Pride and Prejudice and Ship Fics (Or, how to write an exciting love story when you have the characters tagged.) · 3:10am Aug 17th, 2013
Sorry for the blog spam, but this is the post I actually wanted to make tonight. I recently read Pride and Prejudice. And I learned how to write a really good ship fic.
If you don’t know, Pride and Prejudice is the grandmommy of all romance novels. I had never read it before (in my teenaged years I was more a fan of the Bronte sisters, and rejected the less angsty Austen novels. Then I grew up, but I never got around to Austen until now.) but being a generally well read person, I knew the ending. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are probably the most famous couple in all romance that have a happy ending, so I went into the book with no question-- this book was shipping Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. I knew the character tags.
And I couldn’t put it down.
The writing in Pride and Prejudice is so out of style that it actually resembles a bad fanfic. Aside from the antiquated language and Austen’s choppy style (i'm one to talk), everything is told. Nothing is ever shown. Conversations will be narrated to halfway through, or single lines will be narrated. The declarations of love at the end are told in narration. You try to pull that off at the end of your shipping novel: “And then, Applejack told Rainbow Dash that she loved her, and Rainbow smiled and assured her of the same. They agreed to tell their friends upon the next day, and made plans for an outing to announce the happy news.”
Yeah, that doesn’t cut it these days.
And I still couldn’t put it down.
Of course, all of this begs the question: why is this book so damn awesome? (Or maybe: is the Project Gutenberg website designed with some kind of hypnotic ray?)
So I came up with some thoughts in search of the secret for writing a fic, without amazing prose or an ending that’s actually in question, that people will be excited to keep reading. This is what I figured out. It’s geared towards longer style stories, but using one or two of the elements in a short story would probably work, too.
Obvious Plot, Non-Obvious Subplots
Among the first things that grabbed me about the book were the subplots. I knew about Elizabeth and Darcy, I had no idea if Jane would get Mr. Bingley, or who would end up with Mr. Collins. Even if the core romance was a given (and even without knowing the ending for sure, most romance endings are a given) there were plenty of surprises in the book.
Now, these weren’t just tacked on. All of these things had some importance to the main plot at some point. Without Jane’s affection for Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth would have no reason for staying with Jane when she’s at his house, and therefore interacting with Mr. Darcy. Mr. Collins marrying Charlotte, Elizabeth wouldn’t have become acquainted with Lady de Bourgh. The sub-plots all move the plot along, but they also provide almost all of the real suspense in the book.
When you tag your fic PonyA, PonyB, Romance, (no sad or tragedy tag,) or you have a big picture of PonyA and PonyB snuggling for a cover, we all know the ending. You are not fooling anyone. However, if PonyA is also involved in another project, or PonyC is the object of affection for Ponies E, F, and G... those subplots can add actual suspense. We don’t know what you’ll do. Use this to your full advantage, and while you’re at it...
Hide stuff from your readers, and use background ponies and OCs if you must
The entire plot of Pride and Prejudice is Elizabeth slowly learning more about Mr. Darcy. First what she learns give her a bad impression, then as she learns more, her impression changes. Despite knowing the ending, and knowing that eventually Mr. Darcy will be revealed to be worthy of Elizabeth, the mystery of who he really is drives the main plot. We know Elizabeth will fall in love with Mr. Darcy, but we don’t know who this Mr. Darcy really is that she's destined to love.
Now, this is tricky with the mane six in fanfic. We know who they are. But that doesn’t mean you can’t hide other things about them -- what they’ve been secretly doing, that mysterious pony from their past, the real reason they said or did that thing to that pony -- give people something else to find out, and tie it in with the ship.
When I say use background ponies or OCs, I don’t mean as the main characters in the fics (I mean, you can if you want, but you don’t have to.) I mean that OCs and background ponies give us characters that are more of a blank slate for hiding stuff, so as parts of subplots they can be really exciting. Did Background Pony not deliver the message from PonyA to PonyB because she secretly loves PonyB? Or because she was having a rendezvous with Pony C? Or just because she’s a careless pony? We don’t know! You can surprise us!
Explain why these characters can never be together
Every time I bring this up, I get cries of “POINTLESS DRAMA SUX! I don’t wanna write about angsty, sad ponies!”
