responsibilities as a father, raising his child until it reaches twenty, postponing his crime of revenge until the child is of age and self sufficient so that the blowback does not affect his development, security or lifestyle.
Bonus: The revenge he is planning to take is against the mother of the child, who he pretends to love or be cordial with until he hits back in cold vengeance upon the maturity of their offspring.
>>7749345
Are you a psychopath? You sure think like one. This is brilliantly dark. Worthy of its own novel.
>>7749362
No I'm a actually extremely empathetic.
But thank you. :)
>>7749345
that's stupid he should just kill the kid to hurt the mother fuck waiting 20 years, plus there's no need to worry about it's development if he's in 6 pieces
>>7749392
But he is a regular man who loves the child. He wants to fulfil his duties as a father, and does.
In my version he is essentially an emotionally normal, functioning guy, only enacting this revenge because he was wronged so severely by the mother.
>>7749392
Maybe he doesn't hurt the kid because: a) he doesn't hurt kids, b) it is his child as well. Ofcourse, details would be needed to make it believable - why does he wait all this time? If I were a psychopath who has some code of not hurting kids, then I would kill the mother when he is young and doesn't even get to know her. It would hurt the kid much more to grow up with loving parents and have one of them killed.
But there could be something like wife's ex-husband bequeathed all wealth to child, held in a trust until the child graduates from college.
Or something, I'm only thinking aloud here.
Another idea could be someone goes to a mission to Pluto or something. That roundtrip should take 20 years, and you can't do jack shit while your victim is in space.
>>7749404
He doesn't kill the mother before the baby is cognizant, because of the chance of him going to prison after committing the revenge. He wants to raise the child himself to ensure it is raised well.
