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Plot Points

Back in Junior High, I learned the basic layout of a fictional story. It looked a bit like the diagram above. That’s definitely a good start.

Consuming

The magic doesn’t come from within the director’s mind, it comes from within the hearts of the actors. ~James Cameron

I’ve been enjoying a variety of superhero shows in order to get my head back into the genre so I can finish my first novel. I’ve been keeping an eye for the kind of deeply woven storylines that I loved in the works of Charles Dickens. I really enjoy the surprises embedded in long fiction. I was particularly pleased with the plot twist in this week’s episode of Black Lightning. The storyline is maturing in interesting ways. Gambi’s double-dealing has been exposed to the Pierce family, but fortunately not to the A.S.A. (whoever that is). I imagine it’s only a matter of time before they find out and then the stuff’s really gonna hit the fan.

The kind of deep plot planning that you see in the Marvel Netflix series for Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist that wound up leading naturally to The Defenders is also quite a treat for me. Marvel did it in the individual hero movies that led to The Avengers and eventually to the Infinity Wars. DC sort of did it with the movies leading up to Justice League although, having not seen it, I don’t know if the threads from Man of Steel, Wonder Woman and Batman v Superman actually tied together in any kind of way. I don’t think they did, but I’ll have to wait and see Justice League to be certain.

Producing

My writing process is chaos. I usually start with an overarching theme. Then I establish several story threads, but I don’t outline. I just start writing and keep notes for what may come. It’s an organic process that’s usually pretty flexible. ~Lisa Lutz

I don’t know if I’d characterize my process as chaos, but I do just start writing and keep going until I’ve painted myself into a corner. The terrible thing is that it doesn’t happen until at least ¾ of the way through the story. I know where I want to get to, but the characters just refuse to participate. I usually trust the narrative that unfolds in this way, but it leads to really strange detours and it is quite difficult to weed out the odd bits and get back on track. The weeds of weirdness really want to hold on like a deeply rooted thistle.

I have been trying an outline technique that I hope will help me get back on track. What I’ve done is to identify the major sub-plots, summarized them and then answered the basic questions (where, when, who, what, how, why). Asking these questions in that order particularly has allowed me to really get to the heart of what the relevant characters are motivated to do. With that in mind, it’s easier to see how they’d pursue their plots, react when thwarted by circumstances or the actions of other characters and what happens if they attain their goals.

I was also having a problem identifying the motivation of the extra-dimensional alien adversaries known as the Chaosians. Well, yeah, they want chaos but how do you define that in an overarching plotline? I had no idea for quite some time. I really couldn’t get my head around why these Chaosians ever got here in the first place (darned wizards) or what they want once they’re here (chaos, of course). I didn’t want them to just be random comic book demons or stock issue monsters. I needed a real motivation of some kind for these guys. Well, it finally came to me. Now that I have it, I want to reveal it in the scope of the books (yes, I plan to write at least 5 Sentinels novels) without just coming right out and explicitly saying it. Where’s the fun in that?

Doing Good

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else. ~Charles Dickens

One of the marvelous things about fiction is the ability to express an idea metaphorically. Dickens was a student of the plight of people in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution. Society was turning upside down. Some people were making a quick buck while more than a few of their fellows were left behind in dreadful squalor. An earnest young protagonist was subject to the dastardly plans of villains at every tier of society. Some of them had secret benefactors. Some had the occasional turn of good luck. He seemed to be keen on laying out the path to success in a crapsack world full of devious tricksters and malevolent perpetrators.

Unfortunately, we’ve come back around. Instead of a crapsack world of early industrialism, we’re living on the cusp of what could become an absolute crapsack world of informationism. The Information Age is upon us. Computers have been around since the 30’s but personal computers have only been what we recognize as such since the late 80s. I remember the early hobby computers that linked a TV, a tape recorder and a processing unit. I remember fiddling around with a Commodore64. I typed a paper on my girlfriend’s computer in college. All very interesting, but it wasn’t until the 90’s that the personal computer with Windows 3.1 became the creature that we know and depend on today. So, in a quick three decades, we find ourselves on the brink of a fascist dystopia. The darkest nightmares of Cyberpunk fiction hasn’t been realized literally, but it’s not far off. People live in horrific squalor because they’ve been taught a lie by people who want to control them and make them dependent. We’re still early enough in the cycle to allow anyone who really wants to a slim opportunity to bootstrap themselves out before the window closes entirely.

Rather than writing tales of plucky protagonists dodging dreadful villains and outrageous misfortune, we need to be writing tales that pry the window open wide enough for everyone to live free and happy.

I happen to like Star Trek. I’d like a Star Trek future. Unlike Gene Roddenberry, I believe there will still be money in the future but I can see a bright shining future where people do things that allow them to be intellectually fulfilled and functioning in their best possible role in society. There are some who don’t. There are some who don’t think there’s anything beyond the end of their own noses. Screw the world and everyone in it as long as they have a walled estate and a band of bodyguards to keep the smelly proles away. Unfortunately, these people are very adept at thriving in a crapsack world. The more they shape the world to their own warped perspective, the more warped it becomes for the rest of us.

Like Dickens, it is our job to immortalize these people in their villainy. Expose them to the current generation and excoriate them for generations to come. Do good by exposing the bad. Put pen to paper, my friends and give ’em hell.

I’ve had a lifelong love of wonderful fiction. There’s nothing quite so enjoyable as an engaging story and I’m looking to make my contributions available to you this year.