Handling Byzantine plots
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.
( If you walk Byzantium, know the streets )
( If you walk Byzantium, know the streets )
Comments 35
I'd like to see a villain/enemy/rival that, instead of aiming to kill, aims to wound them so badly they'll wish they were dead. Permanently cripple/paralyze them, or just make it so they won't be able to do the things that make them happy. Cruel, but interesting, because it'd lead to a strange angst - "I have no hands and am paralyzed and am blind. Life SUCKS."
But then hero-type-figure is also disabled, and, well, unable to continue the "Mystic Quest" or whatever else.
Reply
Ah, see, that's when we get to see that the hero's CAUSE is really righteous, because surely someone else will pick up his cause and go kick some ass, because now the hero is a martyr to inspire them all!!!!
... ... ... ... you know, even I can't tell if I was snarking about that one. That would actually be kind of cool.
t¬
Reply
But I could also see, in a well-written novel, how the hero perseveres, and tries to learn to fight with a sword, even if he has no hands/learn to get around on a donkey or something. Could be very "I am determined!" and inspiring. If it wasn't crappily written.
Reply
The challenge would be making it not cheap angst.
One of the reasons I love my friend's writing so much is because she created a character who has seen his brother die in front of him, tortured to death because of something her character did. And the character? Did not sit around and whine. Instead, killed a bunch of people in mad revenge, got the hell out of Dodge, and then went on living. Because angst is NOT the be-all and the end-all of life, thank you.
Reply
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.
Reply
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.
Reply
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.
Reply
Reply
"All good political plots are childishly simple. They are good because they work and, in working, disguise themselves from opposing politicians who are trained to seek complications."
Have to keep that in mind. OK. And I like the wording of the "ripple" effect--I've tried to explain it once to a student in politics but I couldn't give a name to it so I ended up with the grotesque name of "The Law that Things affect Things affect Things affect Things affect Other Things ad nauseam."
Reply
And yes, I think good plots really are simple. One thing that authors sometimes do is confront scheming politicians with a simple, straightforward hero, and let them be baffled, which is a good idea. Of course, instead of letting the hero really tear through the webs, what they seem to end up doing is turning the politically inexperienced hero into as good a gameplayer as the rest of them, which I don't get.
Reply
"Political fantasy is gaining in popularity (see point 1), so it’s developing its own category of overused devices[.]"
Could you elaborate on them, or did I already learn about them via knock-offs of Disney?
Reply
-"Those brats/people/nuisances are interfering with my plans!"
-"The king is weak."
-Explaining politics in terms of chess metaphors. You can tell which characters are going to win, becuase those are the characters the main villain thinks of as pawns at the beginning.
-"The kingdom will fall."
-Thinking of themselves as the powers behind the thrones, the true rulers of the kingdom, or in any other position of power without explaining why they want to be in that position of power. (It's one thing if the villain has a grudge against his brother. It's another if he wants to rule the country for no real reason ( ... )
Reply
Politics should be explained in terms of shogi metaphors. Not only are there more pieces to work with, the novelty of the game means that the author won't give everything away to most readers.
Reply
your point precisely.
Reply
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Man, I don't like those either. 99% of it goes WHOOSH! over my head.
Reply
Leave a comment