Plot(z)

[the_gneech]

There are a lot of things to admire about Wodehouse, but it occurred to me today, as lythandra and I rode along listening to Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, that what I admire most about him from a "writing craft" point of view, is his ability to turn his cotton-candy-silliness into real stories -- that is, to give them an actual plot.

I have nothing but trouble with plot, myself. I can come up with interesting characters, turn the occasional phrase, and bubble along with an entertaining narrative, but I have a rotten time coming up with what actually happens. Part of my goal with the Fictionlets has been (get ready for the big reveal!) to teach myself to find a story in all these little bits and pieces. You'll find (I hope) that most of the Fictionlets, should you decide to go back and read them, are designed to work as stand-alone pieces, as well as being chunks of a larger whole. A few of them build directly on others, but most of them can be read in isolation without losing that much. They each have a beginning, middle, and end, even if some of the smallest ones move so quickly from item to item that if you blink you'll miss it.

The big problem comes when I start to look at a larger storyline. I have one idea for a Brigid and Greg novel which I think is a viable one, but it's really more of a sketch than a whole story. I have a good premise, several usable scenes, and an ending I particularly like, but the problem is that most of the middle of the idea is "SOMETHING FUNNY HAPPENS HERE."

I'm not entirely sold on the idea as a launching point, either; one of the people I bounced it off of said it would make a good "second or third B&G book" but he wasn't so sure about it being a first, and he may be on to something with that -- but on the other hand, as far as potentially novel-length stories go, it's the only idea I've got at the moment.

"Just as well, Gneech," you may be saying to yourself, "'cause you need to be focusing on those comic strips of yours as it is." Well, yes, you have a point. But the thing is, besides being a cartoonist, I also want to be a novelist, if for no other reason that there is an actual chance slightly better than a snowball's in hell of making a living that way. But there'll be no living made if there are no novels written, so I need to stop mucking around and get serious about it. (I am also, let's be honest here, praised a lot more often for my writing than I ever am for my art. The art is serviceable, but it's the writing that people come for.)

So that's where my mind is right now, furiously multitasking on several things and not making a lot of headway on any of them, but in particular banging my head on the brick wall of "Yes, but what HAPPENS?" I sometimes feel like what I need is for some enterprising partner to hand me an outline and say "Go for it!" But I suspect that anybody I might know who could do such a thing, wouldn't particularly want to -- on top of which, I'm such a control freak that I doubt I would take it anyway.

Feh! Artistic neurosis is a hard thing to live with, let me tell you!

-The Gneech

Comments

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

And yet, you seem to come up with decent plots for your comics. I miss "Never Never."

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) It ain't easy. ;)

FWIW, NeverNever is another iron in the fire. :) I miss it too!

-The Gneech

[dhlawrence.livejournal.com]

What about short stories? You don't have to keep the plot going as long, but you need to come up with more of them. Kind of a trade-off, but it's worth a shot.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

The problem with short stories, is "market." If the pulps were still out there, I'd have a writing career already! ;) But they aren't, so I have to look at where the action is, so to speak.

-The Gneech

[the-sedgwicks.livejournal.com]

I really like the fictionlets. I've once brought a few to my creative writing class in college t show how dialogue can be the entire story. I like the idea of a book. I also like dhlawrence's idea of a collection of short stories. Good luck with it. I hope you post the ideas here. I know I wouldn't mind being a sounding board, and I'm sure others would like it too.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Then there's the idea of a book that is nothing more than 50 to 150 fictionlets. :)

Have the best

-=TK

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that will be in there, but I would prefer to start with something a little more traditional when it comes to the first book. :)

-TG

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'm flattered, thank you! :)

-TG

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

That is exactly why Talesar and Terres are just characters in my head. As much as I love them to death, I can't seem to make anything happen with them. OTOH, once I started writing Memories of the Dream, I keep finding lots of things to happen with them. The problem I have there is making it a viable (and believeable) world, and getting what happens to make sense in the grander, long term plot sense. But I'm making progress with that.

The other thing that keeps bugging me with Memories of the Dream is I keep struggling with my characterization, even though I feel I know these poeple now. Ah well. Another reason I keep plugging away at it. -Frisk

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Why do B&G have to become the feature length novel? Make them a collection of short stories akin to Jeeves and Wooster-- each chapter is really its own short story. Then use that adventure guy you had (shoot... I can't even remember real life names, and now I'm trying to remember a fictional character) who had to enter the tomb with the angry water goddess for the feature length novel. :)

Have the best

-=TK

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Why do B&G have to become the feature length novel?

Because there ain't no market for short stories, that's why! Gotta go where the money is if I want to have a chance of making a living at it. B&G have potential to do well in the current climate; Benjy Hale (if you are talking about the story I think you are), for all his likeability, does not.

-The Gneech

[rowyn]

Because there ain't no market for short stories, that's why!

It's true that the market for short stories is abysmal. However, some authors manage to sell their stuff as "novels" by collecting up several short stories about the same characters and packaging them together as a book. I don't think the average reader even really notices that each "chapter" is a self-contained story, so long as there's a bit of continuity to it.

