I am writing a fantasy novel, mentioned in Sig, it's already over 100k words but I noticed while editing that I emphasised things on world events like 30% in the story.
I just wanna know others' opinions, readers as well as authors and how much involvement in other events would be enough to keep the story engaging.
Well, it depends on your readers' preference with regards to them staying or not for your work. Definitely, you wrote those events there because it indirectly affects your MC.
Otherwise, it'll be useless word count booster.
Though if you want engaging your readers, showing your characters' thoughts and reactions over events can pique their interest. Simply telling what's going on is just like stating facts; characters' thoughts and reactions add flavor to those.
"An explosion happened. As I sat on the bench looking at those running for their lives, I couldn't help but wonder...what does it feels like to be in the middle of it?"
Another is giving your readers 'what ifs'. Your work is fiction, and it has huge potential of showing what could've happen instead of following the same old formula for fantasies.
"What if humans never invented gunpowder? What could've happen?"
Well, these are just my suggestions.
Oh and yeah, don't infodump on your readers. Spread out your worldbuilding throughout your story. Keep them interested by slowly giving out clues, then letting them piece it together.
I don't know if this helps, but here is how I did it:
I always had some chapters where the main group was not present, but other characters in the story discussed something that was relevant to the main plot. (example: the ruling emperor's talk with his own people/wife about the MC and her powers and how the empire was before and how it should be, etc.)
Some chapters were where the other side was introduced, their people, motivation, etc. Even if some of them wouldn't live long but were built up in one or two chapters, showing their traits and style before they met up with the main group. (example: a group of warriors was sent out from an opposing faction to check why their bases were destroyed, people killed, and slaves freed. They searched and tortured others to get the info out of them before finding the main group and going in for the kill. Those few chapters were from their perspective, detailing what they knew about the world and their side before I switched back to the MC and her group facing off against them)
Sometimes I split the group up, following its members, chapters where the MC was not present but still showed how people around her changed, grown up, etc before merging back the story together.
A few chapters where after a major event we followed the other side's perspectives or other people's who were affected by it, showing the impact of big events.
Outsiders point of view for some parts of the chapter. (example: the MC's wedding was shown from multiple perspectives)
Hope this helps and give you some idea that can help you out a little how to sprinkle some extra into your story!
Everything needs to tie together. Convoluted and messy like Christmas tree lights dipped in cheese wiz and fire ants, but it must all come together at some point.
Everything needs to tie together. Convoluted and messy like Christmas tree lights dipped in cheese wiz and fire ants, but it must all come together at some point.
I mean, suppose a war breaks down in some other country and only its result affects the Mc story, should I describe the war or just deliver the news? that kinds of things are happening in the story, event indirectly affects Mc's story.
When I read a novel, I like it when there are interlude chapters after the end of the arc(s) that show the readers what took place/is taking place in the world the story is set in. Seeing things from the point of view of other characters in the story can really make the story more engaging for me when I read a story as long as it is written well.
I mean, suppose a war breaks down in some other country and only its result affects the Mc story, should I describe the war or just deliver the news? that kinds of things are happening in the story, event indirectly affects Mc's story.
Double duty. Triple duty. Everything should have multiple levels that tie back to the original. Here.
The man nodded slowly, "I can relate." He continued nodding for a moment before looking surprised. "Oh my, I've been quite rude! I haven't introduced myself." He switched his cane to his right hand and offered his left in greeting, "Charlton Hieronymus-Nial Od, Viscount of Odford, England."
Caffiend. Caf-FIEND. A pun on Caffeine. What is the chemical for caffeine? C8H10N4O2. How many letters in Lord Od's name? Charlton=8, Hieronymus=10, Nial=4, Od=2
It goes a bit deeper of course. Charlton meaning From The Town Of Free Men. Lord Od being the noble ruling over Odford, which is a play on Oxford. Hieronymus meaning "Sacred name". Nial meaning Champion.
Put it all together, and you have the Sacred Champion and Leader of Free men, on top of it being a pun on Caffeine. Of course, all things are subjective.
One man's Freedom Fighter is another man's terrorist, after all.
You see how the name has multiple layers? Everything should have double duty. Everything should serve multiple purposes.
Here's a digression:
The Empire City Metropolitan Sepulcher was a giant pyramid.
