Storytelling Options

WorldPlanter said:

The MC is required to assist with carrying out a specific task early in the series but isn’t aware of the significance of his involvement in the operation until much later (books later). It’s also important that the reader not understand the importance of this event until later as well...

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What's wrong with showing the MC's part of it in the course of linear narration? Perhaps he's doing the thing for a reason other than the "real" reason, and later in the series the truth can be revealed.

As for the other folks' parts... let them take care of telling him that when it's appropriate--if it's later in the first book or in a later book, that's fine. If it's not so significant to the MC and his relationship with the other character that they'd bring it up, then they wouldn't bring it up... if it comes up in connection with something else--or if they'd ordinarily tell him everything--they'd tell him.

One example (let's say the job is cleaning the Aegean stables):

----

Joe cleaned the stables morning and night for seven years; at the end, he hung up his broom with the just and happy sigh of a man who has accomplished his liege lord's bidding and can now expect to be rewarded.

Mary was waiting by the well when he came by, exhausted and covered in poo. "That was a lot of excrement you shoveled today, Joe. I had to take two trips to Rumwether's for the delivery."

The name Rumwether struck Joe funny, but he was too tired to care what she did with it, as long as it was out of the stable. "Sorry. That's the end of it, at least."

"Glory," Mary said. "I'm tired of the smell. How can you stand it?"

"You get used to it."

...

three books later

"Fear the Crap-Monster," Rumwether bellowed to the assembled lords. It was huge. Terrifying. And it smelled very familiar.

Mary shrugged when Joe looked at her. "It's not so impressive," she said. "Not when you've seen him mucking around in the stuff to build it."

"Wait." Joe cocked his head. "Are you saying that all that poo--"

"It's the stuff I brought him, yeah. From the stables. You can't have forgotten that, could you?"

Isn't the MC curious at all? Perhaps he could sense that people are hiding things from him, or are not telling the truth. Maybe he gets conflicting info from different people. This could cause him to take greater measures to seek out the truth...bribing, blackmailing, super sleuthing, whatever. Take us on his journey, and he could have a secondary discovery that makes the plot point relevant enough to be included, but still leaves development for future books.

In the mean time, let the MC speculate on how he fits into it. It sounds like you're against POV changes for this piece, so you should probably stick with that instinct.

Nicole

without knowing any details, i find it difficult to suggest a way out, but since you mentioned wanting to keep it in the MC's POV, your third option is what i thought of, too. as far as 'telling,' for me that depends to what extent you had to 'tell.' an entire chapter of it, i'd say no. a paragraph? okay, i could live with that.

'snippets' could come in a thousand forms. without even knowing the genre, though, it's hard to even start making suggestions.

the most obvious to me 'fix' is when the MC discovers the information he goes into a self-monlogue. not the cleverest thing to do, or even advisable, per se, but it's an option for what it's worth, and still maintains the POV. it sounds as if the MC is in every single scene throughout multiple books.

as far as the information having relevance later on, i think you have to go with your gut on that one. the reader probably won't forget about it and will expect something to made of the information later on. that is, i as a reader would be cheesed off if a sizable portion of a story was simply a red herring. besides, it's pretty typical storytelling to mention something early on that you don't necessarily pay a great amount of attention to but is of vital importance later, but a big chunk of something will most definitely have something to do with it. i'm not sure i'd stress over that one (given the idea you *will* go back to it).

personally, i'd go with your first reaction, mine being the 'snippets.' not only does that sound more interesting, but funner to write. some snippets can be red herrings, but in the end those that aren't false leads should make the reader go, ah, now i see how it all goes together. the reader wants enough clues to put it together themselves without being told, but aren't pissed off when their conclusions are wrong because the 'evidence' given wasn't plausible enough for anyone but the writer to figure it out... if that makes any sense. in that respect, i think you're getting into some mystery territory.

WorldPlanter said:

I’m having difficulty trying to decide what to do about a particular event in my story. It’s something that happens early in the series, which becomes of immense significance later in the story.

Here’s my problem:

The MC is required to assist with carrying out a specific task early in the series but isn’t aware of the significance of his involvement in the operation until much later (books later). It’s also important that the reader not understand the importance of this event until later as well, though it’d be perfectly fine to hint at the event’s overall role in the story. However, the reader does eventually need to know the details of how the event occurred. Some of the details related to this event are only witnessed by other characters, which creates an issue since I’d like to maintain a strict MC POV.

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First of all, when the event becomes important later in the series, you can't count on readers remembering what happened in the first book, or even having read the first book, so you're going to have to retell the event then anyway. On the other hand, if you don't mention it at all in the first book, it will look like an afterthought as far as the attentive readers are concerned. On the third hand, it would weaken the first book to have the MC to go through a bunch of activity that seems pointless. And I agree that you don't want to add a POV just for this.

So, I think in the first book you should tell only the part that can be told from the MC's POV. Wait to fill in the rest of the information when it becomes relevant later.

However -- and this is the hard part -- you need to come up with a reason for him to be doing those things that makes sense within the context of the first book alone. Even though, you as author, know he's doing it because of what will happen later, the first book must stand on its own. The reader needs to believe the MC is doing those things for some current purpose.

i disagree in that i think you can count on a reader to remember a huge chunk later on... given that not three books separate it. three paragraphs, no way ~ i take it, though, that it's a pretty major sounding/noteworthy bit of information that's fairly obvious will be important later. else i might give the information a name to refer back to periodically. me being the awesome dude i am might even consider being clever and making that a theme to reinforce through metaphors in a lame attempt to subtly remind the reader that, hey, remember those thirty pages in book one? well, don't forget totally about them. in other words, i'd want to find a way to keep the idea in the back of the reader's mind somehow.

Here's examples of how earlier items were brought up in various books.

Jim Butcher's character, Harry Dresden, references things that happened in a book prior by a one line to a paragraph blurb.

I walked past the elevator on my way to the stairs. There was a sign on it that said it was under repair. The elevator hadn't ever been quite the same since a giant scorpion had torn into one of the cars and someone had thrown the elevator up to the top of its chute with a current of wind in order to smash the big bug against the roof. The resulting fall sent the car plummeting all the way back to the ground floor and wreaked havoc with the building in general, raising everyone's rents.

Or that's what I heard, anyway. Don't look at me like that. It could have been someone else.

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or Steven Brust

Loiosh, my familiar, was just stirring. He gave his bat-like wings one lazy flap, hissed at me sleepily, and said, "How 'bout something to eat?" into my mind.

I said, "Do you remember Deathgate Falls?"

"No. I'm senile. Of course I remember ---"

"As you apporach the Falls, do you remember there being a large statue?"

"Sure, Boss. Where Morrolan performed that embarrassing ritual. What about it?"

"Nothing." Right. The ritual. I had forgotten that, too.

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Or...Simon Green

The last time I'd walked down this alley, I'd been ambushed by my enemies. The faceless horrors of the Harrowing had come for me, and I'd only escaped with the help of my old friend Razor Eddie. Of course, he'd been the one who set me up for the ambush; but that's friends for you, in the Nightside.

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