Roads? Where we're going, we don't *need* roads.

[truepenny]

So, amongst the many problems confronting me in my persona as Mr Earbrass (with pen, ink, scissors, paste, a decanter of sherry, and a vast reluctance ...), my editor pointed out, very kindly, that The Mirador's structure is not so much a structure as a dog's breakfast.

Now, partly, this is due to a lack of signage (which is a not uncommon problem in my works), and that can be fixed.

Partly, it's due to the fact that I was and am trying to do something difficult and contrary, i.e., write a secondary world fantasy novel without a quest to structure it.

This is harder than you might think, especially if none of your characters are farmboys-who-are-sekritly-kings.

But this too can be dealt with by better signage, and, well, now that I've done it, I know what I'm doing, and can therefore do it better. (Learn by doing.)

But partly, it's due to the fact that two of the three major plot strands do not make sense unless, like the White Queen, you consider it a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.

Between my editor, matociquala, mirrorthaw, and me, I've figured out that much of what I need to do is rearrange the order in which certain events happen. (Pen, ink, scissors, paste, decanter of sherry, vast reluctance, check.) However--and here's the sticky bit--I cannot now and never have been able to hold all of this book in my head at once. So I'm rearranging structural elements of a structure I can't see. I can't even think of a metaphor to explain how much this makes my brain hurt.

So if I'm more than usually Eeyorish for the month of October, y'all will know why.

---

[GUILDENSTERN consults his watch.]
ROS: [without looking around] Shut up.
GUIL: I didn't say anything.
ROS: You have a sigh Leon Trotsky's icepick would envy.
GUIL: It's not like you don't know we have a deadline.
ROS: I'm working.
GUIL: Point of order: you are dungeon-crawling.
ROS: I'm thinking! It's like working.
GUIL: Only without the part where you actually get anything done. [beat] But don't mind me. I'm sure you have a master plan you just haven't bothered to tell me about.
ROS: Shut. Up.
[GUILDENSTERN consults his watch.]

Comments

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wonder whether it's a sign the story is 'too' complex if you can't hold it all in your head, or is that a sign it's finally complex enough and it's okay to be human and incapable of holding it all in your head?

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

If you can hold it in your head, it doesn't have enough going on to deserve to be a novel.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

That would be a short story, right?

Reminds me of my friend's explanation of How To Write Short Stories:

It involves being able to think of all sorts of cool complications and developments that could come of a scenario, and being willing to say, "That'd be really cool. Someone should write it. Somebody who's not me."

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Oh.

Clearly, I am doing this wrong.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Possibly you have a bigger head than I do. *g*

...that came out wrong.

Seriously, though, if I can get the whole plot of the thing in my head at once, it's a novella at best. For me, novels require index cards and whiteboards.

[chickwriter.livejournal.com]

I empathize greatly.

Am struggling with a sequel myself, with my editor doing the polite foot-tapping of, "Wow, so, when can we have it?"

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

It will be a great relief to read a fantasy novel WITHOUT a quest, OR a prince in disguise as a pigboy, and with characters who have some depth. All your main characters are very real so far, and I want to find out what happens next. I am looking forward to reading The Mirador so hurry and finish it. Do I need to drive down there and pour the sherry for you?

[mistri.livejournal.com]

I know many people frown on using anything that isn't grey matter, but I found Storylines software quite useful on my last wip. It's basically index card software, but easy to shuffle and you can set up multiple 'lines' (that you can drag cards along) for each story - I used it for a visual way to track character pov (as you can see all the lines at once - sorry, it's hard to explain), but you could use it for subplots or perhaps structure as well.

I wouldn't use it for every book, but I was glad I had it to hand for the last one.

[exceptinsects.livejournal.com]

Mr. Earbrass! Sitting on the floor with his vast reluctance.

Perhaps the thought of pheasant-feather pens and reams of cream-laid paper [whatever that is, exactly] would make the editing less onerous.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Well, if you find yourself wanting an Eeyoredote, I just peeked in to mention I was reading your poem "Night Train: Heading West" in an old issue of MSP earlier tonight and enjoyed it (love the line "The cards / growl through her hands"). As well as your Milton-hating entry. (He doesn't happen to bother me, but I'm glad to see other D.H. Lawrence despisers in the house.)

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

*shares in the Lawrencehate*

[papersky.livejournal.com]

What I'd do in that situation is work on seeing the structure before poking at it any more.

(Well, actually, what I'd do is put my head in a bucket and sing "La, la, you can't make me open that directory", this is what I'm doing with Lifelode after all. But.)

It seems to me that nearly all the problems you've mentioned with this book come from you not having the structure in your head. Not the whole book, the structure. And you've revised it so much now that just the stratigraphic layers have to be confusing.

There are various ways of looking at structure which seem to work for other people, but what I'd do in this situation is to leave it alone for as long as possible to forget as much of it as possible (that means you get at least today off) and then thinking about nothing but the structure, look at the structure from on top, possibly making a diagram, how you want it, pacing of revelation (this is what I'd absolutely be bound to screw up in this sort of revision) pacing (and order) of events, and shape of story.

I'd also walk somewhere and reduce the story to the simplest line -- "what's essential, what is this about" -- so it's not "this is part of a huge ball of wool" ("a chunk of the Trojan cycle") but "this is these strands, which interweave thusly" ("Sing Goddess of the wrath of Achilles, Peleus's son") and see if that helped -- I mean it has to be doing a huge amount of carry-on from the first two books, and a chunk of set-up for Summerdown but just looking at what it is itself.

Not a quest is very hard. Cool, but challenging.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

As a loyal reader, I'd like to point out that contemplating ritual suicide by scissors is right out.
If old Earbrass could fix his novel, so can you, because you're a much better writer than he, even when he was really on his game.
Don't eat the paste, either.