Breaking news: the bandits now have a plot function!
Is it like one step towards the solution and one thing that blocks it?
I think so, with the steps towards being taken by the detective/his allies, and the blocks being deliberate acts by the murderer, non-deliberate acts by the murderer, random co-incidences etc.
At some point I shall have to work out the mechanics of the mystery plot. Some elements have been arising nicely out of random moments of characterisation (it’s organic, how exciting! Though this may mean that the end result is stodgy and inedible and smells of parsnips.) but it's not enough. There’s the start and the end and various bits and ideas and a great gaping hole in between. Thinking of move and counter move, and thinking of these specifically as a series of questions, seems to be starting to give me a way of imagining structure. It’s a scaffold. At the moment its a scaffold built around air, but the idea of it is helping me feel more confident about filling it in than if it were just air. What I'm actually doing is thinking about it as a series of questions and answers. To take Have His Carcase:
Q: A dead body! Murder or suicide?
A: Suicide?
Q: Sez who?
A: Sez this razor.
Q: But why would he have a razor?
A: I sold him the razor. Honest.
Q: And who are you?
A: Random itinerant barber. See, my alibi checks out.
Q: Let's look at that ablibi. (x10)
And so on. I'm still at a very early stage, and so far it has largely been a lot more random than this. I suspect that whether I actually end up thinking of it in those terms when I come to write it doesn't matter - it's giving me more confidence in the prospect of approaching it.
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Date: 2012-01-26 07:54 pm (UTC)Is it like one step towards the solution and one thing that blocks it?
I think so, with the steps towards being taken by the detective/his allies, and the blocks being deliberate acts by the murderer, non-deliberate acts by the murderer, random co-incidences etc.
At some point I shall have to work out the mechanics of the mystery plot. Some elements have been arising nicely out of random moments of characterisation (it’s organic, how exciting! Though this may mean that the end result is stodgy and inedible and smells of parsnips.) but it's not enough. There’s the start and the end and various bits and ideas and a great gaping hole in between. Thinking of move and counter move, and thinking of these specifically as a series of questions, seems to be starting to give me a way of imagining structure. It’s a scaffold. At the moment its a scaffold built around air, but the idea of it is helping me feel more confident about filling it in than if it were just air. What I'm actually doing is thinking about it as a series of questions and answers. To take Have His Carcase:
Q: A dead body! Murder or suicide?
A: Suicide?
Q: Sez who?
A: Sez this razor.
Q: But why would he have a razor?
A: I sold him the razor. Honest.
Q: And who are you?
A: Random itinerant barber. See, my alibi checks out.
Q: Let's look at that ablibi. (x10)
And so on. I'm still at a very early stage, and so far it has largely been a lot more random than this. I suspect that whether I actually end up thinking of it in those terms when I come to write it doesn't matter - it's giving me more confidence in the prospect of approaching it.