Black Gate

“Plot is what the characters do
to deal with the situation they are in.”
     — Elizabeth George

“The beginning of a plot is the prompting of desire.”
     — Christopher Charles Herbert Lehmann-Haupt

“Character is plot, plot is character.”
     — F. Scott Fitzgerald

What happens next?!?

In this third installment of an ongoing series I’d like to talk about the role of “Plot” in Fantasy Fiction. (Previous installments covered Originality and Style.)

On the surface, Plot sounds extremely simple. And it can be. But what is it exactly? Basically, it’s nothing more than What Happens. Plot is a series of events that follow one another in a logical order. Although sometimes that order can be intentionally mixed up to create more dramatic tension (ala Tarantino’s PULP FICTION). There is an art to writing a good plot, to being original, to rising above the recycling of “stock plots” and tired formula.

So what is the secret of writing a great plot? One word: CHARACTER.

Fitzgerald said it best: “Character is plot, plot is character.” This is a sentiment Alan Moore also echoed in his writings about the craft of writing. Another way of saying this is that Characters Will Follow Their Desires. When you have a well-imagined setting all you have to do is drop some well-imagined characters into it and let ’em go. Like scientists dropping mice into a little maze. What do the mice want? The cheese at the end. So they run and run and run until…Voila!…they solve the maze and get the cheese. (Or run themselves to death, if the story is a tragedy.)

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“If any man wishes to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts…”
–Goethe

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
–Anton Chekhov

“A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.”
–W. Somerset Maugham

 

The five basic Elements of Fiction are character, plot, setting, theme, and style. In a previous post I added Originality to this list, especially when it comes to Fantasy Fiction. This time around I’d like to talk about Style…what it is, why it’s important, and most importantly how to get one.

Style is important in all kinds of writing, but Fantasy has its own stylistic demands. Very few people alive today are experts at writing in Old English, Middle English, or other antique forms of language. And what’s more, very few readers want to read stories/book written in such a style.

Consider this passage from E. R. Eddison’s fantasy masterpiece, THE WORM OUROBOROS:

“Then befell great manslaying between the sea-cliffs and the sea. The Demons, taken at that advantage, were like a man tripped in mid-stride by a rope across the way. By the sore onset of the Witches they were driven down into the shallows of the sea, and the spume of the sea was red with blood. And the Lord Corinius, now that he had done with feigned retreat, fared through the battle like a stream of unquenchable wildfire, that none might sustain his strokes that were about him.”

For those of us who relish Shakespeare and thrill to antique forms of language, this brilliant passage is highly enjoyable. Yet there is no doubt that its style is vastly outdated and many modern readers would shy away from this fantastic novel simply because of its weight of style and ponderous language. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but keep in mind that Eddison published his masterwork way back in 1922. Although beautiful and perfect for the feel of high fantasy, that language just doesn’t fly today…unless you’re staging a production of HAMLET.

Instead of antique language, today’s fantasy demands a certain timelessness of language. That’s where the writer’s Style means everything.

There’s on old show-biz joke that goes: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The punch line: “Practice.” It’s much the same with Style. The absolute WORST thing you can do as a young/beginning writer is consciously emulate someone’s style. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it is NOT the best route to great writing. Style comes mainly from a writer’s subconscious and natural tendencies…it is as distinctive as a thumbprint and it can change over time. We all change as we grow, learn, and develop in life, and so it’s only perfectly natural for our writing style to change.

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“Utter originality is, of course, out of the question.”
 –Ezra Pound

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
 –Herman Melville

“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.”
 –Voltaire

How does one go about writing a great piece of fantasy? Everybody seems to have his or her own answer. A lot of that depends on what you (personally) consider to BE “great fantasy.” In my view, the fantasist must be, first and foremost, original. That’s easier said than done.

We all know that fantasy tropes, plots, and devices are recycled endlessly, and that’s as it should be, since fantasy fiction is simply the modern equivalent of the myth cycles of early humanity. The heroes, conflicts, and adventures touch on the timeless themes that run through all literature, from BEOWULF to THE ODYSSEY to LORD OF THE RINGS to our modern fantasy epics. It’s been said before that “There are no new stories, just new ways to tell them.” And that’s the job of the modern fantasy writer: to tell a mythic story in an entirely new way. 

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