When the setting fights the action...

[Mattastic]

Hi, gang.

I started the setting of my novel as a worldbuilding project many, many years ago. Over the years many aspects of it have stabalised, and I'm now finding it very restrictive. As I've matured, I've thrown out ideas that were based on being "omg so cool!" or blatantly borrowed from other sources, and while this has improved some areas, such as characterisation, my plot is suffering immensely.

The problem here is that the characters won't DO anything! Originally, the entire cast were soldiers, and this was what caused them to end up galavanting around the galaxy. Then I realised that doing this AND giving them enough personal freedom to go where I want meant making the whole thing some kind of militant version of Star Trek. In my latest addition to my bin, the hero joined a military cult and the other characters got wrapped up in his personal quest, but massive resultant plot holes aside, I found I just didn't care about the whiney little ******* anymore. Worse yet, my favourite supporting character had no motivation to leave her home planet (neither did the hero, of course, except for the fact that he WAS a whiney little *******).

I tried the old "storm troopers destroy the farm" technique to upset her comfortable life, but life's too good where she's from for there to be that risk. And removing that comfort invalidates her character. Meanwhile, other characters would be more willing to arrest/kill/run away from the hero than help him.

Basically, my characters all want to endure the status quo. I can't plausably get the action to come to my heroes, and anyway, I want them to see the universe I created, but they have no good reason to do anything or go anywhere.

What's the cattle prod I need?

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Exploration? Threat of invasion? Abduction?

Just brainstorming.

Even though you haven't really explained much about your setting, I'm quite intrigued! Would love to hear more about it!

 

[Overread]

hehe I think what might be an idea is to think bigger than direct influences on your charcters. From what you describe it sounds like you have a working universe and things are genearlly quite good at the moment (hence you charcters lack of interest in doing anything interesting past daily life). So rather than a direct influence try something a little bigger - maybe a war or something as HJ suggests or revolutionaries.

You could build it into your story as well - the start is slower and peacfull with cut outs or chapters where the problems far off are brewing to a biol about to come out and smash the peace of your charcaters life

 

[Wiglaf]

WLB (Whiney Little *******) and CC (Content Chick [cc sounded better than cw]) get wasted. Long story short, CC is knocked up! Family disapproves, they need money,and running arround kicking but may provide spoils which can be sold for cash.

 

[Ghost of Harrenhal]

If they have no reasons to leave their home planets then the story ends before it starts. But it is your world and you decide what goes. If you like what you have created then keep it all and just add incentives for them. Try an external invasion or an internal rebellion.

If those don't fit in with the setting you could try having your characters be sent rather than having left of their own free will. That could be a good driving force for a story, having a character that does everything reluctantly but knows that if he accomplishes his task he will be allowed to go home one day. Conscription and the draft are obvious ideas that follow this idea but there are other, more subtle ones as well like blackmail.

 

[ctg]

What's the cattle prod I need?

I think number five is suitable for this job.

How about kidnapping something that is dear to your beloved character? Or an offer that they cannot refuse? Or if they refuse, let the characters see the consequences of their action. Make them so pissed off that they have no other choice but to go and see your universe. You are the divine God of your world, so use that power. Make the undeliberate to be deliberate. The universe is full of possibilities you can use.

If everything fails then do let some other character drag those characters who don't want to go, out there. Even if it means that you write that character literally dragging them out there.

 

[Lith]

There are about a thousand ways to introduce the necessary instability in your setting, anything from invading aliens to worldwide famine or disease to the actions of other people forcing them out into the world to impending insanity. Just spend some time brainstorming all the things that might make them want to leave the planet or might force them off.

Because there's just no story if the characters don't leave home (or if home doesn't get pulled out from under them). Home being not just a place but a comfortable state of mind.

Failing all of the suggestions in this thread, you might need new main characters. You could always introduce a cool character from "outside" coming in and rescuing these people from their mundane existences, in effect turning your structure upside down...

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

...What's the cattle prod I need?

There and you had the answer in your hand all along. Its what the twelve foot eight legged polka dotted alien spider does with it to the sheep like peasants/sister/mother/father of your tranquil world that you have to come up with.

Most surviving relatives of such an attack would think they may have some minor philosophical issues to discuss with the said protaganists. They may think that raising lettuce and growing orchids will have to take a back seat for a while.

