InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "16 right, 11 left."

shoot you in the head is my rob zombie cover band (zombiephile) wrote,
@ 2011-08-31 10:16:00

Entry tags:

poll

poll time!
Hey guys! I've been kept awake these past couple nights by plot nibblets for this novel idea I've been batting around in my brainspace for a while, so I've been working on figuring things out for it yesterday and today.

And, considering a good majority of you are readers in addition to RPers, I figured I'd run one of the questions by y'all that is particularly niggling at me and I'm working on making a decision about.

So, the background of the story is that the MC, Lucy, is a child of divorce, and her dad moved to another state shortly after the divorce. Her mom has primary custody of her, and she spends two months visiting her dad every summer. The whole novel would be about Lucy and her ~issues~ of growing up. And there will be a lot of them because you all know how much delight I get in torturing my characters.

Anyway. The question that I'm working on noodling out right now involves this situation:

One summer, Lucy arrives at her dad's to discover he has a new girlfriend, who is also divorced and has a daughter about Lucy's age. As Lucy and her future-step-sister (though they don't know that bit yet) are getting to know each other, would it be too contrived to have the future-step-sister start a sort of contest of "my parents' divorce was worse than yours" as a sort of way of providing backstory to Lucy's own parents' divorce and the details of the custody agreement? Or should I just leave the backstory as, like, nothing overtly stated, just keep it mostly to myself and use it to add color to the situation?

I know the general rule in writing is "show, don't tell" but ... idk. Chances are really good that if I ever get past a first draft on this, I'll change my mind about this a few times, but I'd like other readers' inputs.

So with that, I take advantage of having a permanent account and present you with a poll!

Poll #6380
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Is the above-detailed situation too contrived and obviously Department Of Backstory?

View Answers

Yes
0 (0.0%)

No
2 (66.7%)

Some other answer I will explain in comments
1 (33.3%)

Ticky box?

View Answers

TICKY BOX!!!
4 (100.0%)

Ring ring ring ring ring

View Answers

BANANAPHONE!
4 (100.0%)

And, of course, any comments or thoughts or suggestions you might have on the situation are welcome in comments.

TY loves. ♥

Also. It really sucks to wake up feeling vaguely sick. :(

(Post a new comment)

i feel like i am making zero sense

chthonian
2011-08-31 06:10 pm UTC (link)

It might be because I'm supremely sleep-deprived but I need a teensy bit more detail -- is the 'situation' (Lucy arriving at her dad's and discovering the girlfriend) the very start of the novel? Does the reader not know anything about Lucy's sitch before that point; is the question whether or not the way to break the "her parents are divorced and she spends summers at her dad's" backstory at all via the future-step-sister, or whether or not to use that as the vehicle to offer way way more more detail (e.g. reflecting on actual incidents/moments/whatever) about a backstory that the reader already knows the basics of?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	chthonian 2011-08-31 06:12 pm UTC (link)
	UGH HOW DO U WORD. Basically: Is this proposed 'contest' communicating 1) the basics of the divorced situation, 2) basics + v. in-depth backgrounding, or 3) reader already knows the basics, so the contest gives the in-depth backgrounding. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

zombiephile
2011-08-31 08:07 pm UTC (link)

Well. That's sorta part of what else I was debating for a bit, whether to set up the backstory before I actually kick off into the meat of the story, or if I should just kick off with Lucy arriving at dad's and discovering the girlfriend & girlfriend's daughter, and have the backstory of the divorce come out over time. The bulk of the story actually starts when Lucy's 12, but her parents divorced when she was 7, so it's already been a while since the divorce by the time the story starts.

So, the contest might fall into the realm of #2, unless I can figure out a better, non-info-dump way to get the basics out, in which case it'd be more of a #3.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	squidtastic 2011-09-01 02:49 am UTC (link)
	EVERYONE HAS PICKED BANANAPHONE. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	zombiephile 2011-09-01 02:18 pm UTC (link)
	CLEARLY EVERYONE WINS. :D (Reply to this) (Parent)