I finally figured out why my fantasy is proving so damn difficult. It's basically a dystopian dark fantasy about a cosmic war between two gods vying for souls to boost their own strength, and the mortals did the actual fighting and dying on their behalf. I was dealing with more variable than I had thought I needed. I mean, this isn't a ye olde story of shooting the big bad emperor in the face and riding off into the sunset to the lute and harp playing in the background. It's a literal cosmic war. I actually managed to create a stupidly complicated storyline thinking it'd be relatively easy 'cause others have done it before. -_- That's like me saying I can do quantum physics because Stephen Hawkings or Neil deGrasse Tyson does it! >_> sighs Where do I go from here? How do you tackle complicated storylines?
You can start by being more clear with what exactly you're going for. Are you going for more Lord of the Rings or Lovecraft?
A general rule of thumb is you world build on a Macro level (God's view) but you do storytelling on a Micro level (human's view)... this is NOT an absolute, but for many storytellers especially fantasy/sci-fi, it works. Take Avatar: TLA, what is it? Is a story about a chosen one who has been reborn hundreds of times with god like powers joining forces with several nations to fight against a powerful empire that has been trying to conquer the world for over a hundred years. OR is it a story about a bunch of kids traveling together, going from town to town, to help people, while they learn about each other and themselves. The obvious answer is... it's both. But the first is the Macro view, the second is Micro view. The second is smaller in scale and more often involves individuals and their role in the world. Eventually they do tell the more epic stuff but they establish the more personal view first and more often (which helps give the epic stuff more epic ness). Now you don't have to tell your story from the micro level at all, but if it feels "too big" I would go micro. Pick a big battle or important time period in the epic battle between gods... and then zoom in on a single person or small group. What does this epic battle between gods look like from the point of view of an average citizen. How do the God's actions effect people's everyday lives. This could open up many doors while also being more manageable (you don't have to focus on EVERYTHING just what is relevant to the specific story) If your story is too big, focus in on something small, go deeper not wider. my 2 cents
That doesn't answer my question, really. What are you trying to say with this story? You say a mix between Lord of the Rings and Avatar. Okay... what about it? What do you want people to think? What do you want people feel? What do you want people to know?
Relatively easy? I don't think Hawking or Tyson necessarily found it relatively easy to 'do' quantum physics Is it complicated or is it vast? A small royal court murder intrigue could be more deftly woven that two cosmic wars, if you ask me. Anyway, one piece at a time is probably the way to go. The more you can figure out in planning, the less you need to figure out in drafting. Fill in the spots as they come, give up on it being a sequential process. If you're very much as square one, try out some random scenes to see what kind of tone and characters have adhesion to the project.
I tackle complicated story lines by having my novels end up too long for their genre. I manage to bring all the plot lines home, I definitely manage that. But high word count? Whew!