 

[chopper]

from experience, world building is one thing, driving a plot is another entirely. what you might need to do is take a step back from the actual writing & create a proper "end-point" or goal for the novel, then work backwards from there.

i don't have access to it at the moment, but a concise description of different types of plot turns up in the GM's handbook of the Megatraveller rules. if memory serves, the book gives half a dozen examples of McGuffins (Hitchcock's favoured terminology), including the Push, the Pull, and the Enigma. unfortunately this is where my recall is less than total, but a Push could be having to keep one step ahead of the law, or needing to find a miracle cure for a devastating disease. the Push can be used to hasten the story forward if it starts to drag. a Pull, on the other hand, could be rumours of a fabled treasure, travelling to enter a grand contest, etc. Pulls can be tailored to specific characters or groups of characters. The Enigma can be the big secret that you hide from even the reader....

obviously you don't need to use all these plot devices at once - or, at least, not all at the same time. in my WIP, the lead character is Pushed by her life of drudgery with her less-than-sympathetic father, and Pulled by the opportunity to witness a legendary tale in the making. later on, there are other Pulls that keep her moving towards the eventual ending (which is the Enigma...)

 

[Precise Calibre]

As far as your overly content woman character goes, that in itself can be a motivator. How is life on her home planet so good? Could it possibly be suffocating? Is it all just an illusion as civilizations built on Utopian ideas often are? You know what they say about growing stagnant. Maybe she wants something more exciting.

When I create a story, I usually have the villain and his eventual demise worked out right from the start. All that remains then is to work out exactly how this all comes about.

 

[Moogle]

Bored is as good a motivation as any!

Though I believe chopper hit the nail on the head so to speak. The problem from this perspective seems to be not your characters or your universe, but your plot. Here's a somewhat remedial question, but why do you have to use your WHOLE universe? Could you not just pick and choose elements of what you have created and weave them into your story?

Imagine you've completed your magnum opus and your editor calls you up and says that everything is great, but they're going to cut the book down by 25% and he doesn't like the way your character smells in the novel. Is it better or worse to make the changes?

That's your choice, but ultimately you will need to decide what stays and what goes.

 

[Mattastic]

Thanks for all the replies, folks. I've been trying to find a moment to respond here for a bit now. You've given me a fair bit to think about.

Really, every suggestion here is entirely valid (except the one where the character Gail gets knocked up -- dude, they're almost related!), but each is slightly problematic under the circumstances. I spent a lot of time trying to decide why, and what happened to my original draft written in my youth, where a sense of adventure (under the guise of military service) was an acceptable excuse.

Then I eventually realised that back then, the story had a goal outside of its characters. It was purely an excercise in kickass sci-fi action. It didn't matter if the characters didn't have deep motivations because it was the job of the universe to impress itself upon them as they experienced it. Now this is less viable, for many reasons, and I find myself trying to wire the plot directly into the characters motivations for being where it takes place. A bit unnecessary, perhaps. This is space opera, not art.

Anyway, I ramble. Simply put, I think I need to reverse course and find that spark of adventure again. Those who said boredom or excessive contentment were good cattle prods were very much right.

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll knock again if I hit another wall.

 

[j d worthington]

Frankly, I'd say the best thing to do is to junk all the worldbuilding and start from the story... build the world as you go along, to suit the tale you want to tell.

That may sound harsh, but it really is a matter of writing something that has a reason to be written! If you don't have a tale to tell, then all the worldbuilding in the universe isn't going to help. It will simply be boring, because there is nothing for a reader (including yourself, at a different point in your life) to connect with. Motivation is absolutely necessary to make such a connection. You don't have to put it out there the way you would a graph, but you do have to be aware of it, and it has to drive the characters' actions, or what you're doing is indulging in a five- (or ten-)finger excercise.

In other words... if this universe you've created has any worth to it, then it should be chock full of stories your characters can become involved in... or even simply observers of, rather than participants (which can be a powerful sort of story on its own, if done rightly). So to hell with worrying about getting them to explore their universe; look at some part of that universe and see if a story doesn't jump out at you, something that they would seem naturally drawn to. If not, then I'm afraid you've been very much putting the cart before the horse here, and doing an awful lot of nifty tech work... that has absolutely no viable application except as a nifty bit of tech work.

If you want to write a story, then the story has to come first, last, and always, or you are (to be blunt) simply wasting your time.

 

[ctg]

JD, you are so right about the world building. I do exactly that, build the scenery as I go, but when I am doing (rewriting/editing) next version, I place more references in the places I need them. With the those little reference I build the history, and possibilities for the other stories based in that particular world.

 

[j d worthington]

World-building can be important (though it isn't necessarily so, as there have been countless numbers of writers who did just fine without it), but without a story, you don't really have anything. World-building is an adjunct to the story, not the other way around....

 

[glandowski]

Volcanoes pushing up through the ground turning the land scape upside down and into a living hell can help. Total anarchy - read the news and use a story line from reality to give your world a shake up.

Regards