Okay, so I have a big plot line in the back of my head thats screaming to come to fruition. The thing is, a lot of it is very complicated, and am wondering if I start off with one novel, is it a bad idea to use the first novel to explain more about the 'world' or the 'phenomenon' or would that just be boring because of the lack of action? Well let me explain a little bit about the plot. The main concept is a journey. My main character is looking to find his long lost Brother who disappeared from his household when he was in his early teens (12/13). The story is one of supernatural powers though. You see he only comes to the search at the start of his own death. It's pretty much a story, where in the first chapter the main character dies, and is lead the the universal weighting room for all newly deceased. When he gets there, he hears rumors about his brother, and searches him out to find him. Eventually, through his travels he learns that his brother, quite a famous man among the world of the dead, has some how discovered the way of resurrection and is now back in the world of the living. Yes it is a complicated idea right? So it would involve a lot of explanation right? That could all take place in one novel I believe. What I want to ask however, is, would that be boring? It would probably not have a lot of action, however the interesting concept might keep the readers interest. I know that if I write it well, then yes of course it will be interesting, however I just want a general opinion of the idea, and if it would hold a persons interest.
To be honest, and I'm not trying to undermine you here, but it doesn;'t seem complicated at all. Man dies, goes looking for his dead brother in what is basically purgatory, and finds out he's crossed back into the world of the living. What exactly needs to be described in this? It might give everyone a bit more to think about in their answers if you tell us what's so radical. From my point of veiw, most worlds are described in detail. Even books set in the real world often have lots of description. Fantasy and Sci Fi books need even more, but they aren;'t just books filled with description of a world. A world should be developed over the course of the book, just like characters. I personally dont think you will need an entire novel to describe your world. Hope I haven't sound angry or anything, coz I really don't mean to! Hope I've helped.
Well, I'm planning on having the world of the 'dead' to be very non linear. Like, stuff that happens in the world of the living effect it to an extreme degree. So when somebody commits murder, the negativity of the individual warps the world of the dead in a devastating way. So many areas are being constantly warped in placed of war and just high negativity. I was also planning on having the un-dead obtain supernatural powers, a magic kind of system that is not really similar to most magic systems in typical fantasy books, or telepathic stuff in others, which would take a lot of explanation to understand, though the readers would understand more about it as the main character learns about it. So a constantly changing world, and a different kind of supernatural ability all that need to be understood in some way anyway.
Hmmm. It sounds like a cool idea, but I still think that your worrying too much. It doesn't need to be complex. I mean, Tolkien described the whole back story involving Sauron and the rings in one small poem at the beginning of the book, I think. For example; 'Why is this place like the living world, only more extreme?' said character one. 'Death is an extreme thing,' said character two, who probably doesn;t feature much, but here is a narrative device, 'things that happen in the living world affect us too. Only it's worse here.' Ok that's a very crude example, but it's just to show how you can explain your idea in one small paragraph. I'm not trying to devalue your idea or rob you of anything here, I just think your worrying too much about it. I think it would actually take only a couple of paragraphs to get across your idea, if you wanted to set it out straight away, but if it's a novel then a few sentences/ line of dialogue here and there will slowly build your world up.
I'm with scribe, The basics of your story are not overly wild and crazy. And you are getting lost in the worry of setting up your world. In fact if done well, it will take you EVERY novel that relates to this world to build the world and make it make sense, because day two is not the same as day one, each change in your world changes the world you create. (ok that was confusing) The point is no you don't need multiple novels to create the story, and as for action, etc. Political intrigue, searching for answers, learning the changes, are in fact all action. You do not need fights of magical blasts, or swords men running screaming on the field to create intrigue and interest. Seth's body felt eerily tight as he woke to a mist filled room. His vision seemed muted as if all color was stolen from the world. Sitting up he felt a twinge, as if there was something crawling under his skin. Seth wished he didn't feel so heavy. "Ahhh, ahhhh, Help!" Seth's words were answered with abundant laughs. It wasn't the first time the dead had seen a new member join them, tripping across the new found power they tapped into. Seth's flight was only new, to him. There we have introduced magic, have said this is new when you die, and you will have to learn it, it may or may not be complex, but step one, was simply step one. Tomorrow Seth maybe learns how to weave fireballs, or bend the will of man, but today he is satisfied to fly, even though he never thought he wanted to. We know magic isn't new in this area, everyone has it to some extent. AND it was fun and exciting for the reader, but there was no blood shed no risk no anything dangerous. I say start writing and see where it goes
Samswriting put it perfectly. Also: I doubt there are many people who want to read a whole novel just setting up the world that the story takes place in. It would, unfortunatly, be incredably dull.
Just try to keep it simple, I mean what you have right now is not too complex, but if it takes you 10,000+ words to describe the world, it will be nigh on impossible to keep a readers attention. I'm sure you can sum it up in one chapter, or one hardcore prologue
