Question regarding telling too much...

[KTC]

As I have said here in the past, I like to just start writing and go in a linear direction to the end of a story. Well, I'm trying something different. I am writing out an outline for an idea I have. I have a big question that might not even be able to be answered out of context. But I also think that some of you might be able to help me whether or not you know the whole premise. So, here goes.

I am outlining a story that involved a family that is basically shunned by the other members of the small town in which they live. They are bad apples, always blamed for anything that goes wrong because they are always the cause of it going wrong. A new family moves in. They are rich but insanely eccentric. One of the members of the shunned family gets to the new family quick, before they have a chance to hear about his family. He becomes the daughter's boyfriend. But he gets pulled down into the new family's bizarre lifestyles and quirks and eccentricities. Before long he realizes that his family, as bad as they are, are far better than this new circus sideshow that has moved into town. That is just a very brief description...enough for me to pose the question. The story is going to be first person and this guy who is narrating is going to explain, at the very onset of the story, that the members of this new eccentric family are now all dead. ***If you were to read that most of the main characters of the story are dead, would you still be interested in reading their story?*** I guess that's my question. I'm not finished my outline, but it's brewing and I'm getting it down now. I just find it odd that all of these people are dead. I don't know how they die, just that they are dead and the main character, the narrator, is still alive and has a lot of interesting stories to tell about the past year and a half since the new, rich, eccentric family moved into town and shook it up. Should he tell the reader that they are dead at the beginning of the story, or should he just get to that part at the end?

I know it's hard to answer without knowing all the details. Just don't want to start writing the story the way it wants to be told only to find out later that I have to write it a different way. I am betting none of this makes the least bit of sense! Thanks in advance.

[Bufty]

I'm a novice KTC, but 'would I still be interested in reading their story?'
Depends how interested I was in how or why they died. But if I know in advance that they died, doesn't that remove any sense of tension when they land themselves in serious predicaments? Does the story lose anything if I don't find out about the deaths until as and when they occur?
Bufty

[BlueTexas]

I would be. I tend to enjoy blunt foreshadowing, though. I like promises that have to be kept.

[katiemac]

Why not?

Eugenides tells us within the first sentence (or is it just the first page?) of The Virgin Suicides that each of the five sisters will be dead by the end. (Heck, you can probably even guess from the title.)

King mentions something about Carrie destroying the school at prom somewhere around page five.

This kind of foreshadowing works all the time. What I find to be a really neat trick is when authors tell the readers this, yet somehow we manage to forget and are still surprised when we come to it.

[scribbler1382]

Let me ask a quick question. Why can't your story start when the trouble starts? I mean, of course you know what's going to be what in a year and a half, but is there anything that is stopping you from going back and starting then?

If you absolutely have to start when it's all over, why not drop a "They're all dead now...or so I hope." and then jump back to the start of the trouble and pick up that foreshadowing. (Obviously this is a very simplistic example.)

The movie FALLEN does a good job of this, btw.

Good luck!

[BlueTexas]

King, I think, does that a lot. Off the top of my head, he does it in The Eyes of the Dragon, The Gunslinger, It, and The Stand. I'm sure there are more. If the ride is good enough, who cares if we know where we're going to end up--to a point anyway.

[allion]

For me, when I read the question, I think of Sunset Boulevard. We know from the beginning of the movie that William Holden is dead. It doesn't stop us from wanting to know how he ended up in the swimming pool and the events that lead up to that point.

The story sounds interesting, KTC. I would want to know what happened to get the narrator to the point when we meet him. (If that made any sense)

Karen

[KTC]

Thank you all! Great answers to my question. You have given me something to think about. Thanks for the examples too!

I've been writing the outline this afternoon. I can't believe what I'm writing. I want to know what happens too! When I first decided to have the narrator tell the reader that the family are all dead, I didn't have any idea why I wanted to say that...but it's starting to make sense now. I see the end...it's really sketchy, but I can see it in the distance...at least in the outline stage. I see the girlfriend still alive now and just the rest of her family dead. And I see the narrator escaping the town where everybody has come to despise him and his family. And I see him escaping with the eccentric girlfreind in tow. I think I am going to go with the announcement of the deaths at the beginning and just hope that I can pull it off. It's just in the early stages, obviously, but it has fire under it...so I'm just gonna have fun and start writing. Thanks again!

[scribbler1382]

Good for you, KTC! Confidence in your story (as your post just displayed) is more important than whether a plot device/approach is a "savvy" thing to do.

Write on!

[KTC]

Hey Marty,


Thanks for the post. I do feel confident right now...because stories usually come at me formed in a way that I can see the whole thing. I get really gung-ho in the onset. It's the staying power I need to perfect! When it's new and I'm excited about it I feel confident. Ask me in 3 or 4 weeks how I feel, though! hehe. I'm really in to exploring this one. I've actually been running it through the grist mill for a few weeks. It was only this weekend that I started putting the outline together...but it's been stewing for a while.

BY THE WAY...I am also in Oshawa. Are you a WCDR member by any chance?

