fun all the way

[marycatelli]

There are some writers who write excellent first halves of books.

The problem is that they throw all this wonderful, whimsical stuff in the first half, and then in the second, they have to resolve the plot, so they stop throwing wonderful, whimsical stuff at you and so the story stops being fun.

The real problem is, you really do have to reach some kind of resolution so merely going on throwing stuff about doesn't fulfill the purposes of the story.  It can be hard to juggle an interesting setting and the plot -- but I've noticed the problem seems the worst in books that stay in one place.  Much maligned though the quest is, it, or any kind of journey, gives your characters excuse to keep on moving to new neat stuff while you are pulling together the plot.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I think in many ways quest novels are easier to write than stationary ones - you can dial up or down the events more easily to fit the required tension, and you do have the pretty background with interesting and exciting stuff free of charge.

Even in a city, I've found it useful to look for intersting locations. Instead of taking tea in the sitting room (which we've seen before) they have a tea party in the grounds. Two characters who want to talk to each other might do it over a meal (sitting out on a terrace with city views) or going for a ride or visiting a local landmark, or going fishing in a small boat, or...

White room syndrome is the enemy, at least mine.

[marycatelli]

Definitely one of the enemies.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

This is so true, though I notice it more in TV shows than in novels. I'm an ancient, so I recall when Twin Peaks was on TV. More and more strange and odd stuff kept appearing ... and there was no way it could all be interestingly resolved... and it wasn't. I got the same impression from X-Files and the new BSG, though I never saw the ends of either, so can't really judge.

At a circus, it's enough if you have the jugglers juggle more and more cool things, in more and more outrageous situations. But in a *story*, you want all those items to make sense, to be part of the design, and for the resolution to be as cool as the premise promises.

[marycatelli]

Ah, there we get into another distinction: there are weird and wonderful things that have to be resolved, and ones that don't.

True, only a few should be for local color, but sometimes it's enough for them to just affect the plot and characters, even in a trivial matter. Let's suppose you send some characters through the Deep Dark Woods in the springtime. And you plop down some ruby-red violets growing there. You can have them do nothing more than creep out the characters with the knowledge that Strange and Peculiar Things grow in the woods. They do not, as such, have to be resolved.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's true: some details just add atmosphere; not everything contributes directly to plot development.

[marycatelli]

And you can contribute to plot development without having a need to be accounted for. Like Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. When Alice is in the shop, the shop-keeper sells her the egg that turns into Humpty-Dumpty, but she doesn't appear again.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I would go as far as to say that if you resolve everything, you'll become predictable and boring.

Good books have plenty of ambiguity. At least IMNSHO. I want to be surprised by the story, I want the protagonist to have several equally valid choices (so that the one he takes means something - 'save the world or watch all your friends die isn't a choice. It's boring, however danger-loaded it might be). I want to _not_ be able to predict which briefly introduced minor character will prove important later on, which of the several options proves to be the bad guy etc etc.

[marycatelli]

OTOH, you don't want the readers dissatisfied with what you did with the red herrings, and you probably do want to reveal the bad guy at the climax.

Still, you can leave some things hanging to the end and beyond. You don't even have to conclusively settle whether, say, the ring really is a wishing ring, or whether the mumbling old man really is a wizard, an angel, or a cursed survivor of a cataclysm. Works best when it's not the focus of the plot.