The Atmospheric Plot
December 10, 2019
I've been reading a book recently that is by an author who is known for creating beautiful, atmospheric settings. She can weave quite the poetry of words and purple prose and setting to create a landscape for her story that is quite remarkable. I expected to really enjoy her latest book, but as the pages wore on, the novelty of the beautiful settings and the props of the story stopped satisfying as much. I grew bored with the book, and eventually put it down for a while, expecting to come back to it at another time. Since then, I haven't been motivated to pick it up to finish. With any book that disappoints me in some way, I ask myself, as a writer, why is that? What is so wrong with creating lush settings that people will enjoy?
I don't think there is anything wrong with it. But it's almost like making a beautiful dollhouse, placing porcelain dolls inside, posing them around the furniture, then leaving it. We stare at the dollhouse, admiring its beauty, but after a while there's nothing to do. We get bored and walk away.
Good settings have to come as a package deal with a good plot. Without each other, they lack something vital. If you have a great plot, but nowhere interesting to go, that's a bummer. On the flip side, if you have a beautiful place, but nothing to do, that's troublesome too. When starting a story, before planning the details of world-building and the way the people cook their food or braid their hair, ask:
Who is the character? What does he want? What is preventing him from getting there?
What does he really need? What is the best way to show this journey/evolution?
From that launching pad, you have a start to a story. World building more or less fills in all the cracks until the story you've created is something solid and believable that the reader can get lost inside. But most importantly, we don't just want to get lost. We want a destination at the end of the tunnel. More often than not, we want to know where the character is going, or at least what he wants. Then we can want it with him. And when he finds the end of the story, we'll be right there with him.
December 10, 2019
I've been reading a book recently that is by an author who is known for creating beautiful, atmospheric settings. She can weave quite the poetry of words and purple prose and setting to create a landscape for her story that is quite remarkable. I expected to really enjoy her latest book, but as the pages wore on, the novelty of the beautiful settings and the props of the story stopped satisfying as much. I grew bored with the book, and eventually put it down for a while, expecting to come back to it at another time. Since then, I haven't been motivated to pick it up to finish. With any book that disappoints me in some way, I ask myself, as a writer, why is that? What is so wrong with creating lush settings that people will enjoy?
I don't think there is anything wrong with it. But it's almost like making a beautiful dollhouse, placing porcelain dolls inside, posing them around the furniture, then leaving it. We stare at the dollhouse, admiring its beauty, but after a while there's nothing to do. We get bored and walk away.
Good settings have to come as a package deal with a good plot. Without each other, they lack something vital. If you have a great plot, but nowhere interesting to go, that's a bummer. On the flip side, if you have a beautiful place, but nothing to do, that's troublesome too. When starting a story, before planning the details of world-building and the way the people cook their food or braid their hair, ask:
Who is the character? What does he want? What is preventing him from getting there?
What does he really need? What is the best way to show this journey/evolution?
From that launching pad, you have a start to a story. World building more or less fills in all the cracks until the story you've created is something solid and believable that the reader can get lost inside. But most importantly, we don't just want to get lost. We want a destination at the end of the tunnel. More often than not, we want to know where the character is going, or at least what he wants. Then we can want it with him. And when he finds the end of the story, we'll be right there with him.
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