Forum: Author Hangout

I think it's both that props are expensive and time and attention span are a limited quantity. A play is likely not going to run much past three hours or so (maybe a bit). You can't cover everything, and if you introduce something you're using time that could be spent on something else.

That said, the logical extension is that there can be nothing decorative. If there is a drapery, must it be opened/closed? If there is a phone, must it ring? If there are books, must they be referenced?

For text stories, I completely agree. If everything that turns up needs to mean something, my guess is that you'll get a very predictable story.

Not a fan of deus ex machina type events, however they come about. My example is much more inbetween - the item in question is just 'flavor'. It doesn't solve any problems or do anything amazing. It's just the feeling that the author introduced it as something the lead character would likely put away and ignore. For it to turn up exactly when needed without establishing his bringing it seemed more like a bit of slight of hand played on the reader (and completely avoidable by simply moving a sentence half a chapter earlier).

The part about explaining that he'd brought it because he thought it might be useful was to the reader. He didn't explain it to another character.

Explaining it to the reader as part of departing would make more sense to me.

Your fight example is a hard call. I'd just go with the briefcase being heavy.

Using it for context though, assume:

1) You describe receiving the briefcase, then say it's ugly and you can't imagine using it most places.

2) Then you describe going to school with no mention of the briefcase.

3) The fight comes up, and you nonchalantly mention that you thought the briefcase would be useful that day (to the reader).

Mind you - that would play as a deus ex machina. The situation I didn't - this was an accessory, not a major item. Had he not mentioned the item in question at all, the story wouldn't be different. It doesn't do anything.

Once in high school I was attracted on the street by group of muggers. I was carrying a briefcase, nice, rater expensive, steel reinforced to be *knife safe* locked leather briefcase in with were like 800 sheets of blank A4 office paper, a clay brick and a roofer's hammer. With all honesty I have now forgotten why the brick was there, and however much I would have liked to get the hammer out, for the ensuing fight only mattered the briefcase was really damn heavy as it was, mostly because of all the paper.

If I was writing this into a story I'd have an early scene where a member of the family gives him the briefcase for carrying the school work in instead of the usual style bag. Then they'd expand on the briefcase's benefits due to the improved security and it being knife proof being an advantage due to the troublesome area near the school he has to go through at some point for some reason. Then a scene where he's buying the ream of paper for use at home and he puts it in the briefcase and complains about the weight as he does so. Soon after is the encounter with the thugs and him breaking arms with the swinging briefcase as the thugs come at him with knives.

You can then clean up the scene after the cops arrive and they ask how he did it, then he tells about having just bought the paper for his printer.

All logical, all in order, and explains all aspects of the scene.

If I were to tell how that fight went, how much more words I should dedicate to describing how I came in possession of that briefcase, why it was packed with paper, and what the hammer I didn't get to use as weapon was there for, versus why I had reasons to think the attack wasn't a random accident?

There's a lot mor random to real life than to stories. Readers in stories want to know why.

When stories have too many things 'magically on hand' for the protagonist at just the right moment, they start to read like a middle schooler wrote them - even if the author is describing an actual real event.

When I put a driveby shooting in my NiS story, readers felt it didn't fit. They wanted to know why and how, even though I thought I had told them.

In real life, that kind of thing just happens if you're from side B and they're from side A, or you're on the street near where it occurs.

But in a story you need to set it up.

In this example, I would have either edited the contents of the case, or had some event in the story that put them in there.

Is someone remodeling a house, or did a character walk by a construction site and 'obtain' a few things with sticky fingers, or whatever. Just show things going into the case to cause it to be heavy. Might be best to replace the hardware items with office supplies if there's no story reason for the other things.

For example, in one study, test subjects' sense of meaning and purpose went down if they were shown pictures of the seasons of the year all mixed up as opposed to showing in the normal sequence of spring, summer, fall, and winter.

Obviously not a UK study. We're used to getting all four seasons in a single day.

AJ

Then there is Northern Alaska where they only have two seasons, night and day.

That reminds me there are many places where the only seasons are: rainy and not so rainy.

Obviously not a UK study. We're used to getting all four seasons in a single day.

We have that same problem in some of our cities in Australia as well. I've even experienced all four season before lunch when in Melbourne.

Yes, and, even in real life, messing with non-random has a noticeable effect. For example, in one study, test subjects' sense of meaning and purpose went down if they were shown pictures of the seasons of the year all mixed up as opposed to showing in the normal sequence of spring, summer, fall, and winter. Why? No way to establish purpose or find meaning if all is chaos and nothing makes sense.

I'd worry about the results of that survey test as it would only make sense if all of the photos were of the exact same location at different times of the year. I can get you pictures of places in the height of summer that many would think were in winter due to the snow, but that location has snow all year round. Conversely I can get you pictures of what looks like a hot summer day in the middle of winter, and every other odd variation in between.

If you gave me pictures of varying locations I'd be delayed in answering while I tried to identify the location first, then try to work out the season.

Stage setting props are very important. This is one of those places that gets a lot of rewriting by me.

I find that I will under-describe in draft one, put in way too much in draft two, and spend the rest of my drafts finding ways to remove props without losing the feel of my 'stage'... and then be annoyed at the final result some time after it goes to readers... :)

I keep dancing around the item in question, out of deference to the story. Making an analogy, then:

The lead character is given fancy cufflinks that he says are much too ornate to use just anywhere.

He sets them aside.

Later, he arrives at the party, notes the cufflinks, and says 'I'd brought them with me because they would fit this situation.' The cufflinks are not mentioned again.

My issue is the location of the explanation. I'd move it back to when he was leaving and say, "I was going to a ritzy party, so I found those fancy cufflinks and put them on. Finally I'd have a chance to actually wear them."

It's more a statement about self-editing. There's nothing wrong here, per se. The author gave the character gaudy cufflinks, sidelined them, then explained why they were back. But in my writing style, at least, I'd have moved the explanation back to where he was in proximity of where he'd stashed the cufflinks.

They wouldn't even need to be mentioned at the party itself. Wearing them was the whole point.

I agree with seeding. That's nearly essential if you don't want things to just appear out of the blue. Sometimes things do 'just appear out of the blue'. Very few people plan in advance to have a traffic accident (though one could seed that someone is a lousy driver - if they're at fault). But if, for instance, a character is going to have, or cause, a major crisis, it certainly plays better if there are some signs that not all is well with them.