My daughter graduated from the University
of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine on Friday, May 11th, 2012 (the 63rd
such Commencement). Author James Rollins is also an alumnus, but I digress. The
completion of her studies finally allowed her sufficient free time to read her
father’s first novel, Earth Angel (which
had been collecting magnetic particles on her electronic TBR shelf for over a
year). When she finished, she asked me a question as to why Angel acquired
control of the Veil, while prior entities who entered the Veil didn’t.
Initially, I thought the answer was res
ipsa loquitur (literally, “The thing speaks for itself”, a legal term used
when the evidence presents a fairly certain conclusion as to liability, such as
the negligence of the driver who rear ends a stopped vehicle). The living Angel
entered the Veil inadvertently and became a part of it. Other entities entered
the Veil through the cessation of their existences. However, since Rachael is a
careful reader, but still questioned the matter, at some point I may want to go
back in and clarify the issue.
Dammit,
Jim. I’m a pantser, not a plotter. The issue of how Angel acquires her
powers is an example of a potential plotting pothole. As a pantser, I
frequently have no idea what my characters are going to do until the Muse
informs me that they actually are doing something. Accordingly, it is not
uncommon for me to have to go back and lay a foundation for a character’s
actions that would have been easier to insert the first time through a chapter
if only the Muse had warned me the insertion would be needed later. Once the
proper foundation is laid, then the reader is more likely to accept subsequent
plot developments as res ipsa loquitur.
The same foundational problems can arise
with a character’s motivation. I edited a novel wherein the author spent the
first chapter establishing a very strong, Type A personality, self-absorbed
heroine. The heroine is at the pinnacle of her career, and is about to close a
major deal. She enjoys the status and material benefits that her job affords
her. Just before this major deal is to close, she gets word that her mother is
dying. Several years earlier, the women had a falling out over the heroine’s
job, and hadn’t spoken since. Her mother dies, but leaves a package in a safe
deposit box with instructions that the heroine is supposed to deliver the
package to an individual who lives in another state in a far removed rural
location. The heroine drops everything to deliver the package.
When I questioned the author about why the
heroine would drop everything to deliver the package, essentially her answer
was res ipsa loquitur. She told me
that it was the mother’s dying wish, and the heroine felt duty bound. Well,
from a reader’s perspective, if heroine is so focused on her job and herself,
and hasn’t even spoken to the mother in years, where did the sense of duty come
from? I suggested that she needed to add in the heroine’s unresolved guilt over
her last fight with her mother with whom she was very close when she was a
child, to explain why the heroine didn’t just send the package off by an
overnight delivery service.
While willing suspension of disbelief will
allow the reader to bridge some plotting and logical chasms (particularly in the
genres of fantasy and science fiction, e.g. accepting that super heroes can fly
without any apparent means of propulsion), the fewer and narrower the
obstacles, the more likely the reader will be satisfied with the end result.
While a proposition may appear “obvious” to the author, the author needs to
ensure that there is sufficient detail to allow the reader to come to the same
foregone conclusions.
CK Copyright 5/13/12; Moral rights to be identified as the author of
the foregoing article asserted worldwide (including in Great Britain in
accordance with Sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of
1988) (See prior blog on Moral Rights).
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