Ruinous Pivots

Do you ever pick up that one book with an amazing hook, the best characters, and that one piece. It could be the magic, it could be a super power, it could be the world; regardless this story has it and takes off running with it. It sprints though the first book that refuses to be put down, runs though the second at a steady pace and then falls on it’s face on the first page of the third book. Maybe instead of books it was acts, or seasons of a TV show.

I’ve had a few I could point to from various creators in various corners of the world. It has been alien invasions to magical portals and just about everything in between. While some will call this bad writing, and in a way it is, I think it has less to do with writing and more to do with where the idea comes from. I will assert that the majority of these special components, these unique hooks, are blundered into like worldbuilding.

To invent an example. Starting with the overly dramatic title something like Project Valkyrie: Humanity’s Last Stand; the blurb highlights our main character Steve possibly being one of a handful of people who may be able to tip the scales of an alien invasion that has humanity on the ropes. The book opens with Steve showing off his general willingness to rescue people with him rescuing a young woman from some ungentlemanly types. Highlighting his past growing up on USMC bases when the convoy is attacked by the aliens though his blow by blow commentary of the battle he’s a passive participant in.

Then a group of unknown aircraft come and turn the tide. One is shot down, and being the ‘help first think later’ man he is Steve dives into the ocean to try and pull the pilot out of the strange aircraft, as he thought he saw a cockpit. Steve is correct and pulls a not quite human woman out of the strange plane.

This starts the story proper as a few chapters later it’s highlighted that the woman Steve pulled out of the cockpit of the strange aircraft is the result of Project Valkyrie. A growing group of women being put though a genetic treatment, reversed engineered from the aliens’ own science. With the first group being 'rescues’ from the aliens that created them once the more rebellious side of humanity reared it’s ugly head. Now there are two three of Valkyries the alien grown which includes the woman Steve pulled from the ocean, genetically modified human women, and human grown. Which is the part that really sells the book.

Alien invasions can be a dime a dozen but the way this first book handles the questions: “What makes us human?”, “How far is too far when faced with extinction?”, “Is it acceptable for women to be involved in active combat?” are what elevate the book to stand out heights. It’s ends with a ‘book two releasing soon’ message at the end.

Book two pivots, slightly, away from the philosophy of war and highlights the civilian side of the war, as there is now a secondary focus on the romantic quagmire Steve realizes he’s now in between the alien grown Valkyrie and the woman he saved in chapter 1 of the last book. Yet it continues with the questions previous book’s philosophical questions well enough and the way the war is now being engaged with interesting enough that it doesn’t loose that special sauce, while adding another “Is total war ever worth it?”

Book three is released and is just a rom-com, with aliens and a war for humanity’s survival in the background. Clearly it’s what the author likes to write, and from a technical stand point it’s the best book in the series. However all of the questions that carried the first book, and continued in the second are forgotten, and instead it’s biggest question is which woman will he end up with, and it’s clear by the end of the book that the Valkyrie has won the romantic battle, but will ‘burn out’ and thus he will end up with the human woman. Which is exactly how book four plays out.

If looked at objectively the story of book one and two could be completely independent of books three and four. Yes it is clearly one thread, but the plot changes direction so aggressively it might as well have been a separate plot entirely. Which, in this example should clearly be the case.

Reality isn’t nearly that clear cut. Thus I suspect that those story tellers and a majority in their audiences, will miss that interesting angle, that elevating thread, the sub-textual philosophical questions, that are created in the opening and often expanded upon in the early segments. For those of us who were maliciously compliant in our literature lessons we will see it, and that likely incidental genius left unexplored; which will ruin a lot of interest for those who end up seeing it. Which brings us back to the highlight of first Worldbuild Wednesday: Incidental creation often ends up being wasted potential.

I will concede that in the majority of cases, this degree of thought will be overkill. Yet I practice the axiom: there is no such thing as overkill. Which in this case is checking for those strokes of incidental genius. Yet when searching for these strokes of incidental genius it’s important not to dig up things that aren’t really there. I can point to any number of ‘academic’ break downs of popular media that injects the reader’s viewpoint into whatever is being analyzed. If you don’t believe me go look up X reading of, pick a classic, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, or anything else you deem to be classic. I’m sure you can find or invent a subversive way of looking at it.

Likewise it should be possible to take a subversive story and filter it in such a way as to make it something good. The recent Barbie move comes to mind, as the boyfriends and husbands who were brought along connected more with Ken and changed the framing of the film. Thus be careful with who you employ to help dig out what could be the hidden gems. Because it is possible to pull just about anything out of that text if one tries hard enough and there are those out there who will pull so hard the text breaks. This rather destructive process might be why some of these pivots happen.

It could be the writing group seeing something they would do over the author. It could be the fans throwing around ideas and a storyteller who want’s to give the people what they want. It could be the storyteller not knowing what makes their story great that cause a story to pivot and tear itself to pieces. Take your time, trust your beta readers and stick to your guns and we will see more solid stories though and though.

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