[Renee]

***If you were to read that most of the main characters of the story are dead, would you still be interested in reading their story?*** I guess that's my question......Should he tell the reader that they are dead at the beginning of the story, or should he just get to that part at the end?


Yes, I'd be greatly interested in reading this story! This totally sounds like my kind of story, KTC. About the dead people - since I don't know all about the story, at this point, I don't feel that I can give you a logical answer. However, I don't see what difference it would make as the dead people aren't the focus of the story, right? But, since they obviously tie-in to the story, greatly, I'd "think" that adding the "they're all dead twist" somewhere towards the end would be mind blowing!

I really want to see this story when you get it finished, k?

Best wishes to you!
Renee

[Lisamer]

I became intrigued as soon as you said that the narrator tells us that the eccentric family is dead. I'd say go for it!

[KTC]

Thanks guys. I plan on having the outline done in a couple of days and then I will tackle the writing. I've never done an outline before so I don't know how long one usually spends on it. It's an interesting concept, though. I heard so many people here talking about it that I thought I would try it. So while the story was percolating in my head I thought it was a great opportunity to put the outline to a test. My fingers are crossed. New territory is always fun. Thanks!

[scribbler1382]

Hey Marty,

BY THE WAY...I am also in Oshawa. Are you a WCDR member by any chance?

No, I'm not. I did meet with some of them, oh God, must be almost 10 years ago, now. They didn't really seem to be simpatico with what I was trying to do, so I just had the one meeting.

BTW, in your other post about outlines and such, there's some links in my blog posting from a few days ago you might find useful. Check it out if you get a chance:

http://www.soderstrom.ca/2005/05/how-to-write-novel.html

[Jonny Ryan Mac]

Man, that sounds cool. Judging by the way the markey accepts the crime fiction that may be the best. And what about a guy telling the whole story as a 'rememberance' and at the end, you aee his yellow jump suit, in jail. That would really kill. Like one of those hook you at the end horror movies like "saw" and "Seven".Cool premise, good luck. Sounds like gem

[KTC]

Thanks Marty, I will take a look. Since I'm new to the idea, any thoughts would help. Too bad about the WCDR...though I've heard that with others, too. It's helped me greatly. I was on their board for the 2003-2004 year and plan to get back on this year if the cards are right. Going to check out your link. Thanks!

[TheNightTerror]

I, personally, love the idea of finding out right off the bat that the family is dead. Me being as morbid as I am, I'd want to know what happens, and it would be a red flag which screams 'YOU WILL LOVE ME, BUY ME!' to me. Just one little thing -- if you make that big of a lead-up to the murders, go all out. With the amount of suspense you'll get going from telling about them that soon, you should give the reader a big reward once they get that far. ;)

[LightShadow]

Foreshadowing gives the reader a hint of what's to come, and then they want to see how the character gets there.

[KTC]

I had to dig far to find this thread, but I just wanted to say that I typed the last page early this morning. I am finished this novel and I am very very pumped about it! I go away to the Muskokas tomorrow for just over a week. I will be taking this novel with me to read. I have yet to sit down and read it. I can't wait to see if it reads like I feel like it will. It was a long journey, but I loved every minute of it. 1 year and 2 months!

[maestrowork]

In Fight Club the book begins with the "end" -- talk about foreshadowing. In Five People You Meet In Heaven, the first sentence told us that Eddie was going to die.

It really depends on your story, and what kind of suspense/mystery you want to present. Is it how the person end up (dead, for example)? Or how he get there (how he died)?

[Andre_Laurent]

Yeah, I'd read on. I'd have to find out how they got whacked. Hopefully in some horrible way....

[Siddow]

Enjoy the read! And congrats on finishing it, and FWIW, from what I've read here of the premise it sounds like a book I would read.

[KTC]

Thanks Siddow, for your kind words.

Oh, by the way guys...this is neither a suspense, nor a mystery. It's just a story about two families co-mingling, one very quirky and one shunned. The deaths that I discussed were not the product of a crime or suspense type story. It's just a rather quirky story about life. One death in the story is questionable...but that's not really the point of the story. And, yes, there are police involved...but again, no crime suspense novel. I'm not really sure of genre? Anyway...can't wait to read it.

[scarletpeaches]

...I am outlining a story that involved a family that is basically shunned by the other members of the small town in which they live...

Rings a bell...

...rich but insanely eccentric...

This is uncanny!

...circus sideshow...

Hey!

I am betting none of this makes the least bit of sense!

You got it!

Thanks in advance.

Pleasure.

[WriterInChains]

Be sure to let us know when/where we can read this. It sounds like just my kind of story! :)



If anyone's looking for an example of a beginning that's heavy on foreshadowing and made me put everything except the day job on hold until I finished it, check out Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. She does a great job of it, & the whole book was so riveting I almost forgot what was going to happen. Like katiemac pointed out, that's really cool.

[Elizabeth Slick]

My opinion: I would tell the reader at the end of the novel. Not before. Absolutely. It sounds extremely interesting, and coming from me, there is a lot to be said for that. I am not easily amused. :0


( Not that you care what I think necissarily, but I do think it sounds like an interesting story)