Simplify or Complexify?

NOT the author. My house isn't that neat either! Depositphoto

(Scene: Author – who may or may not still be in her bathrobe and slippers but who is supervised closely by the cat -  reads topic for the week. Scratches head. Peruses excellent answers already given by other members of the blog. Sighs.)

Our topic this week is “How do you keep your story from being too complex?”

Since the way I write is that when I start a book I know the hero, the heroine, the opening scene and the closing scene, plus a few highlights along the way, I make no effort to either simplify or complexify (is that a word? I like it!) the plot. I just write. Period. End of story. I don’t trim plot elements and I don’t add them either. The book arrives however my Muse (or my subconscious) intends it to be. I will say I’m not much for a lot of threads. I’m pretty much telling adventure stories with a romance entwined around the danger and action so…sometimes maybe my developmental editor will suggest making more of a certain plot element and I might fall in with the idea or do something else or shake my head and say, nope, doesn’t fit my story the way I wanted to tell it.

On a different note, I released my scifi rock star romance novella, Star Cruise: Songbird, this week. It was formerly published in the now-vanished Embrace the Romance: Pets In Space 2 anthology. I had so much FUN writing a rock star romance!

The story:

Grant Barton, a Security Officer on the Nebula Zephyr, is less than thrilled with his current assignment to guard an Interstellar singing sensation while she’s on board the ship. It doesn’t help that he and his military war bird Valkyr are dealing with their recent separation from the Sectors Special Forces and uncertainty over their future, with their own planet in ruins.

Karissa Dawnstar is on top of the charts and seemingly has it all – talent, fame, fortune and devoted fans, but behind her brave smile and upbeat lyrics she hides an aching heart. When a publicity stunt goes wrong, Karissa finds herself in the arms of the security officer assigned to protect her – and discovers a mutual attraction she can’t ignore.

Trouble continues to plague the pair, driving a wedge between them and leaving Grant certain that Karissa is in more danger than she realizes, from overzealous fans and her own management. Grant is determined to protect Karissa whether she wants his help or not. Can he discover the truth behind what’s going on before he loses Karissa or is there someone else plotting to keep them apart – permanently?

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I'm the One You Ask About Keeping a Plot Simple?

You come here, to my writing lair, to ask me how to keep a story from being too complicated? Me. You're asking me. K.  You realize that when the editor of my first book described the MS as 'a little everything but the kitchen sink', my agent replied, 'no, I'm pretty sure the kitchen sink was in there, too.'

I am the writer RIGHT NOW who hates herself and 2/3rds of her life because she has over 300k words for the MS she's working on. Yeppers. You read that number correctly. I've written this damned novel three times over already and here I am going for a fourth because the alpha readers came back with 'first half is great, second half is someone else's book'. 

So you want to know how to not get complicated?? Do not, under any circumstance, pick up a manuscript you started 7 years ago and then had to put aside. DON'T DO IT. Just start that story all over again from where you are now. Every single struggle I've had with this book stems 100% from reconciling who I was as a writer 7 years ago with who I am now. The themes are no longer germane. Had I bitten the bullet, discarded everything I thought I knew about these characters, and started from the ground up, I might be on to the next novel by now. Let that be a lesson to me. Oh look. Too late. At least don't follow my poor example, k?

That said. Plot your series arc. Have a solid notion of where a series is going. Bonus points if you know the main point of each upcoming book in the series. This helps me control the impulse to include every last thing in the current book. I can remind myself to leave space to breathe because I know we're dealing with issues y and z in the next two books. Doesn't mean I'm not laying the threads. I am. But they're mentions, not clubs. Series bibles, too, help me not have to reinvent the wheel in each book. 

But as far as Keeping It Simple, Stupid - I am still learning. I may end up taking this one with me to my grave to be completed in my next life. I just hope I don't also take this book with me to my grave.

Keeping Stories From Getting Too Complex

The question put forth this week: How do you keep your story from being too complex?

And I think-- you're asking me, the person with four interlocking series running concurrently?  You think I know how to keep things too complex?

Well, in a real way, the multi-series tactic is my way of keeping things from getting too complex. 

Rather than one, enormous sprawling story of epic epicness and a cast of a dozen protagonists, I have four relatively contained, discrete storylines in individual books.  That helps me keep my head clear of the different threads, and hopefully keeps readers from getting to bogged in the weeds, either.
Hopefully.

(Though one of my beta readers had a "who is this guy again?" moment with a key secondary character in the draft of A Parliament of Bodies, so that was a good note to reclarify his introduction...)

But I am writing something deeply complex, and it's crucial I keep it all straight.  That's why spreadsheets, timelines (let's hear it for Aeon Timeline!), outlines and other organizational tools are so crucial to me.  Part of the point is making that work seem invisible to the reader, so they just jump on the roller coaster and go.

Hopefully, that's what I'm doing.  Now back to it.

KISSing, only with plots instead of mouths

Q: How do you keep your story from getting too complex?

A: Here, meet my critique partners. Aren’t they amazing?

See, as a writer, I’m still learning how to keep things simple, and by simple I mean being able to hold the whole story and all its moving pieces in my mind for that final quartile, so I can wrap up the whole yummy burrito. An overstuffed burrito is a ruined white shirt, and I have…well, let’s say I have a guacamole problem. However, that’s where my amazing crit partners come in.

