Writer Wander 038 - Plot Bunny I: Tannhauser and the Goliard

Writing is a lonely and extensive endeavor, with Wander often finding himself dreaming of other ideas...learn today about Tannhauser and the Goliard

Transcript

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I don't want to write writer wander thirty-eight. Plot bunnies. There comes a time in the life of every writer, every novelist, where you're in the middle of a large novel or a project of any kind of sort, and you reached a point that's often known as the sagging middle. We talked about this a few episodes ago, and I'm currently at that point where I'm sort of in the sagging middle where it is infamously the most difficult part of a story to write. Because you reach a point in the story where you lose the momentum that you have in the first act, and you haven't quite reached that excitement to reach the end of the third act, though that's another thing. I found that in my experience I find the third act harder to write, but that's a that's another that's another story entirely. And so you're stuck in like this weird sandwich position in which you lack the initial momentum and you lacked the clear finality that comes with the third act of the story that's nearing the end, sort of like in a in a weird limbo. And a lot of funny things start happening to the author when you reach this stage, right? When you reach this stage, one of the things that really starts happening quite often is that your initial story idea that you were passionate about doesn't seem as sexy anymore. And you start sort of like uh daydreaming about other plots, other stories that you want to tell, you're sort of like being an unfaithful husband to your to your wife, which will be your your current novel. Now, this is a common pitfall that happens with most novelists, or with most people that want to tell a story in general, right? The reason that most people who want to write a story don't end up actually writing one or don't end up getting past the first draft is because more often than not, aside from the other errors that we have discussed, if they don't give up, they might become more enamored with another idea and pursue that idea, right? And there was this old term that I I don't remember who said it, and I don't think people refer to it that way anymore. But uh I I I like the term, which is like plot bunnies, right? Where while you're in the middle of writing a story, you suddenly get ideas for like three other stories that you want to tell now, and you sort of like see them scampering at the corner of your eye like bunnies, they're they're hopping away, and you feel like if you don't go run after them, you're gonna lose them. And what that ends up happening is that if you actually do try to track them down, you are going to lose motivation for your current project nine times out of ten, and you're gonna get distracted, and you are not gonna you're not gonna finish, right? You're not gonna finish. You're literally gonna be the me the meme of the guy that's with his girlfriend, but he's looking over his shoulder to look at the other girl that just walked past him, and that that is literally the plot bunny. And one of the one of the difficult things about this is that there's a reality to be had that if you don't give any form whatsoever to these plot bunnies, they they will be lost. They will not uh oftentimes they they will just be fleeting ideas, and that can be a good thing because if you ignore them, then you will continue to persevere in whatever you're currently working on and finish your current project. And the reality is that every story sort of starts off like a plot bunny in a way, everything seems more exciting before you start working on it, and then when you realize that you you know you actually have to put some effort into it, then it's not so fun. But I feel that there's different ways to get over this particular hurdle. I think that the most common way and the most typical way is to ignore it, you know, ignore it, right? If you ignore it, eventually it will it will go away eventually, right? And like I said, that comes with a drawback that you might never have that idea ever again. But you know, if you're okay with living that, you know, if you've been doing this for enough time, you come to realize that ideas are ideas are everywhere, so you don't ever have to feel like you can miss out on like a million dollar idea. Because, you know, let's be real, you know, you want to be a novelist, right? You're not gonna be making money in all likelihood ever. So that that's just a that's just a factor that you have to take into consideration. But there was also, I'm also being reminded of something that I used to do with my plot bunnies, and I don't do this anymore, but I I thought about it and because I I I think the idea is kind of fun. But one of the things that I used to do is that I would occasionally, and I'm talking like very early on when I just started writing, I would stop writing my current story, and you know, typically the plot bunnies that would occur to me would be you know would be visualized more like a short story format. So I'd sit down and I'm like, hey, I'm getting really stuck on this current novel. So I'd sit down and I'd usually do it on a piece of paper, and I'm like, I'll just