Ophiucha
January 22nd, 2010, 06:37 AM
This is something I ranted about a month or two ago, and I feel like sharing it with the rest of you.
Your heroes are traveling through the medieval setting of your world and come to a castle. This castle holds a sword, a gem, a princess, or perhaps your villain. But you cannot simply pass by, no. A fearsome beast, let’s say a dragon, is waiting for you and will not let you pass unless you slay or otherwise disable the creature. And so your heroes whip out their swords and bows and take down the creature. Nobody dies, nobody is seriously injured, and unless you somehow seduce the dragon, you won’t have a new addition to your party.
http://i49.tinypic.com/vdkcg.jpg
Pictured: An acceptable way to slay a dragon.
But certainly we need this scene! Without it, there is nothing keeping you from entering the lair. You need something protecting it, otherwise it will be too easy. A twenty page battle scene between your heroes and a fire-breathing dragon shows that they had obstacles on their way to victory. So you are faced with a dilemma that few ever seem to realize they are facing. Do you have a battle scene – between your heroes and an opposition – that serves no purpose in furthering the plot, or do you find a way to show opposition without an elaborate description of it?
There isn’t an easy answer to this question. On one hand, readers are more forgiving of this filler because it is action-packed and can hold your attention. But without purpose, this scene also pulls down the overall quality of your novel in the eyes of critics and readers outside of the mainstream fantasy genre. The easiest way to give these scenes meaning is to make something important happen, but generally, you’d probably rather save that for whatever lies beyond the dragon. You probably don’t want to kill off a character, at least not yet. So let’s try to find some solutions.
The first is to have a character you intend to die, or you do not need for the final battle, be injured, severely – or if you’re daring, you could kill them. A useless character getting incapacitated still doesn’t really further the story, but at least it gives the illusion of purpose. The second is to have the dragon be the mystical gem, or perhaps have it lying in its head (note: google ‘draconites’) or in its stomach. The third is the slightly bland, but acceptable end in which the creature is tamed or otherwise comes to the ‘good’ side. At least for a scene. The fourth is to use this time to whip out a Chekhov’s Gun from earlier, or perhaps just unleash (for the first and/or last time) some grand power one of your heroes possess. By doing this, the scene gains importance by revealing a plot device that was hinted at before, or will be useful later. The fifth is to make the dragon a plot point in itself. How? Many ways. Perhaps the dragon is one spoken of in myth, perhaps it is the dragon of your villain and it is a source of much of his power, perhaps it is a sentient guardian that isn’t evil at all, and perceives your heroes as such. There are numerous ways to use this just to add a little justification to the situation. The sixth is to not have the scene at all, but rather a cut away. This works better in movies. The heroes charge and then we cut to them cleaning dragon blood off their armor. But you can make it work in the written word, and if you think it is best, then go for it. There are numerous other methods, surely, but these are some general ways I suggest spicing up those oppositional scenes.
That dragon can be anything. Notably, it can be an army of generic villainy. The same basic rules apply. You have an evil opposition that needs to exist for realism, but does nothing to further the story. I don’t really care how, but all I ask of my fellow writers is that you find a way to justify these scenes. Elaborate battles are lovely to read, but in the end they are dissatisfying. I spend half an hour reading about your hero only to continue on with the story as we left it before this little detour. I need to feel as though I didn’t waste my time, particularly if I feel a scene existed mostly for the purpose of showing off the hero’s 1337 skillz. I do not want to read it, and if I really wanted an epic battle scene, I would watch Return of the King.
Your heroes are traveling through the medieval setting of your world and come to a castle. This castle holds a sword, a gem, a princess, or perhaps your villain. But you cannot simply pass by, no. A fearsome beast, let’s say a dragon, is waiting for you and will not let you pass unless you slay or otherwise disable the creature. And so your heroes whip out their swords and bows and take down the creature. Nobody dies, nobody is seriously injured, and unless you somehow seduce the dragon, you won’t have a new addition to your party.
http://i49.tinypic.com/vdkcg.jpg
Pictured: An acceptable way to slay a dragon.
But certainly we need this scene! Without it, there is nothing keeping you from entering the lair. You need something protecting it, otherwise it will be too easy. A twenty page battle scene between your heroes and a fire-breathing dragon shows that they had obstacles on their way to victory. So you are faced with a dilemma that few ever seem to realize they are facing. Do you have a battle scene – between your heroes and an opposition – that serves no purpose in furthering the plot, or do you find a way to show opposition without an elaborate description of it?
There isn’t an easy answer to this question. On one hand, readers are more forgiving of this filler because it is action-packed and can hold your attention. But without purpose, this scene also pulls down the overall quality of your novel in the eyes of critics and readers outside of the mainstream fantasy genre. The easiest way to give these scenes meaning is to make something important happen, but generally, you’d probably rather save that for whatever lies beyond the dragon. You probably don’t want to kill off a character, at least not yet. So let’s try to find some solutions.
The first is to have a character you intend to die, or you do not need for the final battle, be injured, severely – or if you’re daring, you could kill them. A useless character getting incapacitated still doesn’t really further the story, but at least it gives the illusion of purpose. The second is to have the dragon be the mystical gem, or perhaps have it lying in its head (note: google ‘draconites’) or in its stomach. The third is the slightly bland, but acceptable end in which the creature is tamed or otherwise comes to the ‘good’ side. At least for a scene. The fourth is to use this time to whip out a Chekhov’s Gun from earlier, or perhaps just unleash (for the first and/or last time) some grand power one of your heroes possess. By doing this, the scene gains importance by revealing a plot device that was hinted at before, or will be useful later. The fifth is to make the dragon a plot point in itself. How? Many ways. Perhaps the dragon is one spoken of in myth, perhaps it is the dragon of your villain and it is a source of much of his power, perhaps it is a sentient guardian that isn’t evil at all, and perceives your heroes as such. There are numerous ways to use this just to add a little justification to the situation. The sixth is to not have the scene at all, but rather a cut away. This works better in movies. The heroes charge and then we cut to them cleaning dragon blood off their armor. But you can make it work in the written word, and if you think it is best, then go for it. There are numerous other methods, surely, but these are some general ways I suggest spicing up those oppositional scenes.
That dragon can be anything. Notably, it can be an army of generic villainy. The same basic rules apply. You have an evil opposition that needs to exist for realism, but does nothing to further the story. I don’t really care how, but all I ask of my fellow writers is that you find a way to justify these scenes. Elaborate battles are lovely to read, but in the end they are dissatisfying. I spend half an hour reading about your hero only to continue on with the story as we left it before this little detour. I need to feel as though I didn’t waste my time, particularly if I feel a scene existed mostly for the purpose of showing off the hero’s 1337 skillz. I do not want to read it, and if I really wanted an epic battle scene, I would watch Return of the King.