Building a Mystery.

Today's blog entry is brought to you by Sarah McLachlan.  Okay, not really, but it's the most appropriate title, so I might as well pay homage.  :P  Also, many thanks for the encouraging comments on "First and Foremost", the short story/potential prologue I posted last week; if you missed it, you can find part one here and part two here.

This week's entry was inspired by two books.  The first is one I'm no longer reading, because it got something important very wrong.  The second is one I'm currently reading and enjoying, as it got the same important thing very right.

To quote Stephen King, "Good books don't give up all their secrets at once."  I agree with this; if there's no mystery, if there's no wondering about what's going on or what's going to happen, then a huge chunk of the reason to read on is gone.  However, it's possible to go too far in the opposite direction - for the book to hold so tightly to its secrets that it becomes counterproductive to telling the story.

This happened in the first book I mentioned above.  The book was so caught up in building its own mystery, so fraught with bringing up new secrets without actually explaining anything about them, so set on making everything vague and ominous and mysteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerious, that I stopped caring about both the story itself and the people involved.  They all seemed to know what was going on, but they'd be damned if they would say anything about it, aside from talking like they were consulting a pessimist's customized Magic 8-Ball.  I know that having characters explain things to each other isn't always a good thing, especially if the explanation starts with "As you know", but what happens when nobody explains anything?

In my case, what happens is I get tired of the constant mystery with no sign of forthcoming answers, and I close the book and put it up for sale used on Amazon.

If a story brings up questions, it has to provide answers.  Those answers can, and probably should, lead to more questions, but the answers are essential to the story's progress.  Characters need to learn things, so the reader can learn things, so the reader understands and has reason to care about why the questions came about in the first place.  The longer a mystery goes on without any solution, the greater the chances of it being wrapped up neatly in the last five pages, and I just don't think that's any fun.

Fortunately, the book I'm now reading doesn't have the same issue.  I'm learning bits and pieces about the world and its history as I read, which helps me to see why the events that started the book are such a huge problem and never should have happened.  With every explanation I get, I wonder what that answer is going to lead to, and how the characters are going to deal with it.  And that keeps me reading.

Which is, I'm sure we'll all agree, kind of important.

Next week: chaos, panic, and disorder.

First and Foremost, Part 2

We now return you to your regularly scheduled short story.  Part 1 can be found here.

First and Foremost, Part 1

This whole thing started as a way to avoid an infodump.

So, as I've mentioned before, I'm in the plotting stage on a bunch of different potential books.  It's going well, and by "going well", I mean "nothing's crashed and burned to the point that I don't ever want to even think about working on it again."  ^_^  The one plot I have complete and ready to write is a new Shiloh & Alexi story, and that's where this week's entries come from.

The S&A story takes place ten years after the two main characters first meet, and a significant event happens at that first meeting.  For plot reasons, I have to get everything about that important event across in the first chapter, and also, y'know, start the actual story.  I wasn't sure how I could manage this without massive amounts of recap and "as you know" dialogue, and that's neither fun nor interesting.

Then I thought, why not write it as a short story?  Then I could know everything exactly as it happened, and if I wanted, I could use that story as a prologue in the book.  I still haven't decided if I'll do that (need to write the book first), but I think the story turned out well, so I'm sharing it.

Hope you enjoy it.  I will post part two, appropriately enough, on Valentine's Day.

IWSG: When Things Stop Working

No, it's not another post about me failing at something. :P

 I've been working on the metal fantasy plot, but that screeched to a halt this past weekend.  This is nothing new, but I still started to worry.  If I had a room in my apartment for every plot I've had crash and burn, I'd have enough space for an actual library, to say nothing of the guest rooms, home theatre, gaming room, swimming pools, hot tub, gym, walk-through aquarium, and ball pit.

...oh, like you wouldn't have a ball pit.

Yes, my hard drive is littered with the scraps of stories that could have been.  It's nothing new.  But it's more difficult to realize that something isn't working when it's a story I really want to work.  It's also difficult not to panic when it happens.

I think this is something we've all dealt with.  Pantser or plotter or anywhere in between, we all know the unfortunate realization that whatever we're currently working on Does Not Work, and we have to figure out what to do with it.  This is a bit easier when it's a plot instead of a story, as it's easier to shrug off a few dozen pages' worth of work than a few hundred pages' worth, but it amounts to the same thing.

So, what do you do about it?

