CLOG - Comedy Literature Only Group discussion
I'm a huge fan of slapping a leather sofa with a ruler music you know Mr Omnibus
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
Firstly, no one likes an info-dump, in prologue form or otherwise, so I think you're going to have to get a bit creative here. But that's assuming there is a genuine need to bring the reader up to speed. Is it really necessary that the reader understand things at this point in the novel? Having read everything thus far, I've quite enjoyed the absence of explanation - the mad, merry-go-roundedness of it all. One of the great joys of the village is its eccentricity - as seen through the eyes of someone who is new to it and shares our ignorance. If it starts to make sense from an earlier stage in the writing, I'd worry that the story's uniqueness might be eroded.
Up to now, I'd been hoping that the explanations would come at the climax of the story, when the hero has to make an important choice, just at the time when all the strands come together and the stakes are understood. Up to now, it has made story-telling sense that so much is still a mystery. The last thing we want is for our everyman protagonist to become a comfortable and capable figure; we need him to remain more Arthur Dent than Jack Reacher.
Flatpack has also had a slight 'Wicker Man' feel to it and, in that tale, things only really made sense right at the end. Can we not get by with a bare minimum of information?
The need to make sense of Flatpack is essentially what's driving the plot of this story, so in my opinion, you ought to be keeping as much back as you can, at least until the denouement. Can a last minute realisation trigger a mad dash or an idea for a new solution that other Flatpackers had never previously considered? I don't know how you intend to conclude the story, but if you're genuinely struggling here, maybe it would be worth emailing me (and perhaps one or two other volunteers) a precis of the plot. Then we'll be better able to discuss how you get Edward from here to the end.
Thank you Rob. I haven't seen The Wicker Man, I'm afraid. I could continue along the same route and let the drama unfold without any explanation to the reader, I've never questioned the direction before so maybe it would be a mistake to crowbar stuff in now. As I left it, Edward was about to take a bath in the Mayor's Wife's sumptuous bathroom, only to be confronted by the lady herself, in which she reveals what a truly unpleasant person she is and hints at the disaster to come shortly, and the fact that she is behind it. Do you think this is a mistake - to reveal the villain before the act. Quite happy to cut this scene altogether.
Thanks for your help and hope you've all forgotten your acquaintances.
SC
Mod
It stars Edward Woodward as a conservatory furniture salesman. It's not important.
I think you're at the point in the story where a well planned structure can really make a difference. I don't know enough about what you have planned to offer anything really helpful, but from what I know, I think it could work - revealing the villain before the act - provided that it then sets up some sort of race-to-the-finish climax. Kind of like James Bond figuring out where the supervillain has hidden the nuke, but then having the problem of finding and disarming it. To translate that into Flatpackese, it would be fine for the mayoress to come in, somehow overpower / incarcerate Edward, and then give a gloating / vitriolic speech, confident that he won't escape. (As this is a comedy that doesn't yoke itself too tightly to real life and plausibility, I think readers will happily accept this sort of cliched villainy.) Then the mayoress would swan off, intent on malefaction, leaving Edward helplessly stuck in the bathtub with his toe wedged up the cold tap (or something.)
The mayoress could, in her gloating, reveal enough back story to make Edward's coming challenge comprehensible, which is where you allow yourself a tiny bit of a info-dump, and it would have to involve some explanation of the fate that is likely to befall Primrose and Edward's other new friends.
We don't, as readers, need to understand all of it, but if this is to be the lead-up to the finale, we do need to understand the stakes. We also need to see the shift in Edward's priorities - i.e. from wanting to escape the village to wanting to protect it.
There will be room after the climax for Maxie et al. to shed more light on what's been going on, and you can make this discussion feel quite logical and natural if it's led by an explanation of why the mayoress was so intent on destroying the place.
That's just my take on this, of course. It would be worth asking a few of the others what they think.
Yes, I would appreciate advice from any other cloggers, although I appreciate that my participation in your own discussions is shamefully limited.I'm doing dry January, (on day 5 - started early). I am certain that I will write better without the brain - fog, we shall see
Salvaged Cupboards,Personally I’m not missing an explanation for Flatpack’s existence. I’m quite happy that the village exists in some other dimension where weird stuff happens. So I vote for a final chapter reveal.
As you were.
The Dook
Mr ThedookI have a feeling that the contents of the final chapter would sound rather silly, and even a bit Harry Potter, if revealed in isolation. It isn't so much a question of giving the reader an explanation for Flatpack's existence as explaining how, under certain circumstances, the village could rapidly disintegrate.
Thank you for your thoughts; I'm going to continue without an info dump I've decided. To that end, I'm browsing sites like fancyfaucetsforthefilthyrich.com with a view to describing the sumptuousness of the Mayoress's bathroom.
Git orf moy land,
Savage
If you refer to your cut-out-and-keep colour souvenir and programme of events from The Observer, (Grunt Special), you will see that we are rapidly approaching the climax of our day's festivities; Farmer Rosser's fertilizer fireworks have 'gone off' all by themselves, (as usual), the sock and spoon race was won by Mrs Unassuming from Chives R Us, and our new vagrant has triumphed over the great pie. We, and I trust you, are now anticipating the traditional hanging of Dr Jeffries… however a problem has arisen.
The other night I received an unexpected visit from Mr Savage; as per usual he was swaying from side to side and smelled of ditches but, unusually, he had an expression of unease bordering on fretfulness, apprehension, anxiety and trepidation.
“Itsh ruined!” He shouted at my lady wife, who raised her eyes to the heavens and retired upstairs with a good book and a wedge of Dundee.
Ok…the gist of the problem in English; There is a hell of a lot of information that Edward should know by this stage and doesn’t because I have neglected to include bits about him being told or learning them in other ways. Stuff like – why does Dr Jeffries have to be hanged before the end of the grunt, who is Dr Jeffries and what is his significance. Why did Dr Jeffries construct Flatpack in the first place, (sorry, spoiler), What will happen if he isn’t hanged and stuff like that.
I’m off the booze at the moment so the brain is fogged. I’ve considered adding a prologue in which a lot of this is explained but I don’t really like prologues, and for Edward to have long explanatory conversations at this stage would frustrate the reader I feel.
The best idea I had was that of a book. Edward finds the book on the ground, reads a few paras, (which we also hear), then drops it. A couple of chapters later the book appears in a another location and Edward continues to read it… and so on.
Be grateful for your thoughts, and your money.
Wishing you a peaceful New Year
SCX