The Plot Thickens
At the end of each chapter of the Novelist’s Essential Guide to
Creating Plot there’s a plotting exercise. One of them was the very thing
I had planned to do with LMB’s Komarr: do a plot summary of a
novel you enjoy.
Now that I know that switching back and forth in Komarr was
really parallel plots, I don’t think I’ll try the exercise on it. Instead, I’ll probably
use this excuse to reread another LMB book - preferably one more similar to what
I’m aiming for.
Since I keep skipping the exercises, the plot book is turning into just a
paean to plot. Back in the Poetics section, I learned that the
Ancient Greek for plot is mythos, which also means theme, story
or speech. So when I found that Chapter One of the Seven Saga lacked an
essential
storiness,
it was just plot after all.
Funny how defining things (or reading paeans to things) can pin down
very fuzzy uneasiness about your stories and their storiness.