One strange and unsettling effect of the anti-christ war was that the bodies of those who had died did not decompose for about a year. In the months the anti-christ was running rampant across the world, people who were killed didn't rot. They remained as fresh as the moment as when they shuffled off their mortal coil. It is believed that this was because the corpses were meant to serve as hosts and fuel for the hordes of Hell, but something happened and most of the demons never arrived. This left the bodies in a state of preservation, as if they had been frozen in time at the moment of death. The absence of decay and the lack of rigor mortis was unsettling and mysterious, and it added to the sense of chaos and disorder that pervaded the world during the war.
Nobody is quite sure why the demons never materialized. The common belief is that the Sorceress Supreme's last act before being destroyed along with her holdfast was to lock out those demons. It would certainly explain why the Anti-Christ's battle tactics were so haphazard. Despite the uncertainty, it was clear that the bodies needed to be stored somewhere, and so they were either burned or placed in temporary facilities. Some people clung to the hope that their loved ones might still be alive, and there were many attempts to bring people back to life. Unfortunately, these efforts were often exploited by con artists who took advantage of people's desperation and grief. Rumors circulated that some people had indeed returned from the dead, but it was never clear how much of this was true and how much was simply wishful thinking.
I'll spare you the gory details.
The Empire City Metropolitan Sepulcher (ECMS) was built at the height of the Anti-Christ War. Several battles had already destroyed sections of Empire City and in the middle of the ruins of Gravesend someone built the ECMS, literally overnight. It was apparently anticipated by the US government, as an entire battalion was immediately stationed around the building come morning. It was just one more strange thing that happened in a world gone mad, as far as most people were concerned. Over the next week, two more buildings like it appeared in Corpus Christi and Los Angeles. These buildings were designed to hold the bodies of the deceased, with the capacity to hold around five million bodies each. Even more in the case of cremated remains.
As it turned out, these buildings were Holy Ground and thus the forces of evil could not even approach the buildings, much less stand to look at it. The very presence of the building created a several mile safe zone that became a major staging area for the US forces to sortie throughout the northeast as well as prepare counter attacks. Bodies were shipped in from all over the tri-state area, especially fallen soldiers, to be interned in the building. Most major religions were represented and many churches were built in the area surrounding the sepulcher.
It didn't just become a staging ground for the military, but for the religious and the pious. There arose a certain fracturing in the area. There was the military, the civilians just trying to survive, and then the zealots who formed a sort of quasi-military organization who did not coordinate with anyone else, instead they followed their leaders who may, or may not, have gotten marching orders from God. When the war ended and the military moved out, the bible thumpers stayed, and they took over the sepulcher.
Alas, after the defeat of the anti-christ, bodies started to rot again, but the many faithful that had dedicated themselves to the project began the process of embalming who they could, burning those they couldn't. Since many of the other graves throughout the world had been looted by necromancers over that eleven month period in nineteen eighty nine, the world in general had adopted the Sepulcher Pyramid model as well. Although, most of those were built with more conventional methods.
It was an imposing structure that towered over the neighborhood of Gravesend like a foreboding monolith. Its ninety-four stories of gleaming bone-white marble stretched up into the sky as if holding up the heavens. Inside the ECMS, rows upon rows of bodies were stored in various manners. Some of the more recent additions are preserved in a state of cryo-suspension. Many were embalmed. A whole section was full of corpses that underwent a form of mummification. Their skin was stretched tight over their bones in a grotesque mockery of life, a result of some poorly executed, but well intentioned use of certain meta-abilities. Many more are nothing more than ashes, their remains placed in urns and stacked neatly on shelves. The ECMS was originally just a repository for the countless victims of the Anti-Christ War, but it became a cultural institution.
For the ECMS was more than just a storage facility. It was a place of faith, a beacon in a world that had been torn asunder. It was a place of death and hope. The spires of religious institutions that sprung up in its shadow reached towards the sky in silent prayer. Gravesend had become a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, a lighthouse in a world that has been plunged into the abyss.
Along side the many churches and other places of devotional faith that rose up around the giant, modern necropolises, research facilities were built as well. If you are someone trying to figure out how to cure certain diseases, or study the human monadic code, having access to millions of potential samples wasn't a bad thing. Not that just anyone could waltz in and start jabbing the occupants with needles, but the need to advance science by just about any means was a priority after the war. Like attracts like, and hospitals and other health based facilities were built in the area as well.
That was why Felix Fleaman's laboratory was in the shadow of that towering edifice.
