(no subject)

[technoir]

So I have done the insane but I need something to shake things up. I joined the national novel writing month project. Next month I will need to do 50000 word novel to win. I figure why not. maybe it will give me the creative jumpstart I need.

Oh well "The Prince of Appalachia" is the working title. Here is a quick opinion qustion. Should a book involving a post apocolyptic world actually dwell on how it happened or should it just be left a background mystery?

Comments

[hoshiadam.livejournal.com]

A bit of background is okay, but hard to do effectively in a novel. In a movie, it would just be a voiceover at the beginning of the movie, but that usually comes out awkward in a novel. If you can work it in somehow it can be kinda neat. Even just a few hints are usually enough - let the reader imagine what actually happened.

It also depends on how important the background is to the current action. If it isn't that important, then brush over it.

[phoeclipse.livejournal.com]

I always like it when the way it happened is sort of allowed to filter through the dialog, like everyone in the book knows what happened so well that it doesn't need to be explained but they say little things that give it away. Allowing it to be mysterious and allowing the audience to have their curiosity fulfilled

[cearafox.livejournal.com]

I always like to know how things like "The End of the World" happen. My suggestion is to have no more than 1/4 of the book about how it happened (also explaining why this Prince is a Prince), but the rest of the book should be about the Post part.

[mkillingworth.livejournal.com]

I'm for leaving it a mystery. There are so many possibilities that you should just allude to things as the plot develops.

[hapersmion.livejournal.com]

I think it really depends on how good an idea you have about how the apocalypse happened. If you have it all planned out, and it's important to the story, it should be in there (whether stated plainly or allowed to filter through); if it's something not-too-exciting, like, "well, they just finally went and started another nuclear war," it probably wouldn't hurt to gloss over it a bit.

[msrlapin.livejournal.com]

Leave ti a mystery. We've seen so many odd and different and just plain strange way for the world to end in fiction, that there's just no need. Plus, it makes the reader ask, which provokes interest.

[moosea1.livejournal.com]

If you leave it a mystery, make it a mystery to the main character as well. Hell, make it several generations back and you can have mythology already there around the "end of the world", which means that you don't have to explain it in detail but just give enough hints through the mythology to explain the highlights.