Brainstorming session from this morning: situations v. complication

[pegkerr]

Read in The Pocket Muse about the difference between situation and complication. Stories can grind to a halt if you mistake a situation for a complication. A situation, however complicated, is self-contained (situation: someone is contemplating suicide and holds a gun to his head. Only one way out of the story: either he pulls the trigger he doesn't). A complication, however simple, opens up, affording a way out. (Person holding the gun to his own head gets a wrong number cell phone call, from someone who needs help. Now what happens?) Excellent complications offer several ways out.

A good complication illuminates, thwarts, or alters the character's desire
A good complication forces the character to act
A good complication offers the story a point of departure
A good complication raises the stakes
A good complication thickens the plot

Ex: Miles' parents are stuck in a standoff in the civil war in Barrayar. But then Miles' uterine replicator is kidnapped and held hostage by the enemy, and there is a time limit to how long it can support him. Cordelia's husband won't negotiate to trade hostages. What does Cordelia do?

Consider: The idea of Rolf kidnapping Ingrid. How is this a complication? How does it change what Solveig does? Perhaps she was originally going to quit work on the ice palace for some reason? (Fired from her job? Or?) Or she was going to build the ice palace without magic, but the kidnap changes her mind? Or it forces her to change her design to go with Jack's changes? Or to overrule Jack's changes? (After all, Jack's changes were at Rolf's behest).

Damn. Ouch. Just saw for the first time the structural similarities with the kidnap of Willy Silver in War for the Oaks. Do I have to ditch this story idea, then? The old gravitational pull problem. Aargh.

I can see more clearly how it (Ingrid's kidnap) changes things for Jack. It causes him to switch sides. But how does it change things for Solveig?

What other complications should be built into the story?

The Aquatennial business with the milk carton boat race on Lake Nokomis is the start of Solveig facing her fear of drowning. Could Solveig need to face it even more fully? Can I think of some reason she'd have to go swimming under ice in winter, related to Ingrid's kidnap? Maybe she has to consult with the fish? Maybe they find that Ingrid is somewhere that Solveig has to reach by swimming only? And when they get there, they discover she's been moved?

Why is Agnes in the story, really, other than to talk with Solveig and give her coffee? Agnes-Solveig-Ingrid make up the crone-mother-maiden triumvirate. Why? What power/use is this in the story? I had thought that Agnes is an ex-Princess Kay of the Milky Way (State Fair Queen). Why does that matter?

Peg

Comments

Re: OMG! You read Miles too!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Actually, better than that. I'm in Lois McMaster Bujold's writing group. I get to read what's happening with Miles about a year before most people.

Well, actually we haven't been meeting formally as a group for a while. But we still trade--I'm one of the small circle of readers who critiques Lois's manuscripts. And she critiques mine. You'll notice that she wrote the blurb for The Wild Swans, and she wrote the first review on Amazon for it.

She joined our writing group while she was writing Memory. I had heard about her books for years (Patricia C. Wrede, also in the group, had raved about them for years). But when Lois joined, and she realized I wasn't familiar with her work, she asked that I NOT read her previous books, because she wanted to get a critique on Memory from someone new to her work. That was interesting, to pick up the story ten books in. I got halfway through the critique of the next one, Komarr, when I finally begged her to let me read her backlist, and she agreed. So I read all of 'em in roughly three weeks. Gulp.

Lois has been extremely kind to me. She is a wonderful mentor who has taught me a lot and she is a very good friend. Here's earlier entry about her.

Cheers,
Peg

Re: OMG! You read Miles too!

[feinc.livejournal.com]

Hi!

Wow... *kneels and kowtows in awe* gah...

It is sooo cool that you are in her writing group... i see that i have to try to pick up your books for a look-see :)

In any case, am eagerly waiting for her next Chalion book... is that discussed in the group too?

Re: OMG! You read Miles too!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

As I said, we haven't been meeting formally for a while; instead we'ev just been exchanging manuscripts. Lois gave me about eleven chapters of the manuscript, which I read, but I didn't get my comments back to her before she had to finish the book and deliver it to the publisher. Yes, the next Chalion book is her next book.

I need to call her and go out to dinner with her so I can ask her what she's planning on working on next.

By the way, elisem is another member of our group.

Peg

Re: OMG! You read Miles too!

[feinc.livejournal.com]

I see... At any rate, I hope you don't mind my erm... silly comments/posts... it's just that... she is such a great writer and in my mind she occupies a pedestal... like a goddess or something and it just seems incredible to happen on someone who is on personal terms with her and even is a published writer as well... Living in Singapore, it's expensive buying books and a pain to wait for the latest books as well... this plus lurking on the Baen webboard is probably the closest I will get to her...

At any rate, all the best with the book and writing and rest assured I'll be keeping an eye out for your books as well.

Regards
Sebrena

Re: OMG! You read Miles too!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I agree that Lois is a great writer. It has been a joy to work with her, and she has taught me so much.

I do understand your feelings of awe entirely. I started as a fan, remember. I went to conventions for years hoping to meet writers because I wanted to become a writer myself, and I felt that same awe, that feeling that whenever I approached a writer I was approaching a demi-god. It was nerve-wracking at times. I'd wonder will he think I'm a geek? Do I have a piece of spinach stuck between my teeth? But I wanted so much to learn that I overcame my shyness, and I discovered, to my surprise, that writers are pretty much like other people. Yeah, some (a very few) are rich and famous, but for the most part, they're simply a pretty friendly bunch of uncomplicated people who like to talk about literature, yeah, but also talk about their kids and dogs and mortgages and politics too, and they have to get up and put on their underwear in the morning just like everyone else. And as I was discovering this, I was becoming a writer myself. It has been a very strange feeling at times, particularly since finishing my first novel, to realize that people are starting to look at me that way--my words take on added weight for them because I've had a book published. It feels extremely surreal when I discover that someone is nervous about approaching me because I've written and published books.

So don't worry that your posts are silly, because they aren't at all. I understand why you feel that way; I've felt that way myself when I started out talking to writers. But I'll tell you something: I've always found that writers in the science fiction/fantasy field in particular are extremely gracious about answering questions and talking with fans, and particularly about helping other writers all they can, because they all remember that they were helped by other writers before them, too, when they started out. So they practice pay-it-forward. It's a great field for mentoring.

I assure you--I have to get up and put on my underwear in the morning, just like everyone else.

Cheers,
Peg

Re: OMG! You read Miles too!

[romancoat.livejournal.com]

You read Miles! I know so few people who do, I don't know why, and I've been trying to subtly encourage friends to read it. Memory is my favorite. And you're in her writing group - wow. I love her work. It has... humor and depth and one of the few intelligent SF works I've read and enjoyed. And you can really see Miles's character development in the books.

Re: OMG! You read Miles too!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I agree that Lois is great at character development. I have been so impressed that she is not afraid to change Miles entirely, when necessary to the story. She could have sold endless books about Miles and the Dendarii Mercenaries, but instead she blew up that life for him and forced him to become someone else--someone even better and braver, because he wasn't facing a cardboard cut-out enemy. He was facing himself. You're right; he really does grow and develop.

Lois says that her books are about identity. And a lot of them are about parenting.

Hope you are successful in getting friends to read her books. I nagged my best friend kijjohnson to read her books for years, and Kij finally broke down and read them last year, and now she loves them as much as I do. It's so much fun to burble excitedly to a friend about who reads them because of your recommendation and them learns to love them, too.

Cheers,
Peg