write a story, I'll write another idea until I get bored of this plot buddy, and I realize that hey, it's not that this idea is bad, it's just that it only seemed exciting compared to what I was doing now because I wasn't working on it. Well, once you start working on it, it sort of dispels the myth, and it's like a slap to the face where it's like, okay, you know, it's just that work in general sucks. That's the fundamental reality. I don't do that anymore because I I I like to be a little more consistent in how I approach approach writing, but I I think I sometimes I played around with the idea of giving giving those ideas justice, right? But then it occurred to me that in my case, there's a third option that's not available to most authors that are doing plot bunnies or that are suffering from plot bunnies, right? I don't just have to ignore them, nor do I have to put a pause in my story to write a little story that they're based on. I have a podcast. So I have a podcast. Wow. So what I what I can do is that I can take some time to talk about some of these plot bunnies that are in my head, just so that I can get them out of my system, and so I can um, you know, I can just continue on uh with my normal novel, knowing that they were given shape somewhere, and who knows, maybe one day I'll come back to them. But more than anything, I I just I just want to have them somewhere so that you know I can do them the justice and just keep on with my way. So the first plot bunny, and I don't I don't know if I'm gonna talk about more than one today, or or I'm just gonna focus on one, but for now at least, I'm gonna focus on one idea that I had for a while. And I don't know, I probably mentioned it before on this podcast, but uh I'm a really big fan of the sword and sorcery subgenre of fantasy. And I don't think I've ever mentioned this though. Uh I have written a few sword and sorcery uh novellas that um I actually I'm quite proud of, actually. And I think they're some of my best, some of my best writing. I have this one character called Oslo the Black, and he's sort of like uh, you know, this this black swordsman kind of like a Conan style figure that exists in this ancient landscape that is mostly modeled off of like uh Eastern, Eastern and Central Asia, basically, and he's you know he's going on his sword and sorcery adventures and shenanigans, but this isn't about Oslo because right now the idea I have is not about Oslo, but I've been enamored for a while with the idea of writing something that's not strictly a medieval fantasy, right? And in part inspired by Leon S, which is one of my favorite books of all time, which I've mentioned before on this podcast on episode 10, which is three obscure things that mean a lot to me. You should watch it. I really like that episode. But that book is an Arthurian fantasy, and I've always had this idea of creating a fantasy that is set in the high Middle Ages in a style similar to an Arthurian fantasy, and one of the one of those ideas is a sort of sword and sorcery story that follows a pair of two dudes, Tannhauser, and the second character who I don't who whose name I don't know. I know he's a Goliard, right? And it follows them going on adventures in a highly fantasized and romanticized version of 13th uh 13th century Europe, and um, you know, it it would be it would be like a very elevated magical realism that is set during that time period. And in case you don't know, right, I mentioned it before, but I'll I'll explain it now. A Goliard is sort of like this social class that existed in the Middle Ages, that it was basically like rowdy university students that ran around went around towns getting drunk and like writing writing poetry and songs, and I think some of them were members of the clergy, actually, and so they represent a very very interesting kind of character that doesn't neatly fit into the molds of you know a ch uh you know the the ideal society so they can reflect it because they're they're someone that exists outside of the system to a certain degree. And the idea of a duo is obviously inspired by Fafford and the Grey Mauser, which are another classic of Sword and Sorcery Fiction, where you have the classic pair-up of you know, the dude who's like the super brawny barbarian, Fafford, and this other dude who is a scrawnier but still capable guy who's more of like a witz guy, who's more like a magic man. And the way that I was visualizing it is that Tannhauser was gonna be like this, you know, this German knight. Uh you know, he's just like this German knight dude who is um he's a knight errant of some of some variety, and uh, I'm not I again I haven't fleshed out too much of their backstories, but he's like he's a knight errant, and he's this very strong, like grim soldier, a knight dude who's just wandering around, and through misfortune, he happens upon the guy that will eventually basically become his best friend in the form of this this Goliard, who the Goliard, I know that his backstory would have been that he is he he he was a disgraced seminarian, right? In a likelihood, he was training to be a priest, and uh, you know, but he he was kind of he was too much of a wacko, so he didn't really go that route. And but he's a really educated guy. He's just like a really you know, he's a poet, and he's a college