posted
Okay, this is just to get feedback that I am or am not crazy as a loon. Hopefully not.
Book Two of my series (The Ignored Prophecy--Fantasy) has been pushed, pulled, pounded and otherwise abused and agressed upon. I wrote the first draft and hated it. Not enough story. I decided I had told the wrong story and started trying to rewrite it from the POV of a different character. Hated that. Decided to roll it into Book Three. Hated that. Decided to go back and rearrange things and add a new conflict. Okay, but still just not . . . there. Set the poor thing aside to rest and heal up for awhile.
Now, I'm starting to get ideas about it again. I like the new conflict and where that took me, so I'll keep it. But I finally think I know what this thing wants to be when it grows up. It's a mystery! Who would have guessed?
Not a who dunnit mystery, of course. This is more about strange things that are happening to the MC and them trying to figure out just WTF is going on. He has come out of the first book changed in ways he hasn't fully realized yet. He is the nexus of five different forces that are all going on at once and, on top of that, there are feed back loops and synergy between some of those forces. Sometimes 2 + 2 really does equal 5. The story is them beginning to realize this and then trying to figure it out.
If I plot it right (always a gamble) every time they answer what they think the question is, it will either raise another one or else not completely explain what they're trying to understand. ("Okay, that explains X, but what about Y and Z?"
Am I totally nuts to try to write this kind of fantasy? I've never attempted anything like this before. But, right now, at least, it feels right.
posted
Sounds more like an intellectual quest to me, not so much a mystery. Besides solving who done it, other plot-driving conventions of and reader resonance with mysteries revolve around reader desire for poetic justice--reward for good, punishment for evil--and resolution from physically apprehending a culprit.
A protagonist seeking answers to questions that answering raises more questions seems like plot coupons, which are ideally suited to romanticism-style epic quests. Plot coupons are not necessarily a writing no-no if they're timely and efffectively portrayed. The phenomena of answers raising more questions is a common one in human experience, logical and plausible for a story because of that shared experience.
My expectation for an intellectual quest would be of seeking to answer an overaching question first raising other questions. In finding an answer to a lesser question, raising new questions might then provide insights for how to answer further lesser questions, building a synergy that comes together by answering all pending questions in the final crisis. And especially depicting an answer to a story's overarching question posed in an opening.
posted
I understand what you're saying. I hope it turns out a little more interesting than that. I don't want it to seem so . . . formula. They're not going to have to run all over this world to find the answers or "collect all the coupons". Some of the answers will be in front of them all the time, they just won't recognize it at first. Some of the questions won't surface until they have some of the answers. Some of the answers will be easy. Some will take more effort. Some, especially the last, will come as quite a surprise.
There will be events going on around them in the (probably) two subplots. As well as some things that are just life. Some of those events will trigger new questions or supply some of the answers.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited April 24, 2009).]
posted
A really well-developed plot should get more complicated as the characters learn more about what is going on. That's one very good way for the author to "up the ante" in a story.
posted
Thanks. I've started reworking the outline. I think this is going to be fun! Of course, we still have to see if I can make it work. But it should be interesting to try, any way.
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The story is them beginning to realize this and then trying to figure it out.