My CPs are kind of alpha readers who also know SO much more than I do about craft. They margin-note anything that's confusing or well-that-came-outta-nowhere or interesting-but-never-mentioned-again. Those margin flags typically indicate I have a whole back story for that element and love it to bits and really, really want to use it to complicate matters, but it isn't useful to this story/character/moment, and so it needs to go. For instance, plot threads concerning Mari’s mom and Garrett’s super powers and the oblique, giggletastic Terminator fan-service references? Gone. Snipped. Fixed. Streamlined. Thank you, SuperCPs.

In sum, my advice to everyone attempting to KISS (we all know the acronym, yes?): get some alpha reader/crit partners who know their stuff and aren’t hesitant to call you on your over-complicated crud.

(Note: It's tricky but not really hard to build good CP relationships. I met one CP because we were both writing a lot of self-indulgent Tolkien fanfiction a million years ago, one through a romance-writing professional organization that gets together in person monthly, and one because we slept together at a local writing retreat, which isn't nearly as salacious as it sounds. If you gut-flinch at the thought of going face-to-face with other writers in person, Critters might be a nice place to meet SFF-minded folk online. If you're a member of the RWA FF&P chapter, they have a mudpuddle that kind of functions as a CP dating service for folks writing SFR and PNR. Make sure to trade sample chapters before you get hitched for the whole manuscript, and also try to hook up with someone who is just a little bit ahead of you in craft knowledge.)

Oh! And one addendum from the former-litcrit-student in my head: it also probably helps to focus on a tiny, tiny group of POV characters – one, if you can get away with it – and their goals, motivations, and conflicts. If a worldbuilding piece doesn’t affect your protag, ditch it. The only stakes a reader is going to care about are those that directly affect your POV character's internal journey.

Complex Storylines: Clarity is Key

How to keep your stories from being too complex?

~slaps knee~

Oh, dear reader, I am the least qualified to answer that. Reviews of my books have included such phrases as "little hard to follow" and "have to pay close attention"...and those are the kinder ways of saying, "Wait, WUT?"

I'm getting better. Honestly. Pretty sure. Somewhat.

I keep repeating the KISS mantra in the back of my mind, but at the fore are the multiple balls the protagonist is juggling that will eventually merge into one big road sign of "guilty party this way." Part of the ongoing process of honing my skills as a storyteller includes being more mindful of how many balls are in the air, being clearer about the connections, and allowing the beats to remind the reader of where we are and what we know without bludgeoning them.

So, my advice, for what it's worth, is to include a very clear statement at three points within each arc of your story:

1. The beginning: This is what we want.
2. The middle: This is what want, this is what we have, and this is what we need.
3. The end: This is what we wanted, this is what we've got, and this where we're going next.

Clarity, it's the best companion to complexity.

Keeping it simple

How do you keep a story from getting too complex?

I have never been accused of that particular trait and must defer to those wiser than me this week. If it isn't a spider's web of subplots. I'm basically lost.

Keep It Simple, Sister

I don't always share my non-SFF stuff here, but I'm so pleased with how this cover turned out that I just had to. SHOOTING STAR is a contemporary romance, darker and edgier than my Missed Connections series. I'm really excited to see this one finally come out as I've been working on it for years. Releasing March 6!

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is "How do you keep your story from being too complex?"

...and I don't know.

I mean, what is TOO complex? I'm thinking that sometimes there's too much story to fit into a single book, which is probably why my series tend to expand.

It can be a mistake of newbie writers to think a story needs MORE. I used to worry about that, especially with the first novel I wrote. I worried that the story didn't have ENOUGH. Enough of what, I'm not sure. But, that was before I understood that the actual details of the story are much less important than how the story is told. It's the author's voice we fall in love with. Details, while they may add to the atmosphere of the story, tend to be forgettable.

So I think it's key to keep in mind that simple is good. If we're feeling the impulse to add to the story, simply to add, that's almost certainly not necessary.

To Run or Not to Run

On my mind this week and the week past: Running for public office. I can't believe I said it out loud. I hate politics. Yeah, I see you laughing and nodding. We roll our eyes and say things like 'all politicians are liars/crooks/insert accusation du jour here'. It's sort of this decade's lawyer joke. Except that's not what I'm talking about when I say I hate politics. 

You know I'm an introvert. So when I say I loathe politics, I mean that the idea of going to meetings with people wasting time, breath, and money using too many words and hours in an attempt to manipulate me into doing what they want makes me want to stab icepicks in my ears. And maybe theirs. HATES it, my precious. 

I laugh nervously about my chances of even getting voted into anything resembling an office. I'm a Wiccan living in the south. That's a tough sell. And frankly, I'm kinda left of left. So I'd expect to get laughed right out of the polls. But eh. I've had my share of unkind rejection letters. Losing would frankly be a bit of a relief. And yet I still mull the idea of filing to run. 

Why would I entertain the thought of doing something like running for public office when I claim to hate the whole process?  ESPECIALLY the fund raising part? Because I've discovered there's something I hate even more.

Dead children. Specifically, needlessly dead children. I am sick to death of 'thoughts and prayers'. I am sick to my soul of a bunch of old guys in suits wringing their hands in front of the TV cameras only to back to jacking off the NRA in the back office with one hand and eviscerating healthcare that might treat disturbed, hurting children with the other. I'm done with them. It's clear that more and more parents in this country are also done with them.

So I don't know yet. I'm still noodling. Because it's something I *really* do not want to do. It wouldn't be a step out of my comfort zone. It would be a damned drop from orbit. In just a wing suit. Still. Were I to take that leap, it would be because James wrote an excellent position paper. And I feel like plenty of parents would resonate with a platform of:

No parent should have to drop a kid at school with the parting words: May the odds be ever in your favor.