dropout. That's that's the idea I have. Like a regular show in the 13th century, just just two um, you know, a knight and the Goliard just going around in 13th century Europe, like just getting up to like random stuff, because I'm really I really like shows that have or shows or or stories that have like this dynamic where I call it like the frat the frat boy duo, which is like two, you know, two dudes that are just being dudes and they're getting up to dude stuff. There's just something to that, you know. Things I like things like a regular show, I like Fafford and the Grey Mauser because they have like this very like strong, very positive and very unapologetic masculine energy that I feel is missing in a lot of the stuff that's getting produced nowadays because I I feel that you know a lot of stuff is either focused on like a very simplified version of like masculinity or on subverting masculinity in some form. But I feel that you know shows like this, they sort of have like this, you know, this very laid-back spirit that I personally associate with the 2000s. I don't know if it was really like that. I'm just associating it that way because I grew up during the 2000s, so I guess I I just associate that simplicity with my own childhood subconsciously, but like this this culture of like dudes, dudes just being dudes and doing you know stupid, stupid dude stuff, you can kind of see a revival in this with like the emergence of side quest culture and people people you know going on Instagram and talking about the importance of getting up to side quests with the boys and you know taking advantage of your 20s. So it's kind of it's kind of like that. And actually, the first idea that I have for Tannhauser and the you know and the Goliard, the first story that I figured, I I had like this very clear vision of how I wanted the story to to open up. I was imagining like this deep dark forest, probably somewhere in like France or something, like southwestern France or around that area. Um and you know, it opens up into like this dark forest, and you know, you're just seeing the forest, and you're hearing somebody like just calmly plucking at a mandolin or a guitar or some kind of some kind of instrument. And eventually the you know, the camera, so to speak, would pan on this campfire where it's just like these two dudes, like this super burly muscular night dude, which is Tannhauser, and he's like polishing uh his big sword, and on the other side of the the campfire, you have the Goliard who's sort of like strumming his lute aimlessly singing poetry or or some or some other song, and you know, they're just sitting there under the stars. Maybe they're on the run for something, or maybe they're just flitting from town to town looking for whatever their next adventure is gonna be, and then all of a sudden, they hear like some some sort of noise that disturbs them from the woods, and you know, obviously Tannhauser being this dude who's like super alert, he's you know, he's certainly the more straight-laced of the of the duo. Uh he tells um he tells the you know, he tells Goliard, or he does it himself, to douse the flame, and they douse the flame and they're they're stuck in like darkness for for a while, you know, perking up their ears to see what what it is that they could have heard in the in the forest that could be nearing them, and they get their weapons ready, and as they look around, they see you know some lights flitting from the edge of the forest. And obviously, these are not these are not lights from lanterns or anything like that. They're sort of like an ethereal blue light, and obviously, you know, in in in the stupid curiosity of youthful dudes that are just eager to find any sort of adventure, they follow the source of of the lights, and as they follow the source of the lights, they see you know a panoply, a cavalcade of of elves just you know marching through the forest. Um you know, I'm picturing like this this great this great entourage that are you know they're mounted upon upon white horses and steeds, and they're they're dressed in you know this fine regalia and there's this you know this unnatural glow that is spreading from them as they are as they're moving ahead. And something drives the two to follow the the elves. Like I said, this is a plot bunny, so I don't I don't actually know what their reasoning for following is. Maybe it's as simple as like, oh, they're they're just the kind of guys that are curious and they want any sort of adventure, or you know, since they're sort of like a lecherist sort, they they see like some some beautiful elf maiden and they they decide to to tag along to the party or whatever, and eventually in following this, you know, this strange elven caravan, they are sucked into some kind of adventure in you know dealing dealing with elves, right? So, you know, like I said, it a lot of the stories were gonna take that sort of like magical realism angle where it will be a form of the Middle Ages, of the high middle ages that is not just this overly gritty pseudo-historical version, because you know that's another topic for another day. I I don't like the fact that people just assume that because oh, so you know, something's gritty, therefore it must be that must be the real historical version. I'm I'm not I'm not too keen on