The first thing I do is figure out what the actual problem is.  I go over the work in my head, and see if I can spot the glaring issue that's keeping me from making progress.  In this case, it's because the plot has no twists.  It's incredibly straightforward - heroes gather, determine what must be done, set forth on their quest, and achieve what they set out to do.  NASCAR races have more turns than this plot, even if those are all to the left.  And that's what got me.

A plot without twists of any kind is, I believe, a boring one.  And if I'm bored by my own plot, it's a damn safe bet that anyone else will be.

Rather than fret about it, I did the sensible thing and set it aside.  I have no shortage of ideas and plots-in-progress, and the work I've done over the past few days on another story has been a great deal of fun.  The story's heart is a race/scavenger hunt between worlds, and the characters have so many other people working against them that I might determine who's coming after them next by rolling dice.  And if it works out, I get to write another interspecies romance, so yay.  ^_^

As for the twist-less story, I'm not worried about it.  I know that at some point, probably when I least expect it, I'll realize what I need to do differently.  Or I'll come back to it, in a week or a month or whatever, reread the plot and see what needs to be changed.  It's happened before, it'll happen again.  (Hell, it might have happened when I was thinking about it while shaving this morning.)

If nothing else, remember this: when things stop working, they'll start again.  Maybe not today, maybe not next week, but someday.  What matters is that you don't let it stop you.

Next week might be something suitable for Valentine's Day, if everything goes well.  Granted, I don't like Valentine's Day, and I've learned not to count on everything going well, so who knows what's going to happen.  :P

Choose This.

So I'm elbow-deep into plotting this book.  I say "elbow-deep" because it's messy, complicated, and I'm sure at some point I'll realize I've severed something vital.  This is the metal fantasy thing I talked about a few entries back, and I think I'm hitting the points I want to with it, at least so far.  I have the first draft of the plot done, and with that behind me, I did some great character work that will also make the plot better when I go over it again.

I've gotten so used to things crashing and burning or just fading away in the early stages, so it's a little weird to actually feel good about a plot again.

However, I'm dealing with a different issue with the main heroine.  The story takes place in a world where just about everyone has draconic ancestry, many generations removed.  (Yes, dragons were made to be able to breed with just about anything, and there are reasons both for why they can and why they did.)  The heroine gets thrown into the whole mess because she's the only one who has the same very rare draconic bloodline as the main villain, and some people believe that makes her the only one who can defeat him.

Which sends me kicking and screaming into The Chosen One territory.

I'd like to state for the record that I'm bloody tired of The Chosen One.  Not only have I seen it too much, I've used it too much.  The first book I ever wrote relied heavily upon destiny to explain why the heroes had their unusual abilities; I had plans to actually explain that away in the second book.  (Looking back on it, I have no idea why I ever thought there would be a second book.)  The rewrite of that story did the same, only with an even larger Chosen Cast.  There's something about someone starting the story with prophecy or something similar on their side that takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.

Though I do wish I hadn't had to write it so much to learn that.

I'm also tired of a similar variant, a hero with an incredibly unique ability that means they're the only one equipped to handle what the story throws at them.  Yes, I did this all over the place in THE ACCIDENTAL WARLOCK, and it wasn't the first time an incarnation of Shiloh filled that role.  But this leads to the same thing - a hero with a much greater chance to succeed not because of their own skill or knowledge, but because of something they were born with.

So, one of the things I'm working on is making sure I avoid these particular tropes.  There are no prophecies in this book - Our Heroes have their own reasons for getting into all this trouble.  Good reasons too, I think, since the villain is not exactly a nice individual.  And while the heroine's bloodline is rare, it's not unique, and its powers don't manifest in the same way as the villain's.  That power, while useful, is also not the key to solving the whole problem - no one person's bloodline is.  It's more about this motley crew coming together to take care of a problem no one else was willing to solve.

While I don't deliberately aim for tropes (okay, most of the time, sometimes it's just too good not to), it seems like The Unchosen One serves much better here.  And I'm good with that.

Let's Get Fictional.

And while we're at it... let's get a bit silly.  ^_^

I found this image quite a while ago, and while I generally think it's hilarious, it gets me thinking: if your life was fiction - if each year of your life was a season of a TV series, for example - what would your fans say about you? What would they discuss, what would they argue about, what would they like the most and what would they think needs to change?  Granted, I know I don't live a life worthy of fictionalization, but let's just say whoever's watching has vastly different standards of entertainment and go from there.

