Things That I Like: What Homestuck and a random generator taught me about writing

This article originally appeared at The Oak Wheel on April 24, 2014. 

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Or what a random generator taught me about writing, and Homestuck reinforced and Homestuck fanfiction prompted me to write about today.

Rachel Manija suggested writing by the "cool bits," things that make you go "Oh man, oh man," the things that made you want to write that one story (you know which one I'm talking about) in the first place. The things that you love, as she puts it.

Manija's list for Project Blue Rose, for example, "included men in glasses, psychic kids, trenchcoats, black helicopters, barbecue, flower imagery, extreme competence as a compensation for loneliness and social awkwardness, and sexual tension between snarky bickering partners." My own, for reference, includes such things as books, girls in suits, philosophy, complicated metaphysics, noble sacrifices, a commitment to justice no matter the consequences, meta-writing, Lovecraft, transhuman themes, mythology, weird magic, dark and gritty stories, and optimism standing tall even in the face of the gates of Hell and the injunction to "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

(Now comes the part where you all groan because I bring Homestuck into the article and submit a couple of things for your consideration)

(And if it needed saying: Here there be spoilers)

>Brother G: Tell them about Jake English

Alright.

Simplicity is bliss, as one of my dearest friends reminds me time and again. And you know what? I really just don't listen to that sometimes.

Salchek Jupiter. Leviticus Jones. You can bet that if there's a way to justify over-the-top names, I'll find and abuse it. Even my future children aren't exempt: If I get a say in the matter my first daughter is going to be named Karen Churchill Blue Gauvreau (double middle names are tradition).

They're another cool bit. Or a weakness. One of those, definitely.

But Jake English, now, he's something different. Like, that is an actual name that actual not-insane people pass on to their children. Even "English" is a well-established surname in, um, England (note to self: need a character named something like Karleen Germany or Pierre Francois).

And there's something clean about that, its... simplicity, really. Is there a better word for it? It feels like a river. But beneath this apparent simplicity there is a history. His grandmother took the name English in order to throw it in the face of her foe, Betty Crocker, who held a mortal fear of her demonic master Lord English (it makes sense in context). Moreover, because Paradox Space seems to revel in stable time loops it's almost certain that, even in-universe, the meaning of his name goes even deeper than that. Is Lord English's name derived from Jake's? Will Jake become Lord English somehow? Or did Paradox Space simply arrange it to be this way because of their current hostilities?

This is something that makes Jake English, for all its mundanity, greater weight than the bizarre-but-ultimately-meaningless Salchek Jupiter or even, for that matter, Severus Snape or Albus Dumbledore, whose names were chosen carefully for their meanings but don't really have any bearing on the storyline.

The lesson, then, is that meaning outweighs immediately-apparent complexity (and, IMO, that in-universe meaning outweighs real-world meaning). That doesn't go for just names, either. Any aspect of the story, if it has an in-universe reason for existing, is going to resonate more strongly than something that, from the characters’ point of view, means nothing special. Severus could have been named Matildus and the entire story could have gone on without a single change.

"Rose, you're rambling, and I find it a relief to hear it because it means you are well and that, darling, is all I care about. Your actions under the influence of the human sopor beverage were not entirely your own, I understand that, and I hold no malignancy toward what happened. I pity you so deeply and profoundly, Rose Lalonde, that you can do no wrong in my heart." Love Me, Hate Me (But Please Don’t Leave Me), by Batchsan

Troll romance is complicated. Like, by a lot. So instead of trying to talk about quadrants we'll just touch on one thing. To delve into fanon a little bit, their positive emotions are derived from pity (as the excerpt implies). This may be a misunderstanding of the facts thus far presented in the story but it's a very reasonable one. As predatory and violent as trolls are, the recognition of disadvantage in another (a necessary component of pity) is probably essential to being able to feel comfortable around them.

I already knew that I liked romances, but between Homestuck and Eliezer Yudkowsky I realized that what I liked about it was... complexity. The added depth and complications that it brought to a life. This love of complexity is why I read Homestuck fanfiction, which by the nature of its source story is very, very often all about the complexities of trying to hold down romantic relationships with beings of an alien psychology.

But aren't I contradicting myself here? In one electronic breath I'm advocating for simplicity and in the next for complexity.

It goes back to Jake English in the end. Simple name, one that seems meaningless at first but, like an ogre, has layers. Like fractal art, make it draw on the simplicity and layer it over and over until, quite suddenly, your readers are staring at the dragon's curve and cannot tell from whence it came. Indeed, by showing them only the edge of the curve you can at once preserve the inner complexity while making it appear, for the time being, to be simple stuff. But you know the shape of its egg, and because you know the underlying structure you can navigate it proficiently.

In summary: Let the complexity build from itself. Whether the complexity is revealed from the beginning or over time, having it firmly in place and based on simple things will keep it both elegant (what we're striving for) and free of unexpected tangles and loose threads. Probably the worst thing that can happen when developing complexities in a story, after all, is realizing that even you don't know what's going on anymore.

And where do you take the building blocks for your fractally self-assembling story? Why, from the cool bits of course.

Your turn: Manija asked it then and I'll repeat the question now. "What are your cool bits? What are the themes and stories and images and moments that you love to see?"

R. Donald James Gauvreau works an assortment of odd jobs, most involving batteries. He has recently finished a guide to comparative mythology for worldbuilders, available here for free. He also maintains a blog at White Marble Block, where he regularly posts story ideas and free fiction.