that. But this one, this kind of story on design is modeled after a version of the Middle Ages that is very much based on like that romantic ideal um that you would see in like I guess pre-Raphaelite uh paintings. Uh well yes, there while there's still like the gritty elements, because someone like Goliard is not the kind of person that fits very neatly into a romanticized version of the Middle Ages, but but he's there, and I guess the I I I want to have this idea of a more colorful medieval time period. And most of the stories would be you know would be kind of like this, right? You'd have like some magical element, but alongside the magical element, you'd also have some stories where maybe they run into historical figures. They would obviously be highly fictionalized versions of historical figures because I'm not interested in telling straight up historical fiction. Like I said, it would be a story that wears the trappings of historical fiction, but in in practice, it uh it makes no obviously it'll make some attempt at being historically accurate, but on purpose the historical accuracy will be on a much lower level because it it wants to transmit more the feeling of what it was like to be to be in that way, to be part of a world that that's still enchanted. And the figure of a Goliard traveling around with like a wandering knight, I just think could strangely be very relatable to to a lot of a lot of modern people, especially a lot of modern people who you know maybe they're just dudes like grad who just graduated from college, they're not sure what to do with their life, so they're just bumming around from from one place to to another. And I think that that could resonate in that in that sense, because like I said, it is very much um dude bro, a dude bro experience, a dude bro dynamic that exists between between Tanhauser and in the Goliard. And this is one of those ideas that I've had like simmering for a while, and that's another quality that I wanted to talk about with with plot bunnies. You can tell the quality of a plot bunny based on how frequently the idea keeps returning to you. That's uh I guess that's a fourth method that I'm kind of like tacking on here in the end, which is like you can ignore plot. It's not really a fourth method, it's just an extension of the first method. If you consciously ignore plot bunnies for a while, I think eventually you will start finding that some of those ideas keep coming back to you. They might not keep coming back to you in the way that you expect them to come back to you, but they are coming back to you in some way. And for me, subconsciously, that's a sign of like, okay, this this is a good idea. Because, like I said, ideas are a dime a dozen, right? Remember, when you first start writing, you tell people that you're writing, usually in like school or something, there's always like this other kid or something like that, which is like, oh yeah, I have this, I have this great idea, and I I need you to write it. And obviously, you know, the kids they don't understand, but they don't understand the fact that like you know, idea guys, like they don't contribute anything because have coming up with an idea is the easy part. That's the easy part. So it's very convenient that you'll just have an idea and someone else will write it for you. Because anyone can do that, right? That that really is the simple part of the work, right? But when an idea, since ideas are so frequent, most of them fade away. And I'm I'm the kind of guy that you know I'm pretty comfortable assuming that if I forget about an idea, it probably wasn't worth remembering that much, to be clear with you. But when an idea returns to you every now and then, that's when you know it's like, okay, there's something here. There's something here. This isn't this isn't just just anything, okay? But uh that was the first of many plot bunnies, well, I don't know about many, but the first of more plot bunnies that I'll be describing. I'm thinking this could be kind of like a a mini-series within Rider Wander where I just talk about plot bunnies as a way of coping with the fact that I can't I can't really work on them right now. And uh I guess it's also a good exercise just to get the ideas out of my system. And you know, I'm I'm the kind of guy that you know I believe that you know when you start acting upon things, when you start making them more concrete, not not in like the new agey sense where it's like, oh, you put something out into the universe, bro, eventually it's gonna manifest into real no, not like that, but when you start taking like even small visible steps toward making something real, even if it's just talking about it, you know, things start to progress, things things start to move because you know your your body is either becoming more comfortable with the idea of of putting work on the thing that you've had simmering on your mind for a while, or you know, you're just developing the habit, right? So that was uh write or wander, that was my my plot bunny, and uh that's an invitation for you as well to think about what are plot bunnies that you've had while you've written a story, or have you never written it before, and have you had the idea of a plot that just keeps returning to you? Why haven't you worked on it? But write or wander, keep wandering.