Tritti’s Ascension

Yesterday when I was writing or thinking about that wretched Wretched Excess plot I spent some time looking up other’s lists of master plots. So far I’ve only collected them into my writing wiki and skimmed the contents. I find the variety interesting; I may employ some of them in future months.

My twenty master plots book wraps up with a bit of a cheat if you ask me. Tobias combines the chiral Ascension and Descension plots as if he were running out of paper to print his book and just now noticed how similar they are to each other. I don’t begrudge him the aggregation, but I would be less critical had he done the same with his other matched plots.

Anyhow. He contends the difference between these plots and others is the gradual nature of each, the protracted crescendo or decrescendo of the main character. The plots I find them similar to, Transformation and Wretched Excess, should be administered quickly and focus on the effect each change has on the character rather than drawn out and focusing on the character…or something like that.

Both Ascension and Descension rather an ultra-real charismatic character who can hold a reader’s attention and carry the whole plot.

Beat.

I keep thinking maybe a day with these plots in my head will turn them into something appealing by evening. I suspect I’d need to devote brain time to the effort to get anything out of it. Funny that.

I hope Tritti the Pilgrim from The Shanty thread helps me out here tonight.

Theme – Ascension

Setup – Tritti pilgrimages to ah’Taconschientee.

Hook

Plot Point 1 – Against tradition, Tritti decides to enter ah’Taconschientee to deliver the [McGuffin] Johnka gives her. She meets Brother Gane.

Pinch 1 – In the land-side market You attempts to kill Tritti. People she’s just met protect her with their lives.

Mid-point Twist – Johnka confesses to Tritti that he is a demi-god.

Pinch 2 – You kills Johnka but misses Tritti.

Lull – Tritti recovers from her wounds at Brother Gane’s monastary.

Plot Point 2 – Tritti inspires the monks to escort her back to ah’Taconschientee to complete the delivery.

Conclusion – Tritti fights off the folks she’s been battling and ultimately delivers the [McGuffin].

378 words on day 677

From Shanty to Benhá

Charming’s story keeps feeling much like Luke Skywalker’s with shades of Harry Potter. I don’t know if I see it because I’m that close or if her story truly mirrors both and anyone would.

I don’t want to abandon what I have so far though. I like the bits I’ve put together. I don’t know if I should be sensitive to the commonalities and seek to reduce them, or if I should disregard them and push on.

Roundmartin is Charming’s dad currently but there isn’t any established reason he needs to be related to her. It made sense that the dermatographia/oracle might run in the family. I could write that another way.

Charming has adoptive parents/caretakers. If I remove Roundmartin as her father it’s no longer neccessary for him to orphan her.

I’ve planned to have Gane take her back to the monastery where she’d learn more about her skills. And maybe other skills. A little Hogwartian I suppose, but I think training anyone might always have that feeling. Yesterday I suggested her arrival might not be so positive—no Hermione or Ron. Or hell, no reason for there to be scabs of robed monks wandering around like a boarding school. Could be religiouser like the name monastery implies. Though I’ll have to retcon that with the Solex Corporation if I keep Gane Gane.

Those two things right there may route enough of the sense I’ve been having to keep me happy.

At one point, I’d considered introducing a reference book as a bit of a mcguffin. Or even something of a quest for book two. It’s possible I could swap Roundmarting for the book. Play it either way. In the first novel Charming gets the book but looses Roundmartin. Or vice versa.

Might be useful to consider how Tritti, Johnka, and You figure into the Charming story. I’m expecting rather thinly. Maybe considering them even some small bit will give me other ideas for Charmings story to fill in the gaps. Maybe doing so gives me some insight into their stories instead.

351 words on day 603

Archiving Serendipty

Day 475

I should keep better track of the things I read. I suppose thats what Delicious and Evernote are for, but I don’t always have the time to archive serendipity. I should keep better track because when I everntually write about the things I read I’d like to link back to them for your reference. Suffice to say I did read several somethings along the lines of what I’ll write about now. I did not make this up.

That I did not ake this up should be evident in how clever it is. What I’m writing about not my writing.

A reader should be able to pick up a book, start reading at any point, and within a few paragraphs know the characters’ goals. That, for me says quite a bit. I need go no further, but will anyway.

I don’t think the authors I’ve aggregated that statement from meant that a character’s whole plot goal should be immediately apparant, though I suspect they think it should appear soon. I believe they mean a character’s scene goal; their current driving need. Worse, they expect clarity for the antagonist’s goal too; the bad guy can’t just poke your heroine in the eye he needs a reason to poke her in the eye.

These are the writing lessons I love to find. And consequently love to avoid incorporating in my writing.

Last week a wrote with this in mind, but neglected to have a goal for my antagonist. My antagonist merely through up half-hurdles for my protagonist to overcome. Looking back on the piece I didn’t like where the bad guy’s flimsey efforts were leading. Ultimately he’d have become a throwaway character and the scene would have played for no other useful reason than to introduce the protagonist by name in a clever-like way; that could have been done elsewhere and better.

OK, so. Bad guy needs a deeper life I decide. This story is not outlined at this point so I can do anything I want. Suddenly I’ve decided that our minor functionary is now the client who hired our protagonist to off the wife of his boss. Now I’ve got something I didn’t have before.

368 words