Rockets and Rivers Revisited
May. 19th, 2005 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranGetting back to the Rockets v Rivers metaphor...
One of the big things that is happening in the rewrite is the promotion of starting premises to the beginnings of chapters. The premises are the rockets, if you like. They contain all the ingredients for the story and they're hopefully recognisable as such. The idea is to show the premise to the reader as soon as possible and then use it to propel the story onwards. Show the man in the hole, get the reader wondering how he's going to get out of the hole.
In the original version using the River method, the Prologue/Chapter 0 "needed" to do certain things. It needed to introduce Daumin and Masamee. It needed to describe the Kor valley and Daumin's background. It needed to show Daumin and Masamee's special natures. It needed to introduce Masamee's father and his offer. Etc.
In the new version, using the Rocket method, it simply starts with the premise - Hill Boy gets City Girl as Sister - and knowing this particular Hill Boy and this particular City Girl, everything else flows from there - logical developments, twists on those developments, surprises and variations based on the character etc. It still checks off each of the things the chapter needs to do, but it's driven by the premise, not by the checklist itself.
The next chapter used to start with "Daumin arrives in KC looking for the Poet", but that premise on its own didn't give me the trajectory I needed. Now it starts "Before finding the Poet's house in KC, Daumin hears bad things about the Poet and his daughter", which expands out to cover off all the events in chapter 1 and sows the seeds for scenes in later chapters.
With a bit of luck, each chapter will start with an interesting premise - I think most of the good ones already do, it's just a matter of fixing up the bad ones. (Ok, so this is basic storytelling and not ... ahem... "rocket science" and I hope it won't become too obvious or too repetitive...)
On that note, and thinking about something that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zarabee posted about star wars, you can see the same thing with the star wars films. Episodes IV, V and VI all start with strong premises that make you want to find out what happens, and end with either proper conclusions or satisfying twists on those premises. Episodes I and II start off with weak premises - the assorted characters start at a certain point and sort of muddle about a bit and do stuff. It's almost as though IV-VI are skyrockets and I-II are rivers. (Haven't seen Episode III yet.)
One of the big things that is happening in the rewrite is the promotion of starting premises to the beginnings of chapters. The premises are the rockets, if you like. They contain all the ingredients for the story and they're hopefully recognisable as such. The idea is to show the premise to the reader as soon as possible and then use it to propel the story onwards. Show the man in the hole, get the reader wondering how he's going to get out of the hole.
In the original version using the River method, the Prologue/Chapter 0 "needed" to do certain things. It needed to introduce Daumin and Masamee. It needed to describe the Kor valley and Daumin's background. It needed to show Daumin and Masamee's special natures. It needed to introduce Masamee's father and his offer. Etc.
In the new version, using the Rocket method, it simply starts with the premise - Hill Boy gets City Girl as Sister - and knowing this particular Hill Boy and this particular City Girl, everything else flows from there - logical developments, twists on those developments, surprises and variations based on the character etc. It still checks off each of the things the chapter needs to do, but it's driven by the premise, not by the checklist itself.
The next chapter used to start with "Daumin arrives in KC looking for the Poet", but that premise on its own didn't give me the trajectory I needed. Now it starts "Before finding the Poet's house in KC, Daumin hears bad things about the Poet and his daughter", which expands out to cover off all the events in chapter 1 and sows the seeds for scenes in later chapters.
With a bit of luck, each chapter will start with an interesting premise - I think most of the good ones already do, it's just a matter of fixing up the bad ones. (Ok, so this is basic storytelling and not ... ahem... "rocket science" and I hope it won't become too obvious or too repetitive...)
On that note, and thinking about something that
zarabee posted about star wars, you can see the same thing with the star wars films. Episodes IV, V and VI all start with strong premises that make you want to find out what happens, and end with either proper conclusions or satisfying twists on those premises. Episodes I and II start off with weak premises - the assorted characters start at a certain point and sort of muddle about a bit and do stuff. It's almost as though IV-VI are skyrockets and I-II are rivers. (Haven't seen Episode III yet.)
