I’m glad this question came up. Here’s what I’m trying, and I hope it doesn’t flop.
Several stories we find in Subtext show an “alternate” storyform, based on the romance story or another subplot (ie Han in Star Wars/Nazi boyfriend in Sound of Music). Using this fractal idea…I’m attempting to drive my trilogy this way.
My Trilogy has its own storyform.
OS Throughline: PHYSICS
Concern: OBTAINING
Issue: ATTITUDE
The first act is the mystery, being solved throughout
Book One comes in at Driver One,
Book Two at Midpoint,
Book Three at Driver Three.
However, each Book has its own storyform.
Briefly, he (trilogyMC) has set up a world system that they’re trying to destroy, from the storymind perspective the system is bad, and he was mistaken. (The freedom-fighters are the trilogy antagonists)
I guess it would be like the Star Wars we would have loved, a bit more getting into Darth Vader’s motivation in the original trilogy instead of the way they did it that left a growing question mark and flopped in the “prequels”.
Initially, my plan was to do open up the Trilogy signposts:
Signpost 1: LEARNING
----Book One Learning, X, X, Doing
Signpost 2: DOING
---- Book Two Doing, X, X, Obtaining
Signpost 3: OBTAINING
---- Book Three Obtaining, X, X, Understanding
Signpost 4: UNDERSTANDING
But the story I wanted to say didn’t happen this way. Doing this turns the MC resolve, changes the outcome, affects the driver. Too many morphs. What I’m attempting instead is a story-within-a-story.
Book One has its own story. The Trilogy IC/Antagonist is Book One’s steadfast-MC. The Trilogy change-MC is the IC/Protagonist. Since the OS includes both as movers of the plot, I believe it works.
I am weaving the twelve beats from the Trilogy’s act into each free-standing storyform/book.
I was trying to pivot the individual stories on plot issues, but the storyform of Book One was very strange. @jhull recommended I rethink my domains.
In my initial storyform, my OS was exploring Mind and the Trilogy OS domain was embodied by the IC/Protagonist’s POV. (A)
I redid the domains. I have a storyform with domains are identical to the Trilogy (in spite of the IC/MC switch). (B)
I’m going back and forth, which to take.
I’m 3/4 done with the novel. I CAN take the scenes and place them into the appropriate beat of the B storyform. As I rewrote the beats, it lines up.
I’m thinking it’s possible to do this change of storyform without starting the novel over. I believe it’s just a normal part of the rewriting process.
But some of the peripheral themes, inherent in A, can’t be taken out. They have to morph. “Chaos” as the MC focus can be turned to “Effect” since it was probably more Effect in the first place. Some might remain (like free-radicals).
And according to these posts, it will be a much stronger series.
Any comments? Anyone been through this?
