Quantum Storytelling

We all get caught up in our manuscripts. We get fixated on plot, characters, dialogue. We worry if that ‘he said’ is one said too many while trying to figure out how we’re going to gracefully info-dump.

And then, in the midst of it all, sometimes we have a realization. “But what about my memes, my vision? Isn’t that stuff more important than these everyday writer trivialities?” I had this realization recently. Last week I worried about info-dumping my world backstory. I hemmed and hawed over how to do it. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to dig into my vision of this particular world. And really, all the problems of storytelling and writing alike are insignificant when I focus in on this vision of what I want, what my world looks like, what it will be if I communicate it properly. And while communicating it properly is a great concern to me, it is less of a concern than the vision itself, if that makes any sense.

In other words, worrying about story issues can sometimes get in the way of vision itself.

What did I do?

I flipped through a Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within art concept book. I picked up Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome for $5 at Wal-mart, and tossed it in the DVD player. I read a few articles on global warming. The 21st Century seems to be The Century of Resource Wars. I made some notes.

The anxiety has subsided a little, and I feel a little more in tune with my original vision than I was last week. I feel a little more secure, and less conflicted.

Bathe in the memes of your story. You will reassure, and reaffirm your ideas and your purpose. When in doubt, refresh your vision.

I have a bit of a dilemma. Ok, it’s not really a dilemma, but rather, I’m seeking a better way to do something. In the sci-fi future of my story, the world has changed due to some… dramatic events. These events took place some 25 years before the story. They changed the world, shaped it into what the world is for the characters.

My dilemma, of course, is in how I present the explanation of this world, and these past events. I had cleverly thought up a scene where the hero is talking to his niece while watching a documentary on these events. This allows me to write the narrative of documentary as sound bites into the scene, interspersed with the niece asking our hero questions. You know, the naive young child as a method towards asking naive questions that full grown characters would never ask, having grown up in such a milieu, never speaking such obvious things that an explanation requires.

This documentary + Q&A scene is something that I feel will be good enough. But I thought I’d all you smart readers what you think. Is there a better way?

I’ve been having a few doubts, mainly when I think of movies like The Road Warrior, and even Star Wars. No convoluted presentation within a scene is necessary. They simply tack a universe intro onto the beginning of the story, almost a prologue. Think of the rolling text at the beginning of Star Wars, the setup. Likewise the Mad Max movies just deliver an intro to explain why the world has gone to pot. It’s simple, and it worked for them. So am I overthinking it?

Or is weaving it into a scene involving characters a better idea? I may just keep things as they are, because I still like my original impetus to weave the explanation into the story itself. I thought it was something worth asking you all, though.

What do you prefer in delivering world backstory? A quick intro to get it out of the way, or would you prefer it to be weaved into the story, in a scene somewhere?