I’m not talking about pointless drama, I’m talking about drama with a specific point -- changing your fic from “Dawww” to “OMG! I can’t believe it! That was awesome!”
In any romance story, people start out with the assumption that Character/PonyA and Character/PonyB will fall in love. You are not surprising anyone when PonyA loves PonyB and is really, really wondering if PonyB loves them back. Something needs to happen, or be in place, to convince PonyA that PonyB couldn’t love them, other than their own self-esteem.
In Pride and Prejudice, it’s the classic “failed confession of love.” When Elizabeth turns Mr. Darcy down, it’s unimaginable (given what we know of him) that Mr. Darcy will ever propose again. The reader knows he will, he has to, but the string of events that will lead to this is a total mystery.
This mystery is what makes a cute love story into a great one. The harder it is for the reader to figure out how the hell you’ll pull this off, the more exciting it will be if you do. If it’s something the ponies would just have to sit down and talk out, and they’re two ponies who would do that, the reader will figure it out pretty quick. If it’s something they would never bring up again in a million years, and you can arrange a series of events that lead to it coming up, you’re doing better.
Equestria also has magic at its disposal, along with a pretty unknown (to us) social structure. Use magic to make things harder, or make up a social reason why these two can’t be together, sell us on the idea, then solve the problem.
Give us a real problem and leave us in awe at the cleverness of the solution, even if we know the problem will be solved.
Trust your readers and yourself
For about ¾ for Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth does not love Mr. Darcy.
One thing shippers in general hate to do is leave any doubt that PonyA and PonyB love each other 4ever and nothing will make them stop. It’s probably a defense mechanism, by writing PonyA hating PonyB’s guts, for any amount of time, we’re afraid we open ourselves up to making the arguments for anti-shippers, or people who hate our ship, to point out why our ship sucks.
But you aren’t writing for those people anyway. And the end of the fic will be much sweeter if you let the ponies react to each other like they would react. Let them be completely, totally not in love, and show how that changes to love. Let them have a fight that makes them hate each other, then show how they get back together. None of this secretly pining, or repressed feelings stuff. Give us the whole journey for one or both of the characters. Trust your readers to be convinced, and trust yourself to convince them of a true transformation of feelings.
I’m sure if I read a different book, I could come up with different suggestions. But the experience of reading such a great romance with so many properties of a ship fic (to me, at least, knowing the ending) was too interesting not to mention. The fact that I can see these elements at work in fics like Twilight’s List, Left Behind, Those Blue Wings, and Yours Truly add to the idea that these building blocks are kind of how you do it in romance. We start at a disadvantage, the ending is kind of predictable, so we need a set of tools to make the journey feel important.
I never actually read that book...
I need to. I truly do.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Now go read Emma and watch Jane Austen do the exact opposite of what she did in Pride and Pejudice. Sort of.
Very good blog though, and you're pretty much correct on anything. "Obvious Plot, Non-Obvious Subplots" is the most important one in there, think. I don't think a romance necessarily has to have subplots to be interesting, but it does have to have something other than just 'character A falls in love with character B'. The act of falling in love is boring, it happens all the time. It's how it happens that makes the story good.
And that is why the Harry Potter series is so flipping amazing. We all know that, eventually, Harry's gonna kick Voldy's mouldy old butt, but the side-plots in each novel, in addition to the main mystery of each one, really make them the page turners that they are. Not really romance heavy, but the idea's the same. Kinda. Every genre (adventure/comedy/romance, even horror) has its tropes, so when a story mixes genres a bit, they always tend to be more interesting and get you more invested.
As to the actual subject material of your blog - never read Pride and Prejudice, but I've seen the movie and loved that (never watching it with my roommate again, though. She could have set a Guinness record with amount of times she sighed Mr. Bingley's name). I'm not really a fan of most classics I've read (Emma made me want to face-desk repeatedly, because I couldn't actually reach into the pages and slap the titular character with a glove and tell her to stop being such a dunce) but I can definitely see your point with the whole multiple plots thing and making the love story more meaningful. That's why most romcoms follow the "awkward getting to know each other/bitter rivals" phase with the "everything's going suspiciously well" phase, then hit you with the "oh snap!" fight/revelation/rift in the relationship followed by the "I guess if we really love each other we'll get over this/apology accepted" denouement. The intruding tension always makes the inevitable snuggling at the end seem more hard-won.