Now, when you read it, it SOUNDS like it's unrelated to the story. I mean, I digress into a multiple paragraph digression about how they bury people in a post-anti-christ world. However, I promise you, everything will come back later. Some of it won't come back for another two books, but it will all come back. Everything you read here is important, and yet, it's also just a fun aside. It is world building, but it also serves to set up a future character's origin, and also sets up the stakes when a future disaster happens, and explains why the medical buildings and research facilities are all in the same area, and (etc etc etc etc)
Yes, some of this stuff is two, three, or even four degrees separated from the MC (Jack Cooper), and some of it is a side story that eventually comes back to the MC, but it all is directly related to the MC, either setting up the background, the villains, the allies, the world building, or even just giving you the right 'FEELING' that one should have when they think about the world in general.
This is not a superhero world of 4 color comics. This is a world where it's through a broken reflection of a cracked mirror reflecting the original 4 color comic book world.
Here's the thing: WHAT CAN YOU CUT OUT OF YOUR STORY?
You should ALWAYS overwrite. You should ALWAYS write 3 times what you need, they automatically throw out half. Keep the best of what you wrote, then slowly whittle down the remaining story until you have only the absolute bare minimum you need. You see, if you overwrite, then get rid of the extra, you will, by simple numbers, keep the BEST part of what you wrote. 80% of what you write is crap. 20% of what you write is the best 80% of your story. 1% of your story is the best half of your story.
It's just statistics. It's just math. This IS how it works. I could explain, but I don't have enough room in one post. Trust me, when dealing with large amounts of something, such as a story 100k words long, statistics takes over. The Bell Curve rules all.
So write your story, write about everything you can think of. Write about everything little thing that happens in your world. Then ask yourself, WHAT CAN I TAKE OUT? WHAT CAN I SHAVE OFF? HOW CAN I REWRITE THIS TO MAKE IT SMALLER?
Brevity is the soul of wit.
If what you are writing does not move the plot, and by move the plot, I mean move the plot on at least 2 or 3 levels, maybe it's not needed. Maybe it can be combined with something else. Maybe it's redundant. Maybe you said the same thing more than once.
Heres a rule: ONLY TELL THE READER SOMETHING ONCE OR THREE TIMES.
If it is really important, tell them three times. If it isn't really important, only tell them once. If you need to explain something more than once, maybe a character is "being brought up to speed", just skip over it. If it isn't related to the plot, then, take it out...
But save it.
Reuse it in another story, or in a future book on the same topic, or a flashback, or something, but the key is, every word costs the reader time. You want to give the reader as much as you can for as little cost in time.
Is this "side story" worth the reader's time? No. TAKE IT OUT. Have no mercy. The reader will thank you for not wasting their time.
How I showed the reader that lord Od is left handed? Ehh? Maybe that'll come up later!
Two types of tension: Suspense and Dread.
Suspense is: What's gonna happen?
Dread is: When is it gonna happen?
A table where everyone is sitting down to eat. You told the reader, something is gonna happen. Nothing happens until a bomb explodes under the table. (Suspense)
Show the reader there is a bomb under the table, but don't tell the CHARACTERS in the story. That's DREAD. The reader knows something bad is gonna happen, even knows what the bad thing is, and understands why the character is just blinding walking into the trap, but they don't want it to happen.
Something like a war side story works well for building up dread. You explain things in the side story that you make clear could happen to the MC. Now you are raising flags that the reader knows, but the MC wouldn't.
Side stories also work well as allusions and parallel stories that you could have echoing the MC. The war story has nothing to do with the MC, except that when the War story talks about great losses, the MC gets dumped. When there is a furious battle, the MC is fighting for control of his family's fortune. Blah blah blah. Many ways to tie it all together.
I mean, suppose a war breaks down in some other country and only its result affects the Mc story, should I describe the war or just deliver the news? that kinds of things are happening in the story, event indirectly affects Mc's story.
Is your story a character driven or plot driven? If it's the former, then give readers anything that's possible to be exposed only from MC's position, such as how fast news travel in that era, if the MC was in military or not, or they're actually experiencing the conflict first hand or just being near them, etc. Anything else, then it's just unnecessary. So 0%.
But if your story is about the war itself, then by any mean, as long as it's necessary, do so. Especially when your MC is just a small cog in a grand machinery.
I am writing a fantasy novel, mentioned in Sig, it's already over 100k words but I noticed while editing that I emphasised things on world events like 30% in the story.
I just wanna know others' opinions, readers as well as authors and how much involvement in other events would be enough to keep the story engaging.
Everything needs to tie together. Convoluted and messy like Christmas tree lights dipped in cheese wiz and fire ants, but it must all come together at some point.
I agree. If it is relevant than just have it brought up in a discussion. Someone can be watching the news and they can find out about the christmas tree lights dipped in cheese wiz with fire ants.
It is a lot better than switching to the great cheese wiz fire ant battle.
