Ideas take time. Farewell to Jordan.
Monday, September 17th, 2007So I had this dynamite opportunity that sucked up all my time for the last three months. The way it goes I guess. But ‘evil has suffered. Just the way it has to be. The reality is that it’s touch and go and tug of war until I can get this thing to start paying it’s own way.
But this comment from Stephen helped me put a few things into perspective.
Chill out. My RSS reader is patient. What works is lots of ideas. Ideas take time. Even Newton complained about how long it took to get a new idea to make sense. Remember Newton? First with the reflecting telescope (the Newtonian), white light is made up of colors, calculus, orbital calculations, and on and on ad nauseum? And both Rawlings and Tolkien are known to have rewritten a chapter from scratch to fix some flaw in it. But in the end, it’s worth it.
He’s right. It takes time. An especially because I’m trying to crack a very unusual kind of story. How do you write a guy that’s smarter than you? How do you give Edwin obstacles? Either he gets pounded flat ’cause he’s got no powers, or he’s so smart nobody can overcome him. It’s a very narrow middle ground.
One of the things I’ve been doing is analyzing how novels are constructed to suck the readers in and make them care about the characters. I’m really trying to clear a lot of story bullshit from my head by going back to books that worked on me and trying to figure out why. Harry Potter does it instantly. Ender’s Game, the same. Sympathy, jeopardy and suspense. Throw in a little comedy, and that’s probably all there is.
So on my quest to revisit books that sucked me out of my life and into their world, I picked up the first book in the Wheel of Time Series. Strange that as I start his book, I learn that Robert Jordan has just passed away. Condolences. Here’s a quote from him that I find oddly appropriate right now
“If you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin to the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips”
Anyway, at the beginning of the book he takes a group of ordinary villiagers and thrusts them into an extraordinary situation. One could make the case that it’s Hobbits and the Shire covered over with a fresh coat of paint — but, honestly, if you want to play that game, every character who faces adversity with his friends is a frigging Hobbit. And how would it be possible to write fantasy without echoing Tolkien? Or Mythology?
But I don’t care about that. But what I notice is that, because he’s put an ordinary person in an extraordinary circumstance, we’re already on board. Harry Potter is the same thing. Basically he wakes up one day and after a life of misery and pain, he discovers he has magical powers. After that, it’s details. But the central question is, how does he come to grips with who he finds himself to be.
I’m having some success working it out with Edwin, but it’s difficult. And all the podcasts and writing so far are basically notes. I’m testing out ideas, playing with the characters.
And thank all of you for bearing with me. I promise the ride is only going to get more interesting from here.
