I have a new project, the basis of which is a book. I am flummoxed by parts of the storyform and would love a hand. If anybody is up to throwing questions at me, I would be grateful.
Do you have any storyform locked in? Or is the whole thing currently in question?
No storyform is locked in. I have a few parts that I’m sure of.
Part of my issue is that there is a ton of manipulation going on, but also a lot of fighting, so I’m having trouble pinning down the OS.
So what can you tell us about the OS? About the RS?
Short descriptions should work for now if you don’t want to get into detail.
The OS is about a country in high political tension – chaos is around the corner. Who wields power is in play. Two people are jockeying for position.
One of them (who I presume is the protagonist) is using his position to try to take the other one down.
The MC is not the Protagonist, but is someone the protagonist wants killed. Unfortunately for the Prot, the MC gets gifted a weapon (of sorts) that makes him an asset to the state. Killing him would be a bad idea. For half the book, everybody is trying to get their hands on this weapon.
What’s the end game regarding political tensions? What’s the endgame regarding having control of the weapon? (How do you as author answer, as opposed to how the characters within the story might answer)
It’s really just “have power”.
One guy, Z, gets off on wielding power, but he’s also afraid that R is getting too much power. And R is an outsider, so he doesn’t really have the Empire as a priority (it is feared).
The weapon ultimately should go to the Empire. It’s incredibly valuable. It has no immediate purpose. But to have it would make you very important.
The MC doesn’t want it. He can’t wield it. He can only give it away, and it makes him too much of a target for comfort.
It’s like an individual having a nuke during rhe cold war.
Are you sure about that? I ask because just having power doesn’t move the balance on anything, does it? What does “having power” look like, what inequity is the having of power solving?
I guess it’s “have more power than the other guy” because everyone knows he will ruin the Empire if he gets too much.
This is one of the tricky bits. His power is in fact being kept in check, but the Prot doesn’t know this. He’s not savvy enough to see the 3D chess game. He actually screws everything up by trying to sap power from R, because R senses it and rebels.
Are you trying to decide between a Psychology of something like “political manipulations”’ and a Physics of something like “getting into power”?
Do you have a sense of whether the OS should address one over the other? For instance, is the story meant to show the audience that when all is done, there will or will not still be political tensions? That after all is said and done, that Z or R will have this much power as compared to what they began with?
Yes.
For Political Manipulations: there is a lot of subtle meaning conveyed in conversations, but ultimately I don’t think this leads to any confusions.
BUT, since the whole thing is about “maintaining the balance of powers between all the players” (while the Protag. tries to become the dominant piece vis-a-vis R), I get tripped up. Ultimately, Z has screwed everything up. He did not recognize that R was actually being kept in check, and his actions have destroyed the balance. He misread everything.
So, that could also be Physics – maybe learning or understanding. I am currently leaning towards Learning because of other threads, such as the MC (in his OS role) trying to figure out who sent for him to be assassinated, and having to Learn the ways of the court.
R has successfully begun a coup and claimed the throne, so Obtaining seems to loom large. This happens by way of a battle, though the battle is started by Z who is trying to avoid a siege/stand-off, since he will be blamed for everything if it goes too long. He’s trying to throw a hail mary to avoid that outcome.
Just a thought, if the OS is Physics maybe the Problem is something more cerebral like say Consider; that might make it feel more psychological. Though I guess if the OS Concern is Learning a lot of the elements could be “cerebral” lol.
Does the RS give you any clues? Or possible MC Domain and Stop vs. Start? (I know that’s usually hard to see.)
Can you apply genre thinking to it?
Do you know who the Antagonist is? What’s their game?
Finally, wondering if you can clarify who R and Z are (is either of them protagonist or MC?).
Let me do my best.
Since the MC gets this extraordinary gift and has to cope with it, I am fairly certain it is MC Situation. He is both concerned with how he is going to offload it (So, Future) and with the many attempts to lure him to give it away (So, Present). [The gift cannot be stolen.]
I believe it is Steadfast/Stop as well. The MC does not want to be embroiled in the Emperor’s Court, but that’s not really a choice until he gives the gift away. [He’s prevented from giving it away willy-nilly for the same reasons you couldn’t just offload a nuke to just anyone and then expect no blowback.]
The MC is neither R nor Z.
We can try. It’s a fantasy adventure.
The RS seems to be a hired gun (to protect the MC from assassination) who lives by a code of rules. That works with IC Mind.
Neither is the MC.
Z is a newly promoted advisor to the Emperor. R is the most powerful member of the military.
They are (by policy) equally regarded by the Emperor. Neither ranks above the other. This is not explicitly stated until Z screws it all up by driving R out of the capital, which upsets the balance.
But here’s the thing. R has no real power. They’re playing him the whole time, making him believe he is highly regarded. This is how they prevent rebellion.
But nobody has told R (for obvious reasons) and nobody has told Z either, which is why he screws it up. Because he sees R getting more and more influence. He just doesn’t know that it’s actually illusory.
So, Z’s game is to put R back in his place (as in, not a regarded member of the Court).
And R’s game is… well, he was happy until he got pushed out, and then he leads a rebellion because nobody puts him in a corner.
Do you have a general direction for the story in mind? Not even anything specific, but just something like “my story needs to end with things looking somewhat like this in order to make this argument.”
Sorry this wasn’t clear, but this book exists. (You’ve never heard of it.)
Gotcha. Yeah, I didn’t understand. Ok, so what’s the intent of the OS in the book? Is the purpose, even if it doesn’t achieve this purpose, to maintain a balance of power? To put a character in or prevent a character from getting power? Or maybe to end political manipulations? Or set up some manipulation such that it will carry on forever? Basically, why would the OS perspective be what it is? It’s so that the story can try to get things into a particular place (again, even if it doesn’t achieve that intended result). The answer to that should be a pretty good hint as to the placement of the throughline.
Also, will we at some time during the course of this conversation hear of this book?
It would be unwise of me to share the book title with you. I know that’s super annoying.
Let me try to figure out how to answer the other questions now…
All of the characters are trying to maintain a balance of power.
Even the guy who screws it up is trying to maintain a balance of power, but he sees things differently from everyone else (hinting at Non-Accurate somewhere, but not definitively).
I don’t know how to answer the other questions.
Nah, no problem. But it lets me know how I plan to move forward in light of that.
There’s no reason given that they would want to maintain power? That means that maintaining the balance of power is itself the purpose of the OS and we need to figure out whether balancing power is Physics or Psychology, then. Is that correct?