Handling Byzantine plots

[limyaael]

I’m really going to try to keep myself from ranting about just political fantasy here, because gods know it’s not just political fantasies that can lose their plots.

Comments

[fadethecat]

I'm reminded of why I don't do these sorts of plots. I have a hard enough time finding something for a reasonably proactive adventurer to do over 80,000 words of story without trying to do things like that...

And, alas, I can't read these stories either. By the sixth Important Character in, I'm forgetting names and trying to remember if we're talking about the Demon King, the Person The Demon King Is Possessing, the Advisor To The Demon King, the Really Awful Prince, the Really Awful Prince's Immortal Great-Aunt, the Strangely Endearing Possible Protagonist Who's Not An Assassin Really, the Protagonist's Love Interest, the Protagonist's Love Interest's Husband, the Protagonist's Love Interst's Husband's Scheming Underling, the Protagonist's Brother, the Ascetic Monk, the Protagonist's Brother's Mentor, or the Oddly Described Possessed Guy...

(Bonus points to anyone who can figure out what book I just quit trying to read. That was, what, two chapters in? If that. Gah.)

#1 is definitely my favorite point in this rant.

[limyaael]

...I can't figure it out. Tell me?

Simple plots have true advantages. Not nearly as much scheming to take care of, enemies and heroes who are both matched if they're straightforward, more emotional confrontations that don't depend on just the revelation of secrets, and so on. The trick is to make it simple without making it so simplistic that the characters seem like idiots.

[fadethecat]

This Rough Magic. By, oh, three authors or so. And it's quite possible I've simply recounted the characters incorrectly, at that; I gave up reading right around when one of the characters fell asleep in the woods, and woke up to overhear a conversation that went something along the lines of:

A: We're scheming evil people!
B: MWahaha! We are! Think we can trick them?
A: Oh, sure. So long as we fool them completely, they'll never find out about X.
B: Oh, you mean X which is (detail, detail, detail).
A: Yeah, that X. I'm lying to them! Lots! And telling them lies! Woo! Specifically, these lies!
B: Wow, it's a good thing they'll continue to believe you, or they might find out about X, and we really wouldn't want that, would we?
A: Nope. Ha ha! They'll never figure out that we're just telling them these lies to keep them from finding out about X, which I shall now detail somewhat further!

But I digress.

[limyaael]

I've heard of that. I will now never read it. Thank you kindly for the warning.

[fadethecat]

I consider it my small service for the betterment of humanity. If only someone had warned me away from Robert Jordan...