Considering the vast misconceptions I've seen online of how the writing thing actually works, I'm sure my viewers would be ranting regularly about how long it's taking me to make it as a writer.  He started writing books back in season 13, they'd say.  (Some would argue if the stuff I did back in season 7 counted or not.)  But after so long, shouldn't I be rich and famous?  Others would say that I hadn't made it yet because I'm not spending every waking hour writing, and there would be arguments wherein fans linked one of my own blog entries to those people.

It's very odd to think there would be flame wars over my lack of success.  O_o

Some fans would point out that the show's writers had clearly either run out of ideas or gotten into a serious rut, what with me staying in the same place at the same job for eleven seasons.  Others would praise the rotating cast of characters at said job, and talk about the character development I've shown.  This isn't like seasons 18 through 21, they'd say.  Still others would be disappointed at certain characters from work leaving the show, and say that at least the work time was more interesting with them around.  I would agree with them.

In that same vein, I'm sure there would be even more arguments about my moving plans, with some saying the series needed a new direction, and others saying that eleven seasons in the same place was proof that it was working out.  But such a thing would lead to a new supporting cast, which would only give more fuel to... the shippers.

I haven't had anything even remotely resembling a romantic life for a very long time, but I know how shippers work, and I know that nothing stops someone who's dedicated to seeing two characters get together for a happily ever after and/or mad crazy sex.  I tend to get along well with women, which means that I'd be shipped with every woman I've ever known and a few I merely walked next to.  >_<  The smushed-together pairing names would be ridiculous, as would the ship wars between people who wanted to see me with one person or another.

And in every single argument, there'd be that one person saying, "Dude, he treats her like he treats everyone else.  He's not interested in her.  Get over it."  That person would be the only correct one.

To leave this with one final mind screw: I've cosplayed as various characters from a handful of series over the years.  Which means I'm now imagining one of those characters sitting down to watch the series of my life, only to see me putting together a costume and going to a convention... dressed as them.

I can only imagine the look of utter dismay on Snape's face, but I'd like to think Bumi thinks I do him justice.

Getting Personal.

This is mostly supposed to be a writing blog.  (Mostly.)  But I'm working toward 2015 being a year of significant change for me, and I want to talk about that for a bit.  Starting, as it should, with some backstory:

I'm originally from southern California.  I went to college at UC Santa Barbara, met two of my best friends there, and a year after I graduated, I moved with them to Vermont.  Hell of a change, I tell you - living in the state that invented the term "sub-70 weather" for nearly 23 years and then heading to a place with winters that drop past zero?  Actual zero, not just below freezing?  Two years of that was enough, so we packed up and moved to Albuquerque, where I've lived since then.

After nearly ten years here, my friends moved back to CA, the end of a long story that's not mine to tell but only bears telling if alcohol's involved.  I thought about moving with them again, but after taking some time to consider, I decided I didn't want to go back to California.  I then spent the next year hunting for a job where I really want to go:

Seattle.

The astute among you will note that I've said that I'm still in Albuquerque, which gives an indication of how that job hunt has been going.  It's a lot like my search for an agent, I might say.  I think that still being in NM is a disadvantage, though; someone who's hiring wants an employee who can start next week, not next month.  After giving it a year, I decided that was more than enough.

So, I'm moving to Seattle, job or not.  The planned exodus date is at the end of March.  And just typing that freaks me the hell out.

I've been purging my apartment of everything I don't need - you accumulate a lot over nearly eleven years in one place, believe me - and I've started searching for a moving company as well.  The apartment search begins in earnest this coming weekend.  There's a lot to do, and it's really stressing me out.  This is the first time I've moved completely by myself.  And while I have friends and family in Seattle, I can't ask them to drop everything and travel over a thousand miles just to help me move.  So it's on me, all of it.

Despite the stress and fear, though, I'm excited about this.  I've been to Seattle before - my friend there and I went skydiving to celebrate our 30th birthdays - and I love the area.  It's also one of the geekiest cities in the country, which is always good.  I just keep telling myself that this is a good thing, and it'll all be worth it, even if I'm freaking out about it now.

So, yeah.  That's my major plan for 2015: getting the hell out of the desert.  I'd also like to find a job I enjoy, write at least two books, and get one of those books to a point where I can start submitting to agents again.  (I've never been good at thinking small.)  Here's hoping it all works out, one way or another.

Wish me luck.  O_o