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I’ve talked about plotbombs before, and how they sometimes dump 1-2 chapters on me without warning, exploding all through the plot and making some things clear while making other things change.
Well, this morning I woke up with a bad cramp in one leg and a plotbomb of enormous size, for much later in the long-story arc. Even as I tried to get the cramp out, chapters’ worth of stuff was flooding my mind…as if, let’s say, a poor little phone modem suddenly found itsself plugged into a T-1 line with a terabyte of data to deliver. There was no way to get it all down (besides the fact that I couldn’t get out of bed until the leg unkinked) though I’ve since jotted down as much as I can remember–nearly all the dialogue faded quickly (but I can write something as good, I’ll bet), and the intermediate details between the big events, but I’m guessing the plotbomb covered half to all of the final book.
And it’s at least an entire book away from where I’m working in Book III–Plot Daemon jumped over all that and threw the end of the story at me. (I think it’s clear who won the Plot Daemon/Set Designer argument. And yet, the plotbomb came with full multi-sensory input–sight, sound, smell, tactile, emotional, all levels of plot interaction–deep logic to the tipmost top of POV’s sensory details.) It was a rush getting that much at once, but scary because I knew I’d lose a lot of it…all that’s “down” in a file is a page and a half, single-spaced, and almost telegraphic.
I was SO right to spend some hours in Palo Duro Canyon and also right not to spend too long there. (I want to go back as pure tourist, I think, but for this story–which drove me to visit it–what I needed is what I got in that first impression and some hours in the bottom of it.)
The take-away message, now that Plot Daemon has stomped back down to his engine room, pipe wrench jauntily over his shoulder, is “Trust your Plot Daemon and don’t dally with Set Designer.” O….kay. Got that. (Smug sort of snort from belowdecks.)
Fingers on the keyboard. Plot-engines below coming up to full power.
Comment by Eir de Scania — February 19, 2010 @ 2:29 pm
So, what are you doing here? Go back to the tread-mill!
Comment by David Watson — February 19, 2010 @ 2:55 pm
Wow, a thermonuclear plot bomb! I am mighty impressed. Perhaps I should lie about in bed a little longer in the mornings… but the cats insist on being fed. Ahh well, I’ll work something out. Good bombing! DRW
Comment by elizabeth — February 19, 2010 @ 4:31 pm
Eir de Scania: weather induced migraine is involved in the not working much today thing. So was processing the stock, which took a couple of hours. And I still need to make bread, but I don’t wanna…I wanna crawl in the sack, sleep until a clear, sunny dawn.
David: I think it took two very bad-news days, staying up too late last night, sinus-med-induced dreams, and a leg cramp. Just staying in bed in the morning usually does nothing for me. But feel free to try your own combination of anxiety, exhaustion, pharma, and pain.
Comment by Kip Colegrove — February 19, 2010 @ 9:30 pm
I’d call it grace myself, definitely not of the cheap variety.
Comment by elizabeth — February 19, 2010 @ 10:05 pm
Could be. I’m grateful for it, anyway.
Comment by Cyndi — February 20, 2010 @ 9:28 pm
**grins** Did I read right? More information then enough for half a book? so…. FOUR books instead of three? **crosses her fingers**
Comment by elizabeth — February 20, 2010 @ 11:04 pm
The number of books resides with the publisher, who contracts for them…and will go beyond the current contract (three) only if it seems profitable. I agree that this is reasonable, even when it makes me shake in my boots (OK, fleece socks at the moment) to think of having to cut it all short, or try to cram two or three books into one.
Comment by Annalouise Larsen — February 21, 2010 @ 1:06 am
How exciting! (And, yes, scary!) I have had a couple of very minor experiences of this, and then know it’s gonna be a lot of work changing stuff…Wish you all luck with this one, especially in not having to cram it!
Comment by elizabeth — February 21, 2010 @ 8:45 am
These are not books that handle cramming well. Tried that, with the first one, to cover more ground, and it nearly wrecked both me and the story. Wherever these books come from in my jumbled mess of a mental cellar, they know what they’re doing and they insist on doing it. Once done, they can be trimmed, tightened, and even cut to a degree–but it’s a definite limit. Thank goodness I have exactly the right editor, who knows how this story-universe works.