Plot as an Octopus

[clarentine]

The first line of Cavalier Attitude is:

"Dimolacan Avrila did not run."

As a recent review of the work revealed, I then spent 100 pages trying not to tell what he wasn't running from.

Gah!

When, of course, in all reality he is running from that thing - it's called Duty - and continues to run from it until about two-thirds into the book.

I do not want to throw Dimo headfirst into the main plot. I find that inelegant, as well as ruinous of a lot of good worldbuilding. I absolutely despise flashbacks, probably because I don't write them well. I want to keep all these lovely little layers (damn, what is it with the alliteration tonight?) of the varying sorts of duty that I've written in. And yet...the first scene does not grab, not after that first line, and I know it.

The answer is probably the same as it's been all along: show how the main plot influences the events in that first scene, and in all the other scenes leading up to the point where the plot becomes more obvious. The plot is an octopus, I guess, and while its tentacles are wrapped 'round the events and characters that appear in the first scene and those that follow, I'm not even showing any of the slime. *g*

Well, I don't really want slime. I want marks from where the suckers were applied. *g* I want to see the damage, and the reactions of those damaged.

Comments

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Cool, dude!

Sounds like you know what to do!

[clarentine]

I am hopeful. matociquala once described to me the pathway of writers as moving from too much bad exposition, to some bad exposition, to no exposition, to some good exposition, to the proper amount of good exposition. I think I've eliminated the bad exposition, in general. I have not, however, been able to move much past "some good exposition."

If nothing else, I'm consistent in the manner in which I screw up my books. *g*