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Posted By: Eleika Sep 28, 2004 - 12:02 am

So I limp back here in shame, having abandoned the Holy Sacred Speculative Vision for months on end, only to rekindle my faith once more ...

Seriously, folks, I was just busy. Sorry! I've missed you guys!!! Nice to see some new faces, as well.

I'm actually in a bit of a conundrum. And I hate for that to be my only reason for returning, but I've always found excellent feedback and support here (*sniff* it's my home *sniff*) so I thought I would post. I'm rather busy this semester, too, with even less time to hang out than usual, but my writing is at a critical stage for me ...

OK, enough digressing. Here's my problem:

I'm writing a fantasy novel, same one I was working on a year ago. It's progressed several chapters since then, which is to say, I got to about Chapter Six sometime in I think January, and then a series of unfortunate events turned me off writing altogether. (Well, except for my Kaera short story cycle, but that's another story entirely).

I have two main characters, whose story I alternate between. They both start out fairly naïve, and slowly learn about their destinies. One of them, Raya, has had self-induced amnesia for the past 7 years, and so for the first four or five chapters, she has flashbacks and little snippets of memory that come to her, usually in dreams. Half the time she forgets before she wakes up.

She literally remembers as a self-defense mechanism sometime around Chapters 6 and 7. She's confronted by enemies from her past, and they say some things that open the floodgates, so to speak.

Knowledge is power, and suddenly, for Chapters 7 and 8, she's able to put a whole bunch of the puzzle together. She's spent the beginning part of the novel faced with confusing situations that she simply doesn't understand. Coupled with the knowledge from the past, she is able to put two and two together, and confront a few people on her own.

My concern is the whole mystery part of the story. All of this happens about the third of the way through the novel (I hope it to be about 21 chapters in length). The mystery of her true identity is only the beginning, and there are other pieces of the puzzle that have yet to be revealed even once she knows who she is.

So what about tell-alls? Are they really okay devices? Her friend witnessed the bad guys visit her, and comes to her emotional rescue just after the bad guys leave. She has someone to talk to about her memories, and she starts explaining A Whole Lot. "This is what happened to me and why." The following chapter, Raya puts that knowledge to use, and corners someone who she knows will have more information. Another tell-all occurs, filling in even more gaps in her mental picture.

And yet the story is only just beginning, still ... like I said, it's a third of the way through. I know what's bothering me the most is that it feels like I've written a major climax scene. That's actually where I stopped writing for awhile, because even though the overall novel wasn't finished, I'd just put her through a traumatic event, and she'd survived.

Both of these tell-alls are important and necessary, first for the reader, and then for Raya, when she learns information that will be crucial to the rest of the story. But it feels like by having these tell-alls, I'm giving away the mystery. In reality, I'm just getting those issues out of the way, making way for the bigger mysteries and conundrums that follow.

Is it wrong for me to provide the reader with a false sense of security, a temporary sense of "Aha! Now I get it!"? I know that this is going to happen a few times during the story. Rather than building emotional tension and dragging it out like a bloody soap opera, I take a few key issues and dump them on their heads.

In my experience of fantasy novels, this is rarely so. Does that make it wrong or bad? Is it better to stretch out the problems, and have the characters know virtually little more than they did when they started, only to understand EVERYTHING after they've killed the bad guy, or just before?

More importantly, would you read a story that did this?

If anyone's interested in reading it and giving me specific feedback, I've posted it here. (Note to Bmat: it's only off-site because there's so much formattiing in it, which takes a LONG time to put into an SV post, whereas I can toss a word doc into Frontpage in a matter of seconds. There's no bad words or anything. I'm a good girl, honest! )

Posted By: chowder Sep 28, 2004 - 03:39 am

Hi Eleika

I had the same feelings while writing my last ms--there were a lot of revelations that had to take place.

I didn't want to reveal everything too early nor did I want to do a big, answer-all-your-questions final chapter.

I fed the info/answers into the story as necessary--whenever I felt the actual info would move the story forward.

I don't think you need worry if you have a intense/climatic revelation early. By the sounds of it, you plan on having more.

Readers don't finish books simply to discover what 'happens', they also read to the last page because they care about the characters.

I've not had a chance to read your story, but I will when I have time. Hope I've helped a bit. I guess I just want to say--keep writing as you are.

Posted By: Eleika Sep 28, 2004 - 03:50 pm

Yeah, I'll do that.

Hrm. Ever get paralyzed by the fear that you're just not doing things right? That you could be wasting years on a project that's your baby, only to find out it's not as great as you intended it to be? That's my biggest fear right now. I need to try to move forward.

Posted By: chowder Sep 28, 2004 - 05:40 pm

Eleika

You're right, keep moving forward.

The great thing about writing is--you can always revise and tweak until it's just as you dreamed it would be.

And we all have those moments of doubt/fear. Ignore them. Instead let them fuel your passion to complete the project.

Good luck, Eleika.

Posted By: Magus Sep 28, 2004 - 05:42 pm

In my opinion giving the readers a false sence of security will make the bigger mysteries all the more entreguing and the story all the more gripping. That's one thing I love about Dan Brown. He will set a scene up where you think you know something, the killer or the victem, and then he'll feed you information in such a way where it confirms your suspisions. And then, when you think you know it all, the whole thing is unravelled and you see things for what they really are. I your story is even a fraction of that then it'll be more then my pleaseure to someday read it. It sounds awsome. I hope you work through this little conundrum of yours. But I say just keep doing what you're doing and you'll be fine.

I'll go and read it when I can. I may be able to get some feedback to you by tomarrow, but ore likely a little later. Depending on how long it is I may not be able to give so specific and detailed an evaluation as I usually do, or maybe not so soon. But I can hardly wait to read it.

Posted By: Magus Sep 28, 2004 - 05:44 pm

That kind of reminds me of Stephen King in his memoir On Writing, when he talks about The Stand. He said that if it had been any other project of his he would have dumped it, having as much trouble as he was having on it. But since he had worked so hard and long on it and that it was so leangthy already he couldn't just drop it.

To combat his troubles he began taking daily walks. I take walks when I'm in some trouble with my writing, too. Trust me, it really does work.

Posted By: chowder Sep 29, 2004 - 03:05 am

Unlike King, stay off the road when you go for your walks.

Posted By: Eleika Sep 29, 2004 - 03:09 am

And unlike me, avoid walking with four friends casually late at night when there are gangs roving the area who mistake you for their rivals.

Posted By: Magus Sep 29, 2004 - 03:45 am

I don't know, that's what's driven him to finish The Dark Tower series. Even some good can come from the horrendously tragic.

Posted By: Eleika Sep 29, 2004 - 03:52 am

That's true. And I have an attack scene coming up later that will greatly resemble what happened when the thugs descended on my friends and I.