Mass