[mr-squiddle.livejournal.com]

(pops up)

I diagrammed Plum's Uncle Fred In The Springtime recently. It's baroquely complicated -- unless you follow the money, in which case it's simple. Most of the book consists of authorially delaying two sums of money from getting from points A and A' to points B and B': in other words, the process was (perhaps) not so much about thinking of what could happen next as knowing what happens next and trying to stop it happening.

So I concluded, anyway.

(pops down)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

I haven't read much of the non-Jeeves & Wooster Wodehouse yet (I'm currently working on the "Mr. Mulliner" stories), but most of the novels I have read are like that ... he sets up five or six "problems" at the beginning and Bertie (or whomever the particular hero is) spends the rest of the book playing "Whack-a-Mole" trying to knock the problems back down into their holes. :)

Wodehouse's genius from a plotting POV is coming up with problems that A) can sustain a whole novel, B) feed off of each other and intensify, C) set up terrific comic set-pieces, and D) require a clever solution.

The comic set-piece (e.g., "Sir Watkin Bassett and Stinker Pinker at village carnival, add wayward child with hard-boiled egg, stir") is one of the elements I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around, sort of similar to my squeamishness about using fantastic elements in my fantasy stories. I have trouble "letting go" and allowing the wild things to happen. That may be half of my problem right there.

-The Gneech

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

*whispers* Let go, Gneech, let go!

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to help you with plotting. If you would like some help, let me know.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind! I do enjoy your "Three Stories" posts. :)

-TG

[ski-fox.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain, Gneech. Just tweak the details to fit composing music and tah dah! you have my dilemma. I've got a strong beginning, a solid concept for the ending, and several good themes to work with (I write for orchestra and chamber ensembles, FYI), but filling in all the gaps requires much banging of the head against the wall, or the desk, or whatever hard surface happens to be convenient. I don't have the problem of needing to create humor, but music has its own unique set of demands. However, knowing your work, and my own of course, I am confident that we shall both prevail in our artistic endeavors.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered how well I'd do in music if I'd had the training when I was younger. I don't have the attention span to learn it these days, although that may change some day. :)

-TG

[ski-fox.livejournal.com]

That's the nice thing about music - it's never too late to learn. And just in case you're interested, my current project is theme music for Kitten Kaboodle. ^_^

[rowyn]

Thinking about it, I'm more drawn to the art on Suburban Jungle than I am to the writing.

But with that said, I much prefer the Brigid & Greg fictionlets to SJ. I get the impression that SJ has won priority not because you love it more than writing, but because you get more instant gratification from it. No toiling away for months or years to produce a book that you then have to shop to publishers. And while you can publish stories to the web, getting people to read it is another story. Fictionlets like B&G are perfect for LJ, but even short stories are too long for most people to read online, in my experience.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well, yes and no; one major reason SJ has priority is that compared to the Fictionlets (for example), it requires a lot more work to pull off. Assuming I have a good idea, I can bang out a Fictionlet in 20 minutes or less, while even a simple SJ takes at least an hour and a half.

I do admit that I'm impatient with the publishing process, tho. When I finish writing something, I am always eager to get feedback on it. :)

-TG

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

yeah, yeah, what he said. Now make comments on Memories of the Dream. *makes puppy dog eyes at everyone*

[rowyn]

one major reason SJ has priority is that compared to the Fictionlets (for example), it requires a lot more work to pull off.

But if SJ and the fictionlets were equally important to you, this would be a clear argument for doing more fictionlets and less SJ. Presumably you get additional satisfaction from doing SJ that Greg and Brigid do not provide.

...


And if you don't, why are you still doing SJ? >:)

[confusedoo.livejournal.com]

I think a good first novel might revolve around how the pair came to live together. It seems like it would be quite the story, and I think it's important for the readers to understand the basics of their 'relationship' so that the comedic effect of people like Bridgid's mom and Greg's uncle is magnified.

Completely unrelated: I'd love to see a Bridgitte & Greg, i.e. "We've secretly replaced Greg's roommate Bridgid with Bridgitte Neilson. Let's see if he notices." I think that would be pretty funny.

[jedi-iwakura.livejournal.com]

I came back to this post to tell you that I think your skills with dialogue are fantastic.

Do you do much work in your Fictionlets that involves descriptive-type story-telling? I have yet to go through and read all the Fictionlets I can get my paws on, but I'm just curious if you do.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well thank you! *^.^*

Do you do much work in your Fictionlets that involves descriptive-type story-telling?

Hrm ... I'm not sure exactly what you mean by descriptive-type. :) Most of the Fictionlets are just quick vignettes without a lot of action, although there are a few where Brigid goes to town on some deserving shmuck. ;)

Can you be more specific?

-TG

[jedi-iwakura.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry!I meant as in not so much dialogue as there is narrative. Using narrative to make and move a small plot. Um, like.. to give a setting and work through a campaign as GM, perhaps.