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I love memory loss so much I forgot it was cliche.
It seems like some form of amnesia is the basis, or an element of, plots numbering near infinity. But I have one that is truly fresh otherwise. How do you expect an agent/publisher to respond to yet another query regarding yet another amnesia plot? Has this market dried up years ago?
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I don't know, Zero. I have one that I also think is pretty good and the memory loss is absolutely essential to the plot. I've been trying to sell the darn thing for a year now, I think with no takes although I have gotten it to an editor past the slush a couple of times.
I think the problem is that competition is so bad right now. You are going in with a strike against you with a story like this. It doesn't mean it won't sell, but it seems to make it harder. The reader tends to go "another one of those" and dismiss it. I've had the same thing with my one and only vampire story. It's a bit off the wall and not in the least cliched but you have to get people to look past the "another vampire story" thing.
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I feel your pain. I really do. The trouble is that if only they could advance themselves to the major plot twists halfway into the book. But yeah without the memory loss the entire story is worthless and cannot even occur. I'm starting to think it'd be an easier sell as my second published novel rather than my first.
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Downplay the memory loss, play up the fresh part. Do you suppose J.K. Rowling could have sold Harry Potter as "a fantasy story about wizards and magic?" Probably not! It was all the fresh ideas that made Harry Potter stand out.
It would help to have the memory loss happen in a fresh way that no one has seen before.
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(I can't imagine how Harry Potter was sold. In the USA, at least, it's from a publisher not noted for major fantasy.)
They call amnesia "television's favorite neurological disorder." It's much more rare in real life than, say, disassociative memory function (if that's the right term), where short-term memory has shorted out, and new information (like "why am I in this hospital and what happened to me?) doesn't sink in no matter how many times it's repeated.
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Doc, you make a good point. And the memory loss does occur in an abnormal way, however, this is a major plot twist when we discover how, and we don't until nearly the end of the book. I've been told several times not to spoil my plot in a query or a blurb, right?
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My biggest problem with memory loss is how utterly unbelievable it usually is. It's always so convenient to the plot. Amnesia in which a character forgets only what they need to forget to drive the story forward and no more. Well, do some research on real memory loss and memory disorders. There are serious consequences and if you have the courage to write with those consequences in place, then I'd not only be ok with your story, I'd find it refreshing. Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
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Well, I have sort of a sci-fi driven source of memory loss. It may have been done before somewhere, but I doubt it. The problem is you don't know the real cause of the memory loss until later.
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Zero, I think what you have is fine. If you cannot reveal what the cause is, then early in the story you should reveal what it is not.
For example, in Code to Zero, Ken Follett goes to great lengths to explain the mechanism of Claude Lucas's memory loss. I was completely convinced that it was possible.
In your story, you could have doctors & psychologists examine your character, verifying that he has indeed lost his memory. When they try to figure out how it happened they can rule out each possible mechanism one by one. This will build suspense, leaving you with a mystery that can run until the end of the story.
If you do this, please make sure there is a big payoff for the reader. If the explanation turns out to be lame your readers will hate you.
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While in mine, the memory loss isn't examined by doctors (because he avoids them for reasons that are obvious in the story) and he doesn't know the cause until the end. The memory loss is essential to the story and can't be downplayed.
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That's a really good idea, Doc. But it may be hard to execute. You see, our character is given a false reason for his memory loss (a more traditional one) which turns out to be a lie.
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I second what Doc said -- one sure way to make anything believable is to have people in your story understanding/explaining it.
I would just add one thing: As with real world memory loss, I would expect there to be consequences of your scifi memory loss. Kind of the same principle applies in magic systems in fantasy -- you can't have something for nothing!
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Yes, certainly there are consequences--severe ones. It's the catalyst for the entire conflict which is why it can't be downplayed. Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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Zero, can you include a character who knows the explanation is a lie? Perhaps you can go into the POV of a villain or henchman when they overhear a conversation about it.
Or have your character discover the lie early on. If I lost my memory I would try to find out all I could about it. Even if my doctor explained everything to me, I would do my own research. To wit:
Suppose your amnesiac character reads a wikipedia article on memory loss that contradicts what he has been told. As your character now considers himself an expert on memory loss, he will dutifully edit that wikipedia article. But the next day his edit has been rejected, so he makes it again. And again. Over the course of time he will get into online arguments with true experts on the subject. Undaunted, he goes to a nearby university and consults textbooks and professors.
Eventually it dawns on him that someone has lied to him. But why . . . ?
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It would be interesting to know if editors react differently to a story where the opening to the story is a character waking up with memory loss, or if the fact of the memory loss is woven into the story at a diffent point. I should think opening the story with waking up to memory loss is surely the kiss of death with getting past the slush pile.
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Doc, I'll reply in greater detail later, but really quick I want to mention that the entire piece is 3rd person limited, single viewpoint.
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Not necessarily, Elan. That piece with memory loss -- which does indeed open with his waking up unable to remember anything -- has several times gotten past the slush pile. Or so said the Senior Editors at three publications who sent me the rejection. Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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