I was reading an author's writing-advice recently that suggested the place to start a story is with the main protag's resting state. Even if it's only a scene; when a story revolves around a character's change from point A, through various tribulations, to point B (or back to point A), then you do need to start with point A. Yeine starts after Point A; the story shoves her into movement (the middle-stages between A and B) and gets a good chunk of it out of the way in the course of two or three paragraphs.
On reflection about that theory, it makes me wonder if the story is even Yeine's. The only Point A we really see is that of the gods (and the family in general), so we get the gods' resting state, and then their movement begins. In which case, it's not really Yeine's story at all, but that of the gods. She's just the viewpoint/mouthpiece through which we see someone else's story (much like the way Dracula is narrated by someone who is not the actual protagonist).
Which is really kind of frustrating, since human beings interest me far more than all-powerful (or even mostly-powerful) beings, no matter how tortured. But that would make sense in that it feels like much of the time, so far at least, Yeine is reactive, and acted upon, rather than truly proactive or even just active. She's being reactive to the protagonist-god(s), who are the ones really driving the story. Starting the story with her is a red herring.
Unless, of course, it really is supposed to be her story, in which case the lack of a resting state undermines her completely. Frustrating, since you're right that there's so much I should love and yet I can't quite connect.
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Date: 17 May 2014 05:53 pm (UTC)On reflection about that theory, it makes me wonder if the story is even Yeine's. The only Point A we really see is that of the gods (and the family in general), so we get the gods' resting state, and then their movement begins. In which case, it's not really Yeine's story at all, but that of the gods. She's just the viewpoint/mouthpiece through which we see someone else's story (much like the way Dracula is narrated by someone who is not the actual protagonist).
Which is really kind of frustrating, since human beings interest me far more than all-powerful (or even mostly-powerful) beings, no matter how tortured. But that would make sense in that it feels like much of the time, so far at least, Yeine is reactive, and acted upon, rather than truly proactive or even just active. She's being reactive to the protagonist-god(s), who are the ones really driving the story. Starting the story with her is a red herring.
Unless, of course, it really is supposed to be her story, in which case the lack of a resting state undermines her completely. Frustrating, since you're right that there's so much I should love and yet I can't quite connect.