Thus, in OSC's terms, my first novel is going to introduce my milieu. It is also going to introduce the major characters which I will follow in most of the series, which will continue to reveal parts of my milieu.
The problem is that I also have a strong plot for the first book. It is going to be an idea story, with a mystery building from the first page and resolving at the end.
Further stories set in the milieu may or may not be mysteries. The plot of this book might never be mentioned again, but the characters and their environment will always be mentioned.
I am struggling to integrate these elements. Currently, I introduce the concept that will form the mystery on page one, then spend 40 pages introducing the characters and milieu. At the rate I am going, I will be on page 100 before the characters start actually solving the mystery!
I like the story as it is, but I am worried that by the time the characters and milieu are introduced the readers will lose interest in the main mystery.
I am introducing my characters and their world by showing a series of key, exciting events that shape them into my heroes. The problem is that these events will be so important to the ongoing milieu that they are taking a lot of pages. The mystery, the actual plot of the story, keeps diminishing.
The problem is that I am trying to begin at the beginning, and I have two different beginnings that take place at different times.
Any suggestions?
I could offer better suggestions if I read the whole story.
Also --in contrast to what most people advice-- I would advice you to have a prologue where your world is introduced, in a general way.
Most people say that this will put off the reader, but personaly I enjoy this kind of prologues; for me, they 'set the scene' for what will follow.
Prologues I don't like are those that automaticaly throw you into action that ends in somekind of mystery.
To sum it up, I like the writer to introduce me smoothely in to the story. So I think that your 40 page introduction would work for me.
My question back to you is: how much integration is there between the character thread and the mystery thread? Does the mystery actually influence the lives and actions of your characters as you introduce them to the reader? Does it drive the story? Or does it just die away while your characters romp through your universe in the beginning?
I think it might help if you have progress in one thread tie into progress in the other, so that neither aspect of the story gets left behind. (Though that's easier said than done!)Otherwise, you might try throwing small hints about the mystery that ripple through your character's lives from the start, so that it will stay at the back of people's minds until the characters start solving it.
I hope that some of this helps, Doc. It's about as much as I can give without knowing more about the novel, or reading it myself.
As an investigator, s/he would have a great deal of opportunity to look about in great detail, and would be thinking in great detail about what s/he saw around (in terms of trying to relate it to solving the mystery--i.e. "the smeerps were varlakking about, which was hardly unusual, but if they have been doing that last vonka, then how would the tubalar of the Rinmbat have eekmaored past them?" which you explicate by having the investigator think about in detail, in order to get a more frapulative gnomanis of the problem).
laterdayswilliemays
brandon
Because of that, you will probably have to reintroduce the aspects pertinent (to each book) of the milieu each time you start a new book.
If you don't lay the burden of introducing the whole universe on one book, but let it be spread among all of the books, as I am saying you are probably going to have to do, then you can worry less about how much to put in this first book, and think more in terms of what you can get away with leaving out.
Deciding what to leave out is something short story writers worry about more than novel writers, but I really think you may need to take that approach here anyway.
The next level of detail in my problem goes like this.
I introduce the mystery in the first page. But the way the mystery is set up, no one in the world knows it is important. To them it is just an abstract concept, and people refer to it the same way that you and I might refer to Global Warming or the writing of Nostradamus. It's just something that might signal danger many years in the future.
Starting on page two I introduce one main character, then another pair of main characters in a seperate plotline. It takes six years of adventures completely unrelated to the mystery before they all come together and suddenly realize that the mystery is very important.
At this rate, those six years are going to take about 100 pages. In my mind I need those six years to give character background, as well as introduce the many forces that will work against them trying to solve the mystery. Those six years are not boring, they are simply time spent with more immediate things to do than work on the mystery.
I do not expect you to be able to tell me how to avoid those six years / 100 pages. What I want are your opinions: will readers let me get away with a six year / 100 page interlude before the characters start solving the mystery?
How about 1- Put the mystery in a prologue, or 2- the six years as a (framed) fashback?
Just brainstorming.
Erk
So far the feedback from my writer's group has downplayed the problem for which I started this thread. It seems that JP Carney is right. As long as I keep the current events interesting, readers will grant some leeway in overall plot development. I think I can sustain it long enough.
Epiquette, FWIW I have established a pattern of short passages of "flashforward." In these the reader overhears parts of a conversation that will take place later in the plot. These give me the opportunity to show one major character's immediate reaction to an event, then a long term reaction hinting at its deeper relevance. They also give me the chance to keep reminding the reader that the characters will get around to working on the mystery eventually. It seems to be working.
Show, do not tell.
What I mean is, rather than presenting readers with a whole load of info and nothing much happening, mix it together and introduce parts of the world as they are neccesary. Say what is happening, or known to the particular character who is at that moment opening themselves to being scrutinised by the reader. There is also, I personally feel, a great deal to be said for not telling everyone everything about the fantasy world. An imagination is the most potent part of any book and I personally try to leave as much as possible to the readers own perceptions. Tolkien was a master of mystery and with such passages as
"Gandalf fell beyond time and knowledge" leaves a vast ammount for the reader to make up for themselves. This probably doesnt help you much but I hope it has.
I have begun to make use of this concept in my story. I have an action scene in which I use show techniques, and then I have a more emotional scene in which I use tell. I jump back and forth depending on what seem to be the most fun to read. It looks like it will work well.
Love, Peace and Chicken Grease,
Sidewayzzzzz
The other thing I hate is creating a country. I want to write a story about characters I have no interest in drawing maps that will take up the first six pages of my book were it to be published. I hate when authors are more concerned with the lay out of the land then the characters. If you pay to much attention to the world the reader will notice, and if you don't pay enough attention the reader will notice.
It's something that will takes a lot of work, and your goal is to have the reader not notice and just feel at home with this fantasy world you've created. It's a pain in the @$$!!!!!
JOHN!!!
Introducing it is difficult but does not need to be done in one fell sweep. A little bit at a time, as per the readers needs and leave something out but hint at it, that way the reader starts to build up an eagerness to read on and discover more.
Good luck, it sounds as if you want to do this in detail.
There is no reason, after all, that you couldn't just write your story as being about the world that you are familiar with.
On the other hand, there is a very important reason for you to do the work of creating your world in detail if you're going to have a lot of characters poking about inside of it. If there are discrepancies, your characters will run across them and your audience will notice.
But just because you have drawn a map, worked out the currancy and economy, devised a system of government, sundry occupations, caste system, religions, and even written the rules of the peculiar varient of poker that people there play in dark corners of the somewhat derivative taverns, you are under no obligation whatsoever to present any of this to your readers except as they seem to the POV character (if, indeed, said character ever encounters them, which is uncertain).
My own "fantasy" setting is set in our distant future, but none of the POV characters know this and neither will any of my readers (unless I tell them them outside the confines of the narrative). The setting comes from my own thoughts on technology, humanity, and the endless but really quite unsurprising (at least, my personal role model has never been surprised by anything that humanity has ever done with technology) interaction between the two.
Create a world large as your imagination can devise, and precise as your expertise will allow. But remember that it is your characters that matter, not your imagination.