marycatelli | Entries tagged with set-up

Introduce him, introduce her, show off that --

She's too important a character to just fade into the woodwork. Even if she is shy, the heroine will be determined that she has a good time at the school.

And the other villain of the piece should make an appearance too, even if he can be downplayed later.

Foreshadowing, I suppose. And there should be some day-to-day school stuff between the highlights

Was plugging along on the first draft, and realized that it might be more interesting with another character, the daughter of one I had in the outline. Breezily wrote pages with her --

And realized that she doesn't work. The hero has to be opposed by someone whose expectation is unreasonable, and so the daughter has to go.

I glowered and grumbled, and poked it to figure out where to set up the no-longer-a-mother do what was needed. I realized that after what happened to the hero's mother, I could set up a kind-and-unkind-girls tale.

Which relief lasted until I sat down and had to write it. I still needed to plot out three scenes and put them in.

Ah, well, at least the vague outlines have formed.

So, starting a story. Noticing I was using the past perfect, which is not a good sign.

Considered putting in an earlier scene. Then I realized that I could put what I thought of as an earlier scene after my original start. That scene could be compressed down to a few sentences AND used to give the main character an excuse to escape from it.

Befores and afters are sometimes complicated

A character is sitting about when she realizes two others are gone in a way that makes it clear they may be up to something.

The first thing to do is depict her sitting about, so her situation is clear, and them too, so her motive is.

This is less fun than it may sound.

Hmmm -- if you can use magic drawing on death to do any sort of spellwork -- does that mean that necromancers can devise spells that other wizards can use?

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There's a subtle problem with striking and unusual settings, especially in fantastic worlds.

You can plant a Chekhov's gun there without realizing it. Indeed, you can plant a whole armory of them.

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Am I dithering too much in the opening?

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Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1306388.html

I have two story ideas hanging in inspiration, for the want of an incident that is essential to later developments. Both of them require that a child be punished at the say-so of another child, who is actually the guilty party.

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Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/952592.html

So we have these stained glass windows.

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Pondering a story, I realized I could move the inciting incident much earlier than I had thought.

But not to the beginning. There was still some set up needed.

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So their studies begin. And I conclude the best way to do drama is to steal from my computer science course. . . .

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My heroine needs some advice. Fortunately, I have it to hand, having read it a while back, not in the original Spanish Renaissance advice book, but quoted in a book about that era: a young woman who has fallen in love with an unsuitable young man and wants to fall out of love should engage in reading and horseback riding to occupy herself with other things, and if she does happen to think of him, to dwell on his faults.

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When writing a scene it has to have some purpose. Ideally, it should have several -- never make it do one thing when it can do two, never make it do two when it can do three, never make it do five or six.

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Revising though a story at a canter is wise. Because it makes you wonder, sometimes, what you were thinking.

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One of the first things we learn about people in different countries and eras is that they dress funny. It can be a quick way to set the scene and establish that Thing Are Different Here. It can establish social statues, and relative social statuses, quickly. It even means the character is carrying around something that could be useful -- like the classic "hat on a stick" ploy to draw out gunfire. However. . .

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I was pondering a point in a moderately recent Girl Genius comic where Gil is addressed as "Your Highness" -- revealing things about his mother's side he had not known.

But what I was thinking was that he had to be merely a prince for that.

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I have the hero, I have the heroine, I know where they're going, how they will meet, what happens after. . . .

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Some forms of set-up are easier than others. The heroine uses this bit of magic or that for minor things, and so you know, when we reach the climax, that she can unleash it on a grand scale. That's because it doesn't affect the plot.

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From the Readercon blurb:

Mark Twain instructed other writers that "the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable." This rule can be generalized: the more favorable to the characters an unexpected plot turn is, the better it needs to be set up (see the end of James Morrow's Only Begotten Daughter). But what about eucatastrophe, where the power of a happy ending comes from its unexpectedness? Is the eucatastrophe in fact a form of plausible miracle where the plausibility derives not from things the author has put in the text, but from beliefs the reader already had, perhaps without knowing it? Or is there another explanation?

I think this one gets the ten-foot pole, too. (poke, poke, poke)

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part of

bittercon

When the outline is skipping merrily along, characters are prone to reveal unexpected traits. The intended source of reliable information lies flat on the page, so with a tweak, he lies through his teeth to the hero, and that revives him to even overabundant life. What's really annoying is when you thought you had come to the climax, and a character does that. Or even in the denouement.

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Mary Catelli's Erraticly Updated and Exceedingly Ill-Organized Journal

being chiefly about the written word

Entries tagged with set-up

this will be important later

muddling through the draft

beginnings and middles

times passes

not a necromancer

the virtues of cliches in settings

dithering and openings

injustice needed

runs backward and forth

bridging conflict

hello, world!

advice

shadows and stuff

timing is everything

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.

entitlement

getting them together

story set-up

Plausible Miracles and Eucatastrophe

annoyances in outlining