h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wonder whether a really complex plot that moves about in time and involves several strands loses out in terms of characterisation.

I've read all three of Kate Mosse's Languedoc trilogy - Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel. These novels have complex plots and Labyrinth, in particular, moves between 12th and 21st centuries. But the characters are, perhaps, a bit two dimensional. You know the strong heroines are going to be heroic and there's a villain in Sepulchre whom you can imagine the audience hissing when he appears!

If you have both complex plots and fully develeoped characters, perhaps you end up with something the length of War and Peace!

That's a great point.

I started to watch a film last night. After 10 minutes, I stopped. Not only were the sound and lighting poor in this independent movie, but it was obvious that while the plot was elaborate, the characterisation was completely missing. I couldn't tell the players apart.

I don't think you need a lot of pages to get good characterisation, though, do you? What you need is the skill to portray the characters in a nuanced way?

I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the allure of Miss Yonge for long.

The worst novel I've read still remains the 21st Century travesty 'Mr Darcy, '.
The moral seems to be 'If you can’t think up your own rounded characters, nick other people's successful ones'.
Fortunately Darcy is cured of being a because there's an old, old, old legend of a well or temple by a tree or something, and a passer-by is able to identify that very tree.

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Oh, Charlotte and I are old friends. She's a sure cure for insomnia...

Does D'Arcy being a vampire have anything to do with 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'?

I admit to not having read any of this no-doubt fascinating Stuff...

It was written around the same time as 'Pride & Prejudice & Zombies', maybe slightly later. It reads like very uninspired fan fiction.

Especially the scene where Elizabeth is kidnapped and she writes a lengthy 20-page letter pleading for help.

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Gotta love fanfic.

I suppose real heroes, or heroines, have moments when they have doubts, or come close to despair. Two dimensional ones don't.

Good point! Decision making's part of the character process, then?

Yes. If there's a point in the plot where your hero has to decide whether to go ahead with an action, you might think, well, in this set of circumstances my hero, who's usually so bold, might have second thoughts. This, of course changes your plot.

As I write this, I'm listening to a programme called 'Discovering Beethoven's 5th'. The orchestra and conductor are teaching a live audience how to appreciate the structure of this great symphony.

It strikes me that if you take the same approach to constructing a narrative as you do a symphony, you won't go far wrong.

I wouldn't get far with a symphony!

Yes. But the structure of themes, new themes, returning to original themes in a different way...very much like what writing needs to do to be sticky.