Layering

[stormiel]

I've been thinking about how to layer plots into my story. What are your thoughts on layering?

Two things got me started on layering. One was a conversation I had here at the Anomaly. The other was reading the Hunger Games. I realized that my story was lacking enough conflict for my main character. I Also realized the setting was politically awkward. To top that off my villains were weak.

Using the Hunger Games as an example; Katniss has to go up against, the other competitors in the games, the game makers, the government that created the games and ultimately against President Snow. Throw in a group of uninformed, self-absorbed stylists and a partner who may or may-not be trying to kill her and you have a lot of conflict, action and suspense.

My current WIP is a si fi piece. I'm re-working it and I'm thinking about using the following idea:

The setting is composed of 14+ planets divided into the first worlds, second worlds and third worlds.

The first wolds are where the rulers, business owners, entertainers, the exceptional and the exceptionally rich live.

The second worlds are where the entrepreneurs, the small business men and women, and the best workers live.

The third worlds are where the factories, jails, the workers and the poorest people live.

My main character, Freya is the daughter of a wrongly accused man sentenced to death. He was taken away when she was 15 and she thought he was dead. As the daughter of a criminal (her mother died shortly after she was born) she is shipped off to one of the third worlds, tested for work placement as a commodity worker (slave, but in a system where they can earn merits to earn freedom to travel in between worlds). Freya, is extremely smart (there is a very specific reason why but I dont want to spoil it here) and one of only a handful of technicians able to build and calibrate FTL engines. At the age of 22 she has earned the right to live in the second worlds and is only a few merits away from earning passage to the first worlds.

When she finds out her father is still alive she talks her boss into laying her off so she can go to him and at least see him again. She goes to her father's last apprentice (cargo runner) Kellan Ford and bargains with him for a ride to the planet her father is on. She doesn't know it but Kellan is semi-telepathic (due to a device implanted into his brain when he was a child).

Kellan has troubles of his own. The device in his brain is slowly poisoning him and hiding his symptoms is becoming harder and harder. If anyone finds out what he is they'll kill him or have him shipped back to the lab that made him that way. He also has cargo runs stacking up. With both of the FTL engines acting up it will take months to fix it. He prays for help.

Freya knows its a long shot but she asks Kellan if she can pay him to take her to the planet her father is being held. Kellan doesn't like the idea of having another person that close and gives her the legitimate excuse that he is having engine trouble and will be stuck until he can get it fixed. Freya offers to fix the engines for him. He reluctantly accepts, but he has to make his cargo runs first.

Freya gets to see her father and finds out about her mothers log which may prove him innocent. Kellan offers to help her find it. They dont realize it but they are being followed. They find the log but its encrypted.

Kellan knows someone who might be able to help and takes them to one of the first worlds not knowing that Freya is not yet allowed in the first worlds.The lawman following them knows this and sees the perfect opportunity to strike. Freya is put in jail and interrogated by him. Meanwhile Kellan is trying to hack the system register her as his employee to clear her of the charges.

Her interrogator, Russell has been working her father's case for years and has seen his faith in action. When Russell sees the strong faith she has and her willingness to forgive him despite what she learns about him (no spoilers here) he converts (sorry this totally sounds like a cliche but it works better in the actual story). Kellan gets her charges dropped and they decrypt the log.

The second book will take off from there but that is what I'm currently working on. Its still got a long way to go but I'm trying to incorporate as many layers as I can.

What are your ideas for layers in your own stories? If anyone feels like sharing

[stormiel]

I forgot to add to my incredibly long post above that the plot gets thicker over the next two books (if I ever write all three lol).

[Kessie]

Your story sounds okay so far. What parts were the layers you added in?

My current Spacetime story's layers have gone thusly:

Bare bones plot: Carda's space and time powers break through as he's in the middle of a car wreck, and he saves himself by instinct. But his powers keep turning on by accident. This attracts the attention of various other characters who teach him how to use his powers.

Then one of the school jerks starts misusing space powers and screwing up Phoenix, so Carda has to go out and fix messes. These messes escalate until everyone finds out that the school jerk is in league with a killer angel who is manifesting as a world-devouring subspace storm. Then they have to deal with the storm and its effects before finally taking on the angel.

One layer: A whole subplot showing the school jerk interacting with the angel.

Another layer: Carda's obsession with cars--real cars, MC cars, model cars.

Another layer: Indal and his werewolf problem. Indal's crush on Xironi the catgirl, whom Carda also has a crush on.

Another layer: Ben the time elemental.