That, plus all the best romcoms (Bridesmaids, She's the Man, Pitch Perfect, Mean Girls) have multiple things going on (a diminishing home life, a secret crossdressing adventure, an acapella battle of the sexes competition to win, or a lesson to learn on who your real friends are) in tandem with the romance.
So yeah - like you said. The audience knows what's gonna happen at the end in almost every genre. That's a given (in most cases). Its the how of it that really draws you in - how the hero gets strong enough to defeat the villain, how the lovers end up together, how the sleuth finally catches that underground pony fighting ring - and getting people to care enough to wonder at it is the real challenge.
When I was younger, I saw a play of Pride and Prejudice. I fell asleep during the play. It was probably because my young feeble mind wasn't able to comprehend what was going on. That said, now that I'm older, I think I might be able to read this thing.
As for Romance plots having sub-plots drive the interest of the story (I couldn't word this sentence right), that seems rather interesting.
However, what's your stance on romantic sub-plots on non-romance stories?
1290272
I rarely mind them. They can be done badly, of course, but usually I find they add to a story rather than taking away from it.
I was talking to someone once who argued that's the only good way to do romance-- that romance should always be a subplot of something else.
1290165
I slogged through it in high school. Honestly, the plot's pretty good. Significantly better than anything by the Bronte sisters (sorry, bookplayer, but I'm of the opinion that having Wuthering Heights forcibly read to you must be a violation of the Geneva Convention.) But the writing. Oh, God, the writing. It is probably one of the paramount examples of telling instead of showing and it was such a labor to get through that the overall experience just left me drained.
Though you should take that with a grain of salt. I'm a big Hemingway fan and very nearly get physically ill trying to read Faulkner.
1290291
I prefer Jane Eyre, myself.
In addition to having a sort-of happy ending, Rochester is way cooler than Heathcliff.
ETA: Still a crazy asshole, but a smart crazy asshole, at least.
1290281 I believe that romance could be done in anything, it just depends on the focus of the work I guess (adventure plot, romance sub-plot, romance plot, superhero sub-plot, romance plot, supernatural-mystery sub-plot, etc.).
On bad romantic subplots, I don't really see how they (badly done romance) can add to a story in a "positive" way (played for laughs perhaps?).
1290324
I mean that while they can be done badly, it's relatively rare, and even more rare for that to be the only (or biggest) problem with a work.
So, if deciding to add a romance subplot to a non-romance, I think there's a good chance it will be forgettable, a small chance it will be great, and a small chance that it will be bad. So throwing it in is the best option unless you know there's something wrong with it.
This is why I write adventure with a romance subplot. All of the shipping feels, none of the 'will he or won't he' angst that stops me from appreciating half of the romance stories on the site. I just don't have the attention to small details for nothing but character drama stories to get my attention, I guess.
On a side note, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was better.
I find it particularly reassuring that my upcoming Romance has all these elements, to some degree or another. Like I know what I'm doing or something, heh. Excellent info and spot on.
Inspired by you:
I picked up my father's copy of Pride and Prejudice--Austen's one of his favorite authors--and for the third time in the past thirty years, tried my ding-dangedest to read it.
I got further along this time than I ever had before, but one technical difficulty finally did me in. In chapter five, I think it is, where Jane's upstairs sick and asleep, Lizzy comes down to join the others in the parlor. There are something like six characters in the scene, and at least three times in the course of several pages, Austen gives one character a line of dialogue, then a second character has one, then a third character, and then we get a fourth line with no attribution. And each time, I had no idea which of the characters had spoken that unattributed line. I had to stop, go back, try to piece things together, and by the time I'd figured it out, I'd forgotten what they were all talking about in the first place. So alas, back on the bookshelf it went.
Still, full of determination to read something that's defeated me before, I ordered a copy of the first Discworld novel from the library. I've tried a few random Pratchett books here and there--Going Postal was one of them, and Monstrous Regiment--but I could never manage to finish any of them. Maybe starting from the beginning of the series will help.
Mike