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  1. LadyErica

    LadyErica Active Member

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    Would this (lack of) plot interest you in a fantasy story?

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by LadyErica, Jan 1, 2019.

    So here's the thing. I mainly write sci-fi or horror, and I want to try something new, like fantasy. And like any good fantasy story, I want a long journey, complete with dangers, monsters, interesting areas to explore, magic and all that. However, what I don't want is yet another "unlikely heroes saving the world" cliché. So to make it short, I'm thinking about a world where all the magic comes from four crystals, one for each elements. Each crystal is located in a temple, and each temple is in a different tribe's territory. I say "tribe", as I don't want huge nations and all that. I want a small scale for each nation. Keep it simple, basically.

    In the story, each tribe sends one person on a pilgrimage to a "main temple" or some sort every ten years or so, for whatever reason. Recharge the crystal? Make an offering to the gods? Ask an oracle for a blessing? Dunno, it's not all that relevant yet. This is just brainstorming for now.

    But anyway, I'm thinking that's the entire story. We have one person from each tribe carrying a crystal, and they go to the... whatever the location is together. Here, they hand over the crystals, do their stuff, head back home, and that's about that. It's a long journey, and it can be quite dangerous. But it's also something they do regularly, like every 10, 20 or 50 years, or something. Maybe ever 100 years.

    In other words, think something like Lord of the Rings, but focused entirely on Frodo (or four Frodo's) heading to Mnt Doom to offer the ring to the gods. Then they go back home. The end. It's not a war going on, they are not trying to save the world, and the tribes are not at war with each other. There are plenty of other dangers, of course, but even if all four dies along the way, the tribes send new people on the journey. And as for the crystals, they aren't even important in the big picture. Each tribe has plenty of crystals. There could even be a crystal mine, so they have a near infinite supply of these crystals.

    Is this something you would want to spend time reading? The entire plot is pretty much pointless, as there are no real stakes involved, other than the heroes surviving. But they are trying to surviva a journey they never needed to go on in the first place, and if they die, it won't affect anyone else.
     
  2. Nariac

    Nariac Contributor Contributor

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    I think having no stakes is going to be a problem. I think it will be really hard to write a fantasy story where there are no stakes. I mean, you can have that in literary works, but I don't think it'll mesh with the expectations that exist around fantasy works. Readers will probably be expecting stakes of some kind.

    It seems to me though that you already have a stake - the reason these crystals need to be recharged. That's clearly done for a purpose by the tribes, so that purpose is the stake, surely?
     
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  3. Writeorflight

    Writeorflight Active Member

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    I don't think the lack of plot is the problem, you have a plot, I think it's the lack of consequences that's the issue, which you regard in your last paragraph.

    The only part that isn't quite making sense to me, is that the crystals themselves feel drastically un-important to the plot. Mainly being, if your MC's are risking life and limb to get these crystals to the temple, there better be an important reason as to why. If they travel 100 years just to get a blessing from an oracle, it feels like a major letdown to the reader. As a reader, I want the characters to NEED to get the crystals to the temple, and for a good reason. Something has to be detrimentally dependent on the crystals, or else the whole danger of the trip feels unimportant.
     
  4. Lilith Fairen

    Lilith Fairen Member

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    Well, what happens if the people sent with the crystals don't reach the temple? Does something bad happen to the tribes? What motivates them to send people on this pilgrimage? There has to be a reason why they'd send people on a potentially-perilous pilgrimage, even if that reason doesn't turn out to be true.

    Likewise, what does failure mean for each of the people chosen for the pilgrimage? Will they suffer dishonour? How will their families and loved ones be affected, aside from their deaths? And who are these people beyond this pilgrimage—how are they chosen and how do they accept their role? What stakes are there for each of the characters, beyond their possible deaths?

    For something like this, the characters would have to carry the story. Your readers will need to want to know what happens to those characters. What unifies them, their common trait, is the pilgrimage—but fleshing out the characters beyond this goal will be vital. This is especially so if there isn't a looming crisis or a major cost to their world/tribes if they fail.

    One of my current projects is something like this: an adventure-fantasy serial where there isn't a Big Bad to fight, terrible monsters all over the place, or some crisis threatening the world...just a young woman on a pilgrimage and those who join her in her travels. She has her overarching goal, but there's also various conflicts she becomes involved in, the stories of the people who join her, and her adventures along the way. As such, I've put a lot of focus into the arcs of the main characters and the lore of the setting, so that there's mysteries about the world and the people within that are teased, introduced, and eventually resolved. In short, there's no "this terrible thing will happen if they fail!", but I want readers to like the characters, be interested enough in the lore to learn more, and ultimately want to know the answer to the question that motivates the heroine.
     
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  5. Drake GreenWood

    Drake GreenWood Member

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    The problem is in a Sandbox RPG campaign many people think there is no plot.
    What people don't realize is that the best TOYs in the sandbox are NPC people.

    People with plans.
    - - If you choose as a PC to help someone..
    - - suddenly their personal plotline becomes yours.

    Even if your four characters in book are not choosing anything but; travel through rivers, roads, bridges, and tunnels from {A,B,C,D} to point E.
    They will trigger Plots and Plotlines of others.

    So in the End, the complex and intricate Plot of the Book is what they are struggling against, not what they are trying to complete.
     
  6. Seven Crowns

    Seven Crowns Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    There's always a plot, and that can't be avoided. The point is whether or not it's good, and that's what you're rightly concerned about. The plot is your character's journey through story. It has infinite permutations, and the author chooses the most interesting one, hopefully. You're sketching the story in your post. You can't avoid choosing a plot through it.