Other layers have come and gone, such as Alatha, Carda's ex-girlfriend, a mind-screw element, the World Guardians, and various ways of starting the Storm, such as a soul-sucking machine, or a giant gun powered by a star meant to destroy five world guardians at once.

[stormiel]

That's cool. What you wrote reminds me of some of the 90s/00s shows I used to watch.I miss that kind of thing lol. What are "space and time powers"?

[stormiel]

As far as layers go, I had the planets divided into two sides. That was pretty messy. I don't know if you caught the discussion Dave and I were having over in my post about tungsten carbides, but that was where I was heading with that idea and that's when I realized how messy it was.

The term "Third World Country" caught my ear and gave me the idea of splitting things up into fist, second and third worlds to create conflict in my setting. Because the worlds are so divided it sets up established rules that my characters will break. Breaking those rules will get them into trouble rather quickly. It gives my bad guy an advantage because the system leans in his favor.

Conflict is the number 1 thing I hear over and over about writing fiction. From what I see; it works. A character needs conflict to push him around, teach him to fight, make him realize how much he cares for those he's around and to let him find out what he's made of.

After the setting conflict I added the personal conflicts.Freya only has obtained a small amount of freedom that can easily be taken away. Kellan is slowly dying and never knows when the symptoms will flare up which can cause some pretty sticky situations. He always has to hide it, and people get suspicious. Russell my bad guy who turns good at the end is conflicted about whether to believe in God or not. He thinks he can never be forgiven. And no this is not one of those bad guy turns good at the last moment so he and the girl are able to justify a relationship (that is a cliche I really don't like).

A lot of the personal conflict was in the original plot but the setting conflict makes it easier to do more with the personal conflict.

The main conflict was mostly there and is that she is trying to say goodbye to her father. That would be incredibly hard. When she finds out there might be a chance to save him she has to figure out how to do it. Then when the log book that might have some information that could clear him turns out to be encrypted she has to find another solution. The solution ends up taking her to a place she isnt allowed to go and lands her in jail and puts her face to face with the one person she is terrified of. It also tips off the bad guy who she is and where to find her.

Other various problems spin off from these including a new layer of conflict that ends up with Kellan having to employ her which in the rules of the third world basically makes him her owner (something he is appalled by) until she can earn the merits needed for freedom. Merits can only be earned for specific things like number of hours worked, model citizenship, and specific work tasks completed so he's not allowed to just give them to her. I'm also thinking about throwing a droid in for fun but that idea hasn't worked well so far...

[Kessie]

Stormiel: Ahh, I see! Very interesting. You do need that conflict. My problem with my story is I still don't think Carda, the protagonist, has enough inner conflict. He doesn't really WANT anything to start with, other than to not get in trouble when his powers go off. Xironi WANTS to keep Carda out of trouble and Indal WANTS to stop being a werewolf. That desire drives a lot of their choices. But Carda? Ugh. It'll be another layer in the next draft, I think.

I think your conflicts sound good and genuine, especially the guy who is slowly dying. Reminds me of Signal to Noise, when they stick the advanced chip in the hero's head, and it's killing his brain and giving him tumors and things.

Time and space powers - time powers manifest as purple lightning and let you rewind time, move forward in time, or look at the potential futures or the deep past. Space powers manifest as green fire and let you teleport, move the fabric of space around, make portals, and all kinds of other crazy things.

There was this sermon I listened to a long time ago--it might have been Chuck Missler--who talked about how in the Bible, space is always described as cloth-like. It waxes old like a garment, God stretches out the heavens, it can be rolled up and shaken.

This winds up very, very interesting in fiction, where the heroes can cut through it, and kind of yank it around like a heavy theater curtain. They can even wrap themselves up in a fold of space if they need a quick and dirty invisibility. They can't move while "cloaked", though, so it's not exactly good for escapes.

[stormiel]

I like the idea of using space/time as a cloak. That would be very interesting to try to figure out how to describe.

That want question can get tricky. Have you tried the reverse? What would be most devastating to your character?

[newburydave]

RE: Plot layering

Randy Ingermanson in his book "Writing Fiction for dummies" talks a lot about the layers of a successful plot in chapters 8, 9 and 10.

Here is the link to the Amazon Kindle version;

www.amazon.com/Writing-Fiction-For-Dummies-ebook/dp/B002XGICAO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1354153390&sr=1-1&keywords=writing+fiction+for+dummies

I found it very helpful.

Write on beloved siblings

SGD
dave

[stormiel]

That looks like a good book. I'm probably going to put it on my Kindle next. I'm getting quite the collection going these days lol.