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Let Your Characters Fuck Everything Up
10 months ago
General
*SPOILERS* for Eye of the World - c.1990, a 35-y.o. Fantasy Novel *SPOILERS*
yes, same book as before. This is the straw that broke the camel's back (for me).
[teaching_how_to_write]
"darkest hour" mid-book, when everything has gone to shit, the party is split up, nobody is sure who is alive and who is dead anymore, one of the mini-parties fragmented off from the main party, naturally, has a disagreement on where to go next. They're not sure what to do anymore!
The Level-16 Bard wants to continue on the boat, they have a good, paying gig there, and the off-brand orcs can't reach them on the water, and the boat is going to Monaco-By-Another-Name. In Monaco-By-Another-Name, there's a beach, bards are a respected profession and they'll get PAID (instead of, y'know, shady innkeepers trying to steal their stuff in their sleep), they could go to Bard College and the Main Character could become a Bard, and there's a beach, for a "beach episode".
The Main Character and Bard's New Apprentice want to get off the boat and walk to not-Rivendell, because it's the Main Quest.
.....the author's solution is to have a monster appear and immediately kill the Bard. Only the characters who wanted to continue to not-Rivendell remain, so they go to not-Rivendell. *phew* Problem Solved!
What the hell, Main Character, were you honestly considering going to Bard College? You're a disgrace to this family, and you're going to not-Rivendell and getting a respectable profession, like Ranger! Seriously? Bard College?? You're dead to me, I have no son! Now get to Ranger School in not-Rivendell!
.....YOU EEEEEDIOT!!!
The whole point of writing is to get your characters talking, and write down what they have to say. This is harder than it seems. Once they are talking, keep them talking. Don't toss in a monster just 'cause you're a bored DM!
Be a fly on the wall. Just write down what they say. That's your job.
My rule-of-thumb, which I've learned the hard way, is give your characters the free will to fuck your story up.
Let them make choices that matter, even if it's the wrong choice.
Let them make mistakes.
Let them go south when they were supposed to go north.
If you do this, my experience, 1 of 3 things will happen.
1. The characters eventually find their own way to not-Rivendell, because in the world you built, it totally makes sense for them to go there.....eventually.... except their way of doing it is about 20% cooler than the lame-o story you had in mind!
2. The characters *never* go to not-Rivendell. You made an NPC the Viewpoint Character. Oops! This is a thing that can happen. Take stock of the characters who DO go to not-Rivendell, and put the Viewpoint on them..... but don't stop keeping track of the characters who went to Bard College. They will surprise you, and they *will* cross paths with the *actual* Main Character again at the most interesting time.....
3. You mean this is a story about Bard College?
Always has been.
[/teaching_how_to_write]
yes, same book as before. This is the straw that broke the camel's back (for me).
[teaching_how_to_write]
"darkest hour" mid-book, when everything has gone to shit, the party is split up, nobody is sure who is alive and who is dead anymore, one of the mini-parties fragmented off from the main party, naturally, has a disagreement on where to go next. They're not sure what to do anymore!
The Level-16 Bard wants to continue on the boat, they have a good, paying gig there, and the off-brand orcs can't reach them on the water, and the boat is going to Monaco-By-Another-Name. In Monaco-By-Another-Name, there's a beach, bards are a respected profession and they'll get PAID (instead of, y'know, shady innkeepers trying to steal their stuff in their sleep), they could go to Bard College and the Main Character could become a Bard, and there's a beach, for a "beach episode".
The Main Character and Bard's New Apprentice want to get off the boat and walk to not-Rivendell, because it's the Main Quest.
.....the author's solution is to have a monster appear and immediately kill the Bard. Only the characters who wanted to continue to not-Rivendell remain, so they go to not-Rivendell. *phew* Problem Solved!
What the hell, Main Character, were you honestly considering going to Bard College? You're a disgrace to this family, and you're going to not-Rivendell and getting a respectable profession, like Ranger! Seriously? Bard College?? You're dead to me, I have no son! Now get to Ranger School in not-Rivendell!
.....YOU EEEEEDIOT!!!
The whole point of writing is to get your characters talking, and write down what they have to say. This is harder than it seems. Once they are talking, keep them talking. Don't toss in a monster just 'cause you're a bored DM!
Be a fly on the wall. Just write down what they say. That's your job.
My rule-of-thumb, which I've learned the hard way, is give your characters the free will to fuck your story up.
Let them make choices that matter, even if it's the wrong choice.
Let them make mistakes.
Let them go south when they were supposed to go north.
If you do this, my experience, 1 of 3 things will happen.
1. The characters eventually find their own way to not-Rivendell, because in the world you built, it totally makes sense for them to go there.....eventually.... except their way of doing it is about 20% cooler than the lame-o story you had in mind!
2. The characters *never* go to not-Rivendell. You made an NPC the Viewpoint Character. Oops! This is a thing that can happen. Take stock of the characters who DO go to not-Rivendell, and put the Viewpoint on them..... but don't stop keeping track of the characters who went to Bard College. They will surprise you, and they *will* cross paths with the *actual* Main Character again at the most interesting time.....
3. You mean this is a story about Bard College?
Always has been.
[/teaching_how_to_write]
This was a case of "put your characters in danger of not obeying your plot, and make them dumb enough to submit to your first idea, without thinking of a better one."
But hey, he wrote an epic 16 volume narrative with a friend, then died about 12 volumes in, letting his friend finish the job.
Then his friend made a MUCH better story with about half the books, in a quarter of the time.
TWICE.
WITHOUT DYING OF OLD AGE.
... so what do I know lol
Que sera sera, glad I gave up about 30 pages into the first volume and donated the whole set of Christmas presents to Savers.
To be fair, the opening on the burning castle with the previous age's hero going insane in the final battle was a nice in media res hook, but everything else was about as compelling as waiting at the DMV.