    What you're suggesting is not having a focused antagonist. Your characters are wandering from event to event and surviving. That's still a plot, and you still have to change the characters in some way. The MC can't remain static, only external characters do this, so make an internal conflict to the group. They're battling each other in some way. Maybe there's honor in completing the final quest and only one of them earns that right? All of them think themselves worthy and the journey will bear that out. That would be my approach. Of course, kill a couple of them and raise the stakes for the others.

    This type of loose "adventure-to-adventure" story is a called a picaresque. It's been done many times before. For some reason, I gravitate towards these types of books. The most classic example I can think of is "Candide" by Voltaire. It's kind of the granddaddy of them all. Just thinking of others I've read . . . The Sotweed Factor (Barth), Kidnapped (RL Stevenson), Barry Lyndon (Thackeray), Heart of Darkness (Conrad). Well, there's a lot of them. Don Quixote, I should mention, lots of Dickens and Twain, etc.

    There are modern examples too: The Goldfinch, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. My favorite two books of all time, and which happen to be relatively modern, are both picaresques: A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Suskind).

    The thing about a picaresque it has a character (called the picaro) who exists by his own wits. He (she too, I suppose, but I can't think of a female example. Hmmm . . .) is either devious or naive, and by luck or guile, makes his way through the world. His journey does change him though. You can't leave that aspect off or the plot (literally, his journey through story) will seem pointless. As long as your MC(s) emerge as different people, then there was something at stake. The conflict is internal, or at least it exists among the group. I would choose one character as the focus and then have the dynamics of the group shift as they progress. Kind of like one of those voted-off-the-island things that people love so much. Audiences love squabbling, back-stabbing groups. Have the characters turn on a dime at some point and come together for victory. Maybe the MC isn't the final victor (my instinct says that he/she shouldn't be). I think it could work.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2019
  7. Kalisto

    Kalisto Senior Member

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    Then I would suggest focusing at least on some kind of internal conflict for these characters. What is motivating these characters to willingly volunteer to take on this journey? You could explore different attitudes that each character takes and the consequences of each attitude on the overall journey.

    You could have someone not really want to be there, but is going because it's expected. You could have someone going because they want the glory. You could have one who feels sick and tired of people giving him attention and doesn't really have close friends. Even though the tribes aren't at war, they still have opinions of each other. For example, America isn't at war with France, but both the French and Americans have opinions about each other.

    So long as the story reflects something of the human condition, you can get away with it with some skilled writing and editing.
     
  8. LadyErica

    LadyErica Active Member

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    Thanks for the advice, guys. Much appreciated. :) I know there is a plot in the book, of course. I was just thinking that the plot isn't really deep, involved or very important. They get the crystals. They hand them over to the oracle, and they go home. That's it. That's the entire "plot". It never get any more complicated than that.

    That doesn't mean the story will be that simple, of course. The main focus is the adventure itself. A lot of things can happen along the way, and many of these things could lead to their own shorter stories. So in that regards, I could perhaps write it as an anthology. The overal plot is to deliver the crystals, but the main story consists of a lot of smaller stories, and these could certainly have high stakes involved. There could be a lot of people along the way that needs help with just about anything, from digging up buried pirate treasure in a haunted ship graveyard, to slaying a dragon. Anything goes. :)

    That doesn't mean there won't be stakes involved with the main plot, though. One idea is that they need to offer the crystals as a tribute to the gods, so their tribes will prosper, harvest will be great, and stuff like that. If they fail, they could make the gods angry, and their tribes will suffer because of it. People will have a much harder time surviving, but it's not the end of the world or anything. That's what I really want to avoid. I'm just so tired of saving the world. :)

    I'm still finishing up my last book, so I think I'll keep this one on the backburner for now, and let is marinate a bit. Maybe writing a short story to flesh out the characters and world will be the best, then I'll take it from there. We'll see. Thanks again for the advice, guys. Much appreciated. :)
     
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  9. surrealscenes

    surrealscenes Senior Member

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    If it has an exciting story that hooks me, I would read it.
     
  10. psychotick

    psychotick Contributor Contributor

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    Hi,

    So why not go for multiples plots / reasons for why your four characters are doing this. For one it's so he can return home a hero and marry his ladylove. For another it's because where he grew up they carve likenesses of the adventurers on posts to commemorate them down the years and he really wants that (or not to have his head standing up in field of other failures). Maybe a third's a criminal trying to win his freedom And a fourth really just wants to see the world and get out of town.

    Cheers, Greg.
     
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  11. LadyErica

    LadyErica Active Member

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    As I said, I'm just brainstorming a bit here. Right now I don't even know if I'll write the story. But if I do, I will of course expand on everything, build the world in more detail, develop the characters better, and all that. But right here and now, the real question is if it's worth reading a story if there's no real stakes involved for the overal plot. I know four people will set off on this adventure together, but that doesn't mean they will all come back alive. One could perhaps be a bit more evil than the rest, and maybe some have more to lose than others. But I think I'll try to write it, then we'll see how it goes. I think I'll start out as an anthology, so I can have one "origin story" for each character. Maybe I'll continue with the shorter stories, or perhaps have four origin stories to set up the basic plot, then write the "real" story afterwards. Dunno, never really tried anything like this before. Now I'm excited to start. :)
     
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  12. Magus

    Magus Banned

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    Something cool will come to you if you write it. You already have a journey planned for the characters, all you need now is to stick your antenna out and pick up any ideas that strike you as you write. It's pretty hard not to be cliche when writing, everythings pretty much been done. There are more writers in the world today then ever before, and more people who can read to read what they write. You'll always have an audience, and your story will always have elements of others.
     
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