Tuesday 14 May 2013

"Confound you, Myth Arc!"

Useful Note: A 'myth arc' is a general term dating from the original run of The X-Files, which describes the over-arching plot / conspiracy that is behind much the main characters encounter, only through an entire series and not just a season, or two or three episodes. It can also be applied to a book series where it may be a plot behind the events. Now that we got that out of the way...

The more difficult thing about writing the sequel to my novel for me is that everything is now planned. My first novel was written 'Stephen King style', which is to say I sat down, began writing and things just fell in place. Although I had an idea where I was going after the first fifty pages I did not plan that well. Fixing some inconsistencies is not that hard and the structure felt natural to most of my test-readers. But with the story in the sequel growing more complex, partially because it was not simple to begin with, and with two different time lines, things are getting trickier. The most satisfying part of experimenting in writing is the 'fractured narrative' and how it reflects the narrator's mind. The more difficult parts have to do with the untangling of the mysteries central to the story's myth arc.

This is separate from open endings or unreliable narrators, where obfuscation is part of the flavour and the reader has to put things together themselves. My first novel ends with a small victory and many mysteries solved, but larger mysteries and driving questions remain for the characters. But its easy to set up a mystery in a grand narrative but choosing the right moment to unknot one has to be planned carefully. If the dialogue, discovery or the tone is slightly off then the reader will not find it satisfying.

Examples; I'm a big fan of LOST, but I think that the final season did a terrible job at unknotting what the authors bothered to explain (the things they chose not to explain is a different subject altogether). Compared to the rest of the series, a series that truly pushed the boundaries of serial story-telling, it was not really satisfying. It could be because of a stretched-out, padded production, or because they did not really know what they were building up to. Or perhaps nothing could satisfy. Either way, it could have been better. A more extreme example is the original series of the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, where budget-cuts and an extremely troubled production meant the animators literally had to throw something together. When the company got around to making a movie that was supposed to wrap everything up they made something somewhat incomprehensible and morally horrifying, though many think it was out of spite to counter the death threats the director received for the series' ending. Congratulations. (I should add there is a tetralogy of movies that's supposed to remedy that, two of which are so far available on DVD). Most of the back story was eventually released through various other means, which is not useful if it has direct bearing on the events but is never relevant to the narrative. These days only think The Lord of the Rings can get away with appendixes. But I digress.
 
The danger I'm dealing with is ultimately to write like I'm connecting dots; like I've been given a list of plot points and must draw lines of prose to make sure they connect. The flow of narrative, information and twists have to feel natural, or else they wont feel like anything at all except arbitrary. A good instance I averted was in one chapter where the stakes of the second novel are laid bare. Despite being important I cut it from the chapter and decided to put the information in much further down. The relaying of the info was too sudden and too convenient, and I think the readers would sense this and object. This cosmetic cut taught made me realize that writers who write multi-layered stories must not be lazy and not just dump things on the reader because its convenient, otherwise you lose them. If you don't care about the plot, your characters wont really care either and neither would your audience.

9 comments:

  1. Good post. I haven't written an in depth series nor seen the new Evangelion movies. But I intend to do both some day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So far writing a series with a single arc is rewarding in the long run but it is certainly harder than writing an individual novel. Its fun to see things come together, but getting your ships to align is tricky. I can understand why George RR Martin struggles to finish a book, and my book isn't even half as voluminous as his average 'Song of Fire and Ice' book.

      As for Evangelion, its an extremely 'love it or hate it' story. I don't always enjoy how it uses Judeo-Christian symbolism, but within the context of the story, the more you understand the backstory the more fascinating the story becomes. That said, its a pitch black story, even if fairly deep. I'm hoping the last two movies can make up for the end of the original series and movies.

      Delete
  2. I never thought of it being such a challenge, but I can see where you're coming from. I wrote Traphis with the idea of doing another novel down the road, but never planned more than a few open ended strings. I wonder how manga authors with long serializations do it. Many of the stories start with a basic idea or a one-shot. And they rarely know how long it will last before being canceled. That must make planning a longer tale very difficult.

    Evangelion: I'm more in the "hate it" camp, but haven't totally discarded it. I just have a hard time liking the protagonist; I usually want to smack him. And the supporting roles aren't much better. But I can see the humanism and realistic side to it, so so it's not all for loss.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Arcs: I think that because manga authors do it for a living, work at it every day and have deadlines, they have more time to plan properly. Novelists, particularly bestselling authors, have too much time and probably put off writing as long as possible.

      Evangelion: Shinji is rather messed up, but at the end of the second 'Rebuild' movie he manages to get over his issues in a spectacular way, though it ends up having dire consequences in the 3rd movie.

      Delete
  3. The problem though, with manga, is advanced planning. As far as I can tell, their story changes a lot each chapter based on current rankings. I'm currently watching a really good anime (Bakuman.) about two 9th grade students working to become professional mangakas. From my understanding, it follows a fairly accurate telling of the industry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting. I know Charles Dickens wrote in a similar way. It makes planning difficult if true, so a skilled writer must be careful and pay a lot of attention. I wonder if its different in the US comic book industry.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  4. Could be. I know I'm more a seat of the pants writer, which often makes for a more difficult 2nd draft. Now I'm tempted to see how difficult that style makes a sequel :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Its a challenge, but I think its a worthwhile one.

      Delete