I’m sure there are plenty of books about it and several AIs are standing by ready to answer the question, but that’s not helpful for internalizing it.
Somewhere in all these writing posts, I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I realized something years ago: All my favorite TV shows are layered. There’s a show arc, a season arc, and an episode arc. For any given episode, they may not all advance, but they’re all there in the background.
I’m reading a series now (All Jobs and Classes! I Just Wanted One Skill, Not Them All! (LITRPG/EPIC PROGRESSION) – yes, that monstrosity is the series title; the book titles are Roman numerals) and I’m trying to figure out what “the plot” is. There isn’t one plot. It’s also layered.
For the Pack Rising series, the plot is: Tom and Luke (with friends) make a better world using the System. That’s this part of the blurb (as it currently stands; it will probably change):
You Asked For It is the first book about a pack and its allies who will rise to the challenge and create something wonderful in the midst of chaos.
That doesn’t really exist as a driving force, yet. If you look carefully, you might be able to see it, but it’s subtle. In book one, they’re still too new at everything to have such a lofty goal. From chapter 20:
“What do you want?”
Tom considered the question. “I want to create a libertarian utopia where gay couples guard their marijuana garden with pink 50 cals.”
Zeke laughed.
“Yeah,” Tom agreed, “the utopia part is stupid. I’m mostly serious about the rest. I’m Lord of Sector 1,208; it’s about half of South Dakota, if you were wondering. The System has given me some remarkable opportunities. Opportunities I’ve taken advantage of to gain power. Power I couldn’t have dreamed of, before. It’s not even been two months. But if this is happening to me, some guy on vacation, what else is happening out there? Power must be wielded. But to what end?”
Zeke was surprised. “That’s not quite what I was asking. What do you want from me?”
The plot, or perhaps “theme” would be a better word, of each chapter is the title of it.
- Initialization
- Wildlife
- The World
- Neighbors
- Supplies
- Exploring
- Out
- Trekking
- Wolf’s Life
- Magic
- Party
- Farmer
- Beer
- Sector
- Dungeon
That’s the first half (“ish” I’m beginning to think it may run longer than expected). The title, You Asked For It, is really about Chapter 1, not the whole book. The book needs an arc. I think it has one, but it seems lost on my alpha readers, which means it doesn’t exist. I’m going to throw subtlety to the curb and make it explicit: Numbers Go Up. This is about half-done, right now.
I think I need smaller arcs. The first five chapters are short (only about six pages; maybe ten on a Kindle). Then they lengthen into a more normal size. I still think a “chapter arc” is too small. I’m fine with “theme”. I do need something, though.
“Out” is where things start running out at their base-camp. They run out of coffee, beer, and electricity in that chapter. The arc of Trekking and Wolf’s Life is “finding ourselves”. The arc of Magic, Party, Farmer, and Beer is “meeting friendly people” (who will of course be helpful later). The arc of Sector, Dungeon, and Outed (the next one) is hard to define, which means I’ve done it wrong. I got feedback on that:
There was a big deal made about needing to go back to the campgrounds and “check the truck'” But, they never even looked at the truck. Was that all about finding the dungeon and it was some kind of compulsion?
It was, indeed, some kind of compulsion (or at least “nudge”), but one should not wonder about that. It should be obvious. I’ve cleared it up somewhat since that reader’s copy, but I don’t think sufficiently.
I think I just figured it out. Writing this was the key: “Oddly, given my focus on chapter theme, Chapter 16 – Outed straddles two arcs. The first part is finishing the Sector and Dungeon arc. The second part…”
The reason the arc in Sector, Dungeon, and Outed is hard to describe is because it is not the characters’ arc. It’s the System’s arc. The characters don’t know what’s going on, which means the reader does not, either. I’m going to need to rethink the reader/character dynamic. I’ve been avoiding the omniscient narrator, but I think he may need to step in. It makes things seem too arbitrary/random to the reader not knowing what’s going on behind the scenes. It makes sense to me because I know. It does not make sense to the reader because he doesn’t.
A book chapter is too short to be a TV episode. The “episode” arcs need to extend across multiple chapters, which they are doing (mostly unintentionally). I think it needs one more layer. And I think these need to be defined in advance, not dredged out after I’ve written them.
I wonder where I keep track of that. I have an “OutlineThingy.odt” document, but that’s not what I’ve been using it for. I think I will. I really need to investigate better writing tools.
Back to The Series With a Really Long Title (Including Parentheticals) Book VI. I just wanted to write this down while I was thinking about it.
Update: I may end up with continuous chapters. I just started on chapter 386. It’s kind of nice to have a series that rolls along as one giant book. I’m sure that’s a personal preference, but that’s why I don’t like short stories: Just as you get interested, it’s over. That’s also one of the reasons I don’t like movies: They’re too short; especially for the cost of them. Who cares about a two hour story? If the story doesn’t last days, or even weeks, what’s the point? It’s like talking to some random stranger in the grocery store. Sure, it’s nice to chat, but I’m not investing anything into the conversation.
Update: I’ve never said this explicitly, but LitRPG is full of light-hearted-ness. That’s why Luke is a mad genius and why Lupa exists. It not only needs to be full of battle and gore, but it needs to be funny, too. That’s what Dungeon Crawler Carl has going for it: It’s a hideous dystopia, but there’s a funny side-kick (the cat). I’m not going to quote the section of AJ&CIJWOSNTA Book VI that made me update this post because it’s long.
Update: And here it is the next day and this is still an open browser tab. Published.
Marked Up 