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Anonymous
Writing a Determinist Novel 2017-01-18 10:17:24 Post No. 8991960
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Writing a Determinist Novel 2017-01-18 10:17:24 Post No. 8991960
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I'm 4 drafts into a novel, and I've run into a problem. One of the key themes is determinism, and I want to express this by having the characters' actions be the logical consequences of external factors that they're exposed to over the course of the book. This initially seemed like a good idea, but it's made the stakes feel very low and led to a somewhat predictable plot. How do I create tension without abandoning the clear cause/effect relationship?
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You could foreshadow events and leave some clever hints here and there, that way you can explain the cause of the event afterwards without making things too predictable. But if you don't plan things enough it could become an asspull.
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Maybe make some previous minor events subtly interact with the outcomes of the big events to influence the climax of the story in an interesting and not so predictable way?
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For ideas, read Success by Sebastian Knight
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>>8991960
just rip off Asimov's Foundation trilogy, they did this
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>>8991960
it's not /lit/, but watch memento. nonlinear storytelling really gets the noggin joggin'
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>>8991960
Determinism does not require that the determined actions be a logical consequence. Humans are generally not rational. Perhaps the determinism could arise from their irrationality instead.
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>>8994849
This.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalism_(literature)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Zola
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