Fantasy Plotting Issues

Errant_Fragments

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So I've been working on one fantasy project for a while now. Its set around a revolution and the story I most want to tell is the idea that a revolution doesn't necessarily solve all your problems - so its set in the aftermath of that conflict with people picking up the mangled pieces and trying to build the utopia they had always dreamed of while still dealing with the trauma of what they had to do to get to this point. There's atrocities and betrayals and giant trees that eat people and all sorts of stuff going on. But my challenge at the moment is whether to start the actual narrative before the revolution itself, show everyone the state of the empire, show the struggles of revolution and then in the latter half (probably the second or third book knowing the length I tend to write towards) deal with the 'life goes on in the aftermath' or whether to start the narrative in the aftermath and use people talking/flashing back to the pre-times.

So I guess my question is, when I've got a fairly clear idea of several decades of world history, populated by (currently thin, but developable) characters - how do you choose which bits to actually put in to the book explicitly and which bits to either leave out or refer to? I guess my worry is that if I start post-revolution, I'll have to do a lot of explaining what just happened which might get dull, rather than just straight up show people the revolution and get to the aftermath, afterwards. Plus I've just got a feeling that a revolution is always going to be a fairly gripping centrepiece to a story...

I've considered doing the past/future chapters thing, or Robin Hobb's 'flavour text' inserts at the start of each chapter or just mixing it up or all sorts... I know there's a good story in here with this revolution and what these characters are achieving and sacrificing to get there, but picking where and how to structure the book as opposed to the history is proving a challenge.

Any suggestions for resources on how to deal with these kinds of structure questions? Or should I just focus on writing something and leave some of this until future revisions?

Many thanks in advance :)
 
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Brightdreamer

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When all else fails, I'd suggest you focus on characters. Without characters an audience can relate to, after all, stories tend to be glorified infodumps.

What elements have the greatest impact on your main characters? What influences their story arcs? What gets them fired up - and what knocks them back? Where are they physically at the start? Where are they emotionally and psychologically? Where do they need to be by the end?

Thinking in terms of the characters might give you a framework around which to build the rest of the story.

JMHO...
 

AwP_writer

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I say put it all in for the first draft, then take out what's not working for you when you edit it.
 

MonsterTamer

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I'm not a plotter, so I can't tell you how to do it. The fact that you know all of that already is hard for me to get my mind around. But, as you write, you will naturally come across places where you think, "If the character doesn't have the information they need here, they can't move forward." Then put whatever information they need there, and no more. It's likely all of that backstory and history informs your character's choices, but they themselves may not know the extent of the influence. If the information is critical to the story but the character already knows it and the reader doesn't, just take an aside mid-narrative and do a quick explanation. If done well and with brevity, it won't be jolting. I hope I didn't just give you a pantser's answer. If I did, disregard.
 

OldHat63

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Brightdreamer is right, concentrate on the characters first. Work out who they are, where they come from, where they've been and what they've seen. Let their personalities dictate how those things affect them and change them. Do that, and place them in the environment you describe, and the story will all but tell it's self.

...or at least that's been my experience to date.



O.H.
 

Errant_Fragments

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Thanks all - I'm definitely a plotter, I generally need to have the whole shape of a piece on my head before I can get started. I suspect its a hangover from the fact that most of my writing for work is factual or seeking to influence so it has a very tight objective and I always know exactly what its trying to achieve and how I'm going to do it before I even start (but that's easier to do in a 2 page policy brief!)

Especially as I'm trying to decide whether to tell the whole history of a war and its aftermath its a case of trying to decide where a book might need to start within that millieu. I've got 2 generations of characters drafted as the war spans around 50 years and a lot of the key events, I would hope that people might find it interesting to hear all of it - starting with the central character, Michal (a teacher) being accused of subversion, through his leadership of the revolution and his eventual exile while his successor Deborah (who is only even born about halfway through the revolution and is a child when the war itself is over) takes over the leadership and leads their forces to a genuinely new kind of society that Michal could never manage because he was too fixated on the war itself (he shows up again near the end to offer sage advice having learned his lesson).

So that's a basic 3 act structure for the story itself: Status quo -> revolution -> formation of new society

I've just got a lot of stuff I want to fit in to it that makes me wonder if I should try doing something more interesting with the structure of the book (like is it a history told afterwards? Or could I skip the majority of the status quo and start in media res with the destruction of the first empire city (by giant carnivorous trees, long story) then have flashbacks etc...) I suspect you're all going to tell me to just stop procrastinating and get with the writing and hope the rest of the structuring details will work themselves out once I've got a bunch of material to organise... so I guess I'll just go start at the beginning and write until I've got a better idea.
 

MaeZe

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You don't need the whole thing planned out to start developing the characters and events. And I write chapters out of sequence then kill some of them that don't work.

Aside from that, I think it would be more interesting to start in the aftermath and you'll not only be starting close to the action, but you'll have all that backstory material you can reveal where you need it to make a point or show something you are showing.

For example, two people are enemies but we don't find out why until you leak that bit of backstory, which can then lead into resolution of that particular relationship.
 

indianroads

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I probably missed it, but how much time passed between the fall of the old before the new starts to rebuild?

My thought is that you could start with a character sorting through the rubble of a wrecked city looking for scraps. They could reflect on the old world, how it fell and why. Remember. You don’t need to go into a ton of details that don’t relate to your story.
 

SVenus

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The aftermath of a revolution can be just as interesting as the revolution itself, but it looks to me like you've got a lot of plot here, maybe too much for one book. If you start post-revolution, then yes, going back every few pages to explain how the world got to this point would get pretty tiring, but it doesn't mean you have to do it. For example, if someone is writing about Napoleon, then the events of the French Revolution would heavily inform how Napoleon rose to power, but that story doesn't need to tell us every detail of the revolution, which itself could fill at least one novel. I'd agree that you start with the characters, because their motivations are basically what the plot will be.
 

starrystorm

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It seems like you are mainly writing about the after mass of the revolution, so that's where you should start. Maybe start with the revolution and then skip to the future where everyone is cleaning up the mess? But I totally agree with Brightdreamer. You need to focus on what your character needs to complete their story, not the world's story.
 

Cairo Amani

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I like all my worldbuilding and history built into the story. I think it should come up naturally and if stuff doesn't fit we, as writers, have to get over it haha.