Create With Mystery

Even if we don’t write mystery novels, all novels have a sense of mystery or the lure of what will happen next. And like a mystery novel, if a situation, a question or a particular detail is brought to the reader’s attention it needs to be addressed with a sense of closure. Or we risk losing credibility with a reader. Especially if it has been given a build-up.

In a recent discussion with a sci-fi and fantasy reader over the movie John Carter, I was really surprised at how much he disliked it. But as we talked though what worked and what didn’t it all came down one main criterion: a mystery thread that didn’t get answered. Now perhaps in the book series it was an ongoing thread to carry from one book to another, but in the movie for this one viewer the ball got dropped.

I remembered the scene and yes, I wondered too, but decided perhaps the main purpose was characterization as it showed the determination of the heroine to save her planet and a villain out to sabotage. It annoyed me too, but I was drawn more to the actual overall world building so it didn’t ruin the movie for me. But my reader friend waited the whole movie expecting an answer to why it was so important and instead the closure to that situation was never explained.  

There’s a saying know as Chekhov’s gun that is a reference to a note he wrote in a letter, which is now used as an example of foreshadowing.

"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." Anton Chekhov (From S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911.)

Just so, the movie never explained why Dejah, Princess of Helium, expected the large machine to save her people and city from the Zodanga.

Journal Prompt:

Take a look at your first few chapters and see if there is a prop that could become a foreshadow for a main plot point, or a sub-plot point.

How far could you stretch the highlight before it becomes interference rather than a positive thread?

Share: What is a movie you feel never gave a satisfying closure to mystery threads it began with?

Construct With Memory

In the film, John Carter, a Colonel who is familiar with Carter’s military prowess arrests him in order to get his assistance fighting the Apache. Carter not only outright refuses to join in the battle but repeatedly escapes. The Colonel is bewildered by the contrast between the description of the heroic man he has before him and the actual man.

This broken-in-spirit John Carter is now antagonist against warfare. Yet, when the situation becomes critical for the Colonel, Carter’s instincts overtake his reluctance and he saves him. He repeats the same scenario once on Mars, actively resisting interference until his heart engages. The memory of who he really is becomes stronger than the person he is attempting to be now.

For this plot arc it is obviously a positive impulse that the instinct enables John Carter to be restored to his real self. However, instinct can react the other way as well when characters, or ourselves, have broken away from old detrimental habits and then they find ourselves in a familiar situation where they revert.

In John Carter’s case though it is the memory of his loss that clouds his instincts and interferes with the memory of what he believes and the actions he is willing to take. In fighting against a return to a negative lifestyle characters can choose the memory of what their life has become now to resist the lapse into old behaviors.

Instinct as memory can become a powerful instrument for both good and evil in characterization and plot development.

Journal Prompt:

1.     Choose a key instinct from your character’s personality and put him in a situation that creates a negative outcome. Then choose another outcome that is positive. How does he emotionally react before and after each occurrence?

2.     List ways either can become plot points for conflict or restoration.

Share: Which instinct did you use and which outcome worked best?

Connect With Maps

After watching the movie John Carter, I read some background material on its sources and watched the extras on the DVD, as I was really curious about the world building aspects of the movie.

It seems the original creator of the story sequence, Edgar Rice Burroughs, became interested in the scientific discussion in the early 1900’s that the markings on the planet Mars represented dried up waterways and rivers. His imagination began to explore what the edge of that decline could have looked like. What or who could have lived on Mars before the water disappeared? He drew many maps for the world he named Barsoom based on that scientific premise. Some of them can be seen on Google.

It reminded me that many of our own civilizations began alongside major rivers. Until mankind learned to harness water, he had to live beside it. Even now, those who live near plentiful water supplies do not really understand the value of water to those who do not and their deprivation as a result.

Our own oceans have a circulation system that circles the world. One source refers to it as a conveyor belt. This complex unseen map system circulates heat and nutrients throughout its pathways. All countries would be affected if the system broke down. Air currents and migration paths are other unseen maps ready for exploration. Regardless of your genre, stop and take a look at nature’s maps in your character’s surroundings. What maps were drawn a century before? What might be drawn a century into the future?

Journal Prompt:

Choose one of your novel settings near water. Examine the value of the water to the inhabitants.  Is it for survival, enjoyment, tourism, trade or protection?

Share: What would happen to the nearest population if that particular water source dried up?

Compose Through Metaphor

Metaphors have the ability to explode our thinking. However, the most effective are not delivered by loud gestures and shouting voices clamoring for our attention. They simply are. And at some point we begin to notice that they are different from what we expected, or what we thought we knew, and decide to take a better look. And a better look is required because competent metaphors can be used for both good and evil intent.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” warns the prophet Isaiah.

Sometimes we just don’t notice. For example, growing up I often heard the reference to little green men from Mars and always given in a negative context. I realized the idea came through a story or movie, but I wasn’t all that interested. In later years I’d still notice the reference given in books or shows and again wonder where and why the origin.

This week I’ve finally seen the movie John Carter and the first thought I had when I saw the first inhabitants that he saw was, “Oh, green men from Mars, but they aren’t little.” In this movie they are eight to ten feet tall, with four arms. They ride creatures as if on horseback. They argue; they care; they are funny and loyal. They insist that they don’t fly in spaceships and they won’t interfere in a war between two opposing cities. However, because of John Cater, their perspective changes as well.

Metaphors can go far beyond word choices and stereotypes to bring fresh nuances to timeless stories, especially when we tap into heart motives.

Journal Prompt:

Take a support character in your novel. How can you change the readers’ expectations of him or her?

Try one or two characteristics towards positive and then again as negative. How does that influence your own perception?

Share: Which one impacts your purpose effectively?