Anyone else trying to write a book?

[Desdichado]

For many years, it's been my ambition to write a novel of fantasy or science fiction, although I've never done much about it. Due to many things I lack: time, energy, discipline, confidence, etc., I've made one excuse after another and not done much of anything with it, other than a few very fitful occasional starts at something.

Now, I'm actually putting my nose to the grindstone (part of a big self-improvement plan dreamed up by my wife where we actually, y'know, make goals and attempt to keep them) and getting somewhere with it.

One of the things that people always tell would-be and knew writers is to know when to cut stuff that you've already written. Don't get too attached to it. In that spirit, here's a chunk of my novel that I've decided to cut.

Mostly as a homage of sorts to Edgar Rice Burroughs, one of my favorite authors and highly inspirational to what I'm writing, I started the book off with a framing introduction or prologue, wherein a normal Joe receives the fantastic story that goes on to make up the remainder of the book. I was--sadly--too tempted to turn that framing chapter into an information dump about the setting so I didn't have to work some of that stuff in later. Thinking on that, and realizing that was a bad idea, I went to revise the introduction to remove the tedious information dump aspects of it, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought the entire concept of the framing chapter should probably be scrapped.

So here, I present to you, the cut portion of my novel; the introduction that would have come before the novel itself started, information dump and all. This is all unedited.

Anyway, to give this thread a direction for future discussion, how do you handle the need to pass on setting information to the reader? I've seen a few methods in novels I've read where I've consciously noted the strategy.

1. The ERB Method: Edgar Rice Burroughs' characters were actual Earthmen, so when they went to Barsoom, or Pellucidar, Amtor, or whatever other exotic setting, they were learning stuff at the same rate as the reader, making information dumps actually make some sense. This won't work for me; my characters are not Earthlings.
2. The Robert Jordan Method: Jordan's characters start off as isolated and provincial people in a quaint little countryside and culture that is very familiar to us. He doesn't have to do much "ethnography" of the setting until they start travelling a bit, and then stuff is as new to them as to us the reader. That won't work well for me either; there are no quaint and familiar areas of my setting.
3. The Steven Erikson Method: Don't tell your readers anything, except what they can pick up through context. Maybe halfway through the third book they'll finally start to piece together what the setting is like. This method doesn't work for me either, because it annoys the crap out of me--I had to put down Erikson in disgust, made all the more disgusting by the fact that I suspected that if I could ever overcome my frustration about not being able to figure anything about the setting out, the stories would probably be pretty good.

Any more strategies?

 

[Frostmarrow]

Any more strategies?

The old experienced hero and naive side-kick strategy, perhaps? The hero is not much of a talker but behaves in a direct and productive way whilst the side-kick is left wondering and asking all the right questions. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson comes to mind. As well as Xena and Gabrielle.

It's kind of cheesy but could work if it's exaggerated, as with all clichés.

 

[mojo1701]

I've recently tried to come up with a series of books (for myself, unless I'm EXTREMELY lucky, and also because I see this like a TV series not unlike ST: DS9), but my problem lies in exposition, which is why I do a lot of dialogue.

 

[takyris]

Dialogue. I almost always do my setting through dialogue. I also do my characterizations through dialogue. Sometimes I do my action scenes through dialogue. In fact, in situations where I can't use dialogue, my setting becomes... bad. I once received a critique (from a good friend and fellow writer) who irately said, in regards to my Victorian fantasy murder mystery, "Your description of London consists ENTIRELY of cobblestones and fog!"

I'm a bit better these days, but setting is almost always a second-draft thing for me. And for vital worldbuilding information, I almost always do it through a conversation. That lets me get the information across and establish the characters who are having the conversations -- so it serves two purposes. (I remember someone telling me that if I couldn't come up with three reasons that a given line needed to be in a story, it shouldn't be there. Right now, I'm happy with two.)

So a world introduction conversation with characters who we've only known for a chapter or two might go something like:

Biff: I can't believe your father accepted a trade contract to deliver to Harovia.

Chet: Don't start with me. I've already heard half the town telling me who my father should or shouldn't be trading with. I didn't hear anyone offering to pay the djinn-price on our lands for us this winter, so until then, they can mind their own business.

Biff: Relax. It's not for me to judge who your famiily trades with to keep their land. Demon's hells, if my grandfather had been a better trader himself, our family might be trading today instead of breaking our backs hauling ifrit-stone to pay for our quarters.

Chet: Yeah, but then you wouldn't have those shoulders that all the girls like.

Biff: Anyway, it's not that I mind your father trading with Harovia. It's just agreeing to deliver, and having you make the run. Isn't he afraid of, well...

Chet: The nightwalkers? You're afraid of the nightwalkers of Harovia? Hah! Do you also leave a bowl of milk by your doorstep for the silver fae?

Biff: I'm not afraid of anything, trader-boy! I just... if I die, I want it to be in honest battle. And I don't want to come lurching out of the grave to serve some Harovian necrothurge after I do.

Chet: Well, I don't plan on dying at all on this run, so just relax.

Biff: You're really not frightened of them at all?

Chet: Even if they do exist, they're still nothing compared to the djinn. Once you've smelled the brimstone and seen the fire in their eyes, not much else can scare you.

.... and so forth. (Although I'd never do it for that long unless really cool stuff was happening between the dialogue lines, something that could hold the reader's interest.)

Good luck on your novel! Let us know how it goes!

 

[takyris]

Another idea, if mounds of character-and-world-building dialogue don't appeal to you, is to do the other George R.R. Martin technique -- introduce a character in the prologue, put him through his paces in typical world-stuff to show the reader how the world works, and then kill him and start Chapter One with the actual protagonist.

 

[danzig138]

Now, I'm actually putting my nose to the grindstone (part of a big self-improvement plan dreamed up by my wife where we actually, y'know, make goals and attempt to keep them) and getting somewhere with it.

I too want to write a book. I too have yet to put full energy into because of time, energy, discipline, and so forth. Sadly, I'm far too lazy and undisciplined to stick to my self-improvement plan. I am actually working under a deadline for some writing right now, and it's the first time I've had to write under a deadline. I don't think I care too much for this "deadline" concept. I hope it's a passing fad.
I don't really have anything else to add, except good luck with the plan and the writing.

 

[spacemonkey]

yeah, 'write a novel or 3' is on my gargantuan list 'o things to do. I'm still at the stage where I've written a few ideas (some even fairly detailed), but haven't started the actual writing yet. Reasons are quoted above, pretty much (funny how they are always the same eh?).

As for your more specific question, how about the old method of inserting a short bit from another 'source' at the beginning of each (or some) chapters? Like what Asimov did with his Encyclopedia Galactica (there would be a small entry in front of a chapter here and there, sometimes with foreshadowing & such, sometimes just informational). Seems to work, if done carefully (not too long/boring, etc). I liked that approach in Idyllwild also.

 

[Pants]

I'm also writing a novel right now. It's not very far, but I've gotten a lot farther than I have in previous attempts. I've had this idea for a while now, but whenever I started working on it, I'd get so fed up with my own writing and deficiencies that I'd toss what I'd written, quit for a while, and start anew. It's actually quite invigorating to reread what I've written and not be totally disgusted.

Still, I've got a long way to go. I especially need to work on my descriptions.

Dialogue. I almost always do my setting through dialogue.

This is how I am trying to explain the setting, with a little hint of the vague, Erikson-esque references to 'important things that aren't fully explained, but will be at a later time.' Most of the characters I have envisioned are an aging Spymaster, two members of an ancient, dead species, and a group of opportunistic mercenaries.

So, in most cases, these aren't naive farmboys that need things explained to them, so it's especially hard to justify infodumps for the sake of the reader. Not in all cases though and I certainly won't follow Erikson's path of keeping the world mostly in the dark about a lot of things.

Another idea, if mounds of character-and-world-building dialogue don't appeal to you, is to do the other George R.R. Martin technique -- introduce a character in the prologue, put him through his paces in typical world-stuff to show the reader how the world works, and then kill him and start Chapter One with the actual protagonist.

Yeah, when I write the prologue, I'm gonna follow this route.
I want to try and hook the reader as early as possible and what better way to do that than with a death?

And good luck with the book JD.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I've had several ideas over the years. None of them ever seem to pan out past the plot device and character development. And I can never get past the first chapter.

 

[KenM]

Another method is do what Geroge RR Martin does in his A Song of Ice and Fire books. Each book has the story seen from 5-7 different characters perspectives. He writes each chapter from a different characters point of view.


Edit, someone beat me to it.