Now, this post will make a lot more sense if you have read chapter nine. I’ll be vague for those who haven’t read it, but you might actually want to read it before this. Go ahead, I can wait if you haven’t. Now then. Did I just do that? Yes. Yes I did.

I’d like to blame Battlestar Galactica for the last couple paragraphs of this chapter, but that’d be unfair. I had been toying around with the idea of what happened for a while, and it really comes down to one thing. Characters don’t always make the decisions we want them to. Sometimes they make bad decisions. Sometimes they realize the decisions were bad, and sometimes they actually don’t turn out to be bad decisions at all, just ones that we wished they would not have made. The decision at the end of Chapter Nine could still yet be any of these, although I will admit, it wasn’t the decision I wanted made.

But, you say, you are the author! You can make the characters do whatever you want them to. Yes, technically you are right. But moving my characters around like marionettes on strings does not a good story make. They are people. They have problems and issues, and sometimes it’s a cointoss which way they will fall. This particular instance was a coin toss for a while, but between me wanting to have a chance to explore and discuss the ramifications of certain decisions, it also came down to one thing. Part of me wanted this to happen because part of me is in every character. So perhaps when I say I didn’t want this to happen, perhaps it is just one of the other characters responding. But, that is good. If everyone got along and made decisions the others agreed with, then it wouldn’t be much of a story. Next paragraph is spoilery, so be warned.

And as to Kira sleeping with Gavrial, I’ll admit, part of me says “But, no, wait, she was Markus’s romantic interest? Isn’t she?” Yeah, well, this is where I blame BSG. I can’t count the number of people I’ve said “But wait, no, those two were supposed to be together! What!?” Lost is probably partially responsible, too, although they didn’t mix up romance so much as just kill all the women off to get a reaction. I won’t be doing that, as I think it is a cheap trick. Regardless, the other reason I went the path I did was because if Kira just kept pining for Markus, it would turn Markus into a Mary Sue. “Oh, woe is me, Markus, sweet Markus, he has forsaken me and I shall just swoon because he is so amazing.” No, Markus is a whiney emo bitch at times, and bit of an asshole others. That turns people off. Gavrial has actually shown a willingness to change and be there, and while I’m not going to say that Gavrial and Kira will be rosebuds and tulips for ever (or even in the next chapter we see them), I will say that another part of me says “Go Gavrial, take that pity sex!”

That is the crassest I’ve been on this website. At least I wasn’t channeling any G.R.R. Martin and being super explicit, eh? Right. See ya next week.

And yes, that is a vague reference to the Genesis song: Land of Confusion. Funny story, I actually have a vague, dreamlike hope of eventually seeing some sort of video being made to that song using either the panels from Tijervyn or scenes from the eventual super awesome HBO series (yeah, I dream big).

Anyway, as the title suggestions, we are now halfway through Vol. One. How you liking it so far? As I’ve mentioned before, somewhere, I am doing something new outline wise with Tijervyn as opposed to my usual process. See, typically, I always have a very hard outline with all the foreshadowing detailed, world-building pre-laid out, and character growth even commented on so I can know how to take conversations. With Tijervyn, I was unsure of whether or not I would have the event that happened at the end of today’s chapter, let alone when it would happen. It just kind of fell into place.

That said, I do know this is halfway through volume one. After writing this chapter, I kind of decided I had enough on my plate for this chapter and wrote up an outline that will tie up the plot threads I want tied up by Volume One’s end and leave the openings I want open for Volume Two. I’m still being really vague about it, though, and I think I left enough leeway to move the story if the characters demand it.

Anyway, shorter chapter, and shorter news post too.

Now, I’m by no mean a master of either of these (if I was, I’d be published already, right?) But I do fancy myself as having at least voice as a strength. In fact, I’d say my two first-person stories, Apocabilly and A Fold in Time, do a really good job of conveying voice. In both instances, I basically role-played as I wrote the stories. I’d just stand and walk around, chatting as if telling a story to someone (perhaps my cats?), and get a feel for how the narrator spoke. Both stories actually came out really fast, as opposed to Brandy or Halfman, which  took a few days each. No, the former were written in a handful of hours, one solid sitting. Yeah, I still had to edit them, but the strong voice of the narration was just there.

Now, dialogue is just a step further, right? Except instead of having a single monologue, you get to role-play two or more people. I wish it was that easy. But honestly, it is really hard, at least in my experience, to role-play two people without getting into a back-and-forth of snark or going off track of where I want the dialogue to go. Granted, I believe the characters need to breathe and live, but that doesn’t meant they get to run off the rails. On the bright side, I have found that it makes me a little quicker in conversation since I really picked writing back up and have focused on dialogue.

Although, the rambling thing isn’t entirely bad. With the new project I’m working on–and that will premier in the new year right here on RichardFife.com, tell your friends –I find being able to get into snark and twist about as a useful way to discover the characters. Yes, perhaps I can’t include all of it into the actual finished project, as dialogue is by its very nature rather artificial compared to real conversation, but the ramble lets me fake it better, if that makes sense. A dialogue, I feel, can include one or two off-topic asides, long as the characters can get back on topic  quickly and fluidly. Said asides are usually really good windows into fleshing the characters out anyway, or in foreshadowing or offering backstory. The true freedom I have with this new project, though, is that I don’t have a direct point I’m headed to.

It is strangely liberating, that, and I’ll go on at length about it elsewhere, but the best feeling is that I don’t have to worry too much about cramming in direction and purpose. This is a guilty pleasure, as all dialogue should be concise and eloquent, even when coming from an uncouth, unlettered character, if that makes sense, but at the same time, it is nice to know I can play with my characters. I don’t have to get them to point Z from point A in a hundred thousand words. I have room to fiddle with them, to let them organically guide me through the city full of plot-mines I have planted behind a largish cast that I can bring in and take out as I need. I wonder if this is the feeling J.J. Abrams and crew had with Lost (even if they sorta claim to know where they were going with that). Well, off and up I go. Hopefully, I won’t cop out and have a white light and everyone be dead at the end, eh?

There are instants where it actually isn’t all that bad, but in those cases, it typically isn’t called by this term either.  Things such as random dumb luck, a single coincidence (authors are usually allowed one before they get called on being too convenient), or the laws of physics bending but being explained on the why of it.  But, those aren’t what I’m here to talk about.

No, I’m here to talk about the bad.  About the Terry Goodkind lobotomizing his characters so he can write his “philosophical treatise with fantastical elements” or even Tolkien completely ignoring the Eagles as a means of getting the Ring to Mordor.

The typical worst instance of A.F. is when a character forgets who and what they are and makes a decision that is a really sucky decision for no reason at all.  Sometimes these are supposed to be covered up by “gut feelings” and “hunches”, but really, they are thinly veiled attempts of the author writing themselves out of a corner.  And it usually comes down to a bad effort at plotting.  Either the characters are to smart and need to be occasionally dumbed down for the badies to even pose a threat (such as the characters forgetting things they saw or heard only moments before), or the good guys are just out matched and out gunned and need to have dumb luck or random strokes of Idiot Savant-hood.  Yeah, really kills the story for me.

Slightly less horrible is when a random unrelated event conveniently changes the course of the plot.  A person was thrown off their horse and died (looking at you GRR Martin), or a meteor crashes and kills someone, or the peasants who had been off screen and apparently unreliable did manage to show up and save the day.  It is just about as bad as when a Dungeon Master gets angry at their players and has them all be eaten by a dragon.  Not that I play AD&D or anything . . . nope.  Not me. (really, not me.)

So . . . oh heck.  I don’t even know where I was going with this.  Authorial Fait bad! Fire good!  Plotting and character balancing good!  Random meteors bad!  That is all.

So, spoilers.  OK, in season two of Lost, which I just now finished, they kill three, count them, three romantic interests.  One was a major character, one was a semi-major character, and one had the promise in the episode before she died that she would be a major character.

First death, I appreciated the drama.  It made sense; it built to the tension and the plot, and was on the whole a good thing.  Second and Third deaths happen in the same episodes, and by the gods, it made me hate the character who killed them, and not as a “person” but as a “bad character.”  I can’t fully mesh the back-story of the character to the way he is acting presently.  Of course, I guess the beauty of lost is they can kinda retcon things as needed with a new flashback.

But, furthermore, the second and third slayings were very foreseeable.  Not foreshadowed mind, no, you can tell from the way the scene plays out that it is supposed to be a complete and utter surprise to the audience.  The only surprise I had was “really, actually did that?”  In a show that has so far been good about making you think one thing might happen then throw a curveball the other way, well, it was odd.  I’m guessing that some people will disagree with me, but it thing about it in retrospect.  Two super major characters get romantically involved in a show that has thus far killed off the only girl to have sex on the island on screen.  Granted, the third slaying didn’t, but it was just as miraculous considering who she was falling for.  You then kill them again as a cliff hanger to the episode, just like you did not even half a season earlier.  Overplayed, and the result was not me being freaked out, but instead let down.

Now, I grouse, but I’ll still finish Lost.  Although, more and more, it is becoming a quest of “literary analysis” than a question of being drawn in.  More thoughts as I get to them (with a big one on authorial fait coming soon to a Fife-mart near you.)

Oh, one last thing.  Another thing that irks me about this trope, such as it is, is the cheapness of it.  Need to send your hero on a killing spree?  Kill his beloved, chop her up, and leave her in the freezer for him to find.  And why—WHY!?—is it always the girl that dies?  I’ll tell you why.  Because those goram stereotypical gender roles say the woman is weaker and her death will make the hero feel not only enraged, but a failure.  A failure for his inability to protect what he loves.  It’s like using swearing in Improv.  Sure, you might be able to get a quick laugh out of it, but in the end, it is just bad humor.  Killing a romantic interest makes sense if it makes sense in the story.  If it is just to spice up the drama, well, you failed.

I’m going to stop ranting now.  See ya Tuesday.

So yeah, plot simplicity.  If it doesn’t develop a character in a meaningful way, or in some way progress the plot, you don’t need it.  At least, that is the “rule of thumb.”  Personally, I don’t agree with that as I feel the pacing of the plot is also a valuable tool.  Regardless, when plotting in general, you don’t put in a scene that doesn’t serve a specific purpose.

So, yeah, character’s birthday or family: does it serve a purpose?  Thing is, it can!  And, oh yeah, my entire grouse that the only time we see this is when it’s super plot critical.  Well, yeah, I didn’t say it has to be that critical to still be included.

In general, though, things to think about when plotting and trying to get pacing right.  1) Do you need to have a scene transitioning between to major plot points (travel scene, time passes scene, etc).  2) If you don’t, then only put one in if you absolutely must foreshadow or develop the plot and/or characters for another scene later on.  3) If you do, make sure that it is doing what 2) said to do.  A scene of just relating the facts of travel is painful (I know, I’ve written a few).  Find someway to show how to travel is affecting the people, or switch PoVs completely and show us something important going on somewhere else in the meantime.  Then come back, make a realistic yet still offhand comment about why the travel was not especially meaningful, and, in the immortal words of Monty Python, get on with it!

(BTW, this is more me screaming at myself than anything, so pay no mind if not needed )