Travelogues

One of my favorite plot structures is the travelogue.  The characters need to go from Point A to Point B.  As with most plots, the antagonists, various events, or simply nature try to keep them from getting there.  Usually, things unravel episodically, with scenes of action punctuated by dialogue, world-building, etc.  Character arcs build throughout.

Epic fantasy is loaded with travelogues.  The Lord of the Rings and The Eye of the World are just two examples.  The inclusion of magic makes travelogues fun, although somewhat difficult to write at points.  If you can cast a transportation spell on yourself, there cannot be a travelogue plot.  Those things need to be limited (and should be anyway, according to Sanderson's Second Law) to use the structure.  However, being able to move magically the last few miles past an evil Overlord's blockade can be foreshadowed well enough to work, proving how intelligent your magic-users are and showing a dimmer side to your antagonist.



Visual aid I made on Paint

Other roadblocks should appear frequently, with less ease of escape.  Conflict is, of course, the fuel that makes the metaphorical train of plot run.  An inn fire or bandit strike can help create tension and develop characters.  You can really go crazy with this if you have multiple groups or a scout up ahead who can find themselves in a dire situation that the other characters must help them out of---at the very last moment.

Travelogues can get annoying in places, if not done perfectly.  Most people don't want to actually read a chapter of your characters leading their horses down a road, then over the river and through the woods to...you get the point.  J.R.R. Tolkien walked the line early on in The Lord of the Rings.  Luckily, time lapses due to chapter or scene breaks or POV switches are quick fixes.
Because of my generally short form, I haven't actually finished any travelogues that I can remember, although a novelette/short story I'm working on now is a pseudo-travelogue.  More specifically it's a milieu story (part of Orson Scott Card's M.I.C.E. Quotient) with several stops along the loop.

Have you ever written a travelogue?

Howl's Moving Castle (Full Analysis)

(Warning: Some moderate spoilers)

The last eighty or so pages of Howl's Moving Castle were incredible.  A dozen different things were finally revealed, relationships changed, realizations struck.  Even if the first 80% was only "good", I must say that the book as a whole is "excellent".  It gets a 93% in my book.

The character arcs were made spectacular by the nature of the tale's narrator.  He never gave a nod at the changes, and in some cases left no hints whatsoever, so the arcs had to be discerned and implied from reading.  While Sophie and Howl's relationship arc jumped more than it probably should have at the end, it was almost inevitable in hindsight.  I suspected it more and more as the book went on, which eludes to hidden pieces of arc that I picked up on.  The MG elements and air of the novel kept things from getting too dense to pick up on.

Howl's Moving Castle has a splendid setting.  It's basically our world in the near past plus magic.  Everything feels more serene than reality, and truly it is.  It's one tiny step toward utopian, just enough for a "feel good" atmosphere.

The plot felt quite episodic in places, which it sort of was in a few cases, but everything tied together well enough.  Various ingredients went into the pot slowly, then came to a simmer at the three-quarters mark, to end at a full boil.  It made for some nice stew.

If you like MG fantasy, I strongly recommend you pick up Howl's Moving Castle.  Keep in mind, there are two sequels.  I wish I had known that earlier...

Zento Off-Duty

This is the sixth of my flash fiction pieces featuring Zento, a space opera mercenary.  There are a few recurring elements, so for full understanding you may want to read they others.  They're necessarily short.  You can find all of them through my new Zento label.

     Zento sat stock-still.  He steadied his loaded crossbow.  Took a breath.  Fired.  Swore.  Two brown figures darted out of view.  “Missed again,” he hissed through his teeth.  “How is it that I kill my political targets on the first shot nine times in ten, yet can’t hit a Goran stag for my life?”
     A patch of mossy undergrowth rustled in the corner of Zento’s eye at the peak of a nearby rise.  He twisted to get a better look.  The foliage stirred again.  This time a dot of yellow horn poked up.  He smiled.
     As several minutes drifted by, movement became more and more frequent.  Zento scanned the rest of the surrounding woodland, pausing with each pass on the spot.  He stopped a yawn at his lips.
     The wind picked up, sending a chill down his spine.  He clenched his teeth to keep them from chattering.  A dark square rose above the moss hilltop.  He went for the trigger, but removed the finger when it sunk back down as fast as it came.  “Take your time,” he murmured.
     His communicator crackled.  He sneered down at it, slipped one hand from his crossbow to block out the buzzing.  The tip of his weapon dipped down from its aimed position in time for another appearance.  This time he fired.  The bolt struck what he had feared at the very last moment: the moss before the stag’s cloven hooves.  It looked up from the projectile in Zento’s direction.  He did a quick count of the points on its wide antlers.  Three dozen.  A beauty.
     Zento drew a hand back into his quiver and pulled out another bolt.  It slid clean into its slot on the yirthal crossbow, the string engaging.  He took a breath.  Let it out.  Took in a second breath.  Let it out.
     A voice shattered the silence.  “Zento, we need you to come in for a black market investigation on Incubar.  Are you there?”  Zento punched his communicator.
     The stag tore down the slope, its curled white tail flopping.  “So much for being off-duty,” he muttered.  “I’ll be there in a few, Carmel-Eyes.”

Music?

I don't typically listen to music while I write.  It distracts me too much.  However, something as simple and short as this post (due to the fact that I'm on vacation) can be written while listening to a song.  At the moment I'm listening to A Thousand Years by Christina Perri on my Pandora app (I'm typing on my iPad mini).

I see where listening to music can aid some people's writing.  The expression of emotion through song is powerful, allowing you to transfer those emotions into your prose.  Sometimes.  If you're good at it.  Unfortunately, my writing suffers when I'm exposed to too much emotion.  I learned that the ideas I typically get while watching movies are best left as an outline until I've let the ideas simmer for at least a night.  That, coupled with the noise, is why I don't tend to write while listening to music?

How about you?  Music?

Howl's Moving Castle (Partial Analysis)

Howl's Moving Castle has been pretty good so far.  I'm about three-quarters of the way through it and nothing has been exceedingly disappointing so far.  I originally thought this was a YA novel, but by page one it was clear that it's more so MG.  That isn't a problem.  The style flows nice and reads fast, which I appreciate.  Omnicient POV was appropriate here.

 

The characters are well-developed for MG.  They could be deeper, although I think simple was a better choice in this case.  Each character has a few defining features.  None of the characters were dry or startlingly flat.

 

The settings are typically basic large-scale, with some intimated detail zoomed-in.  That is the best approach for such a wide POV, in my opinion.

Anyone who likes whimsical fantasy may want to check it out.  I give it about an 89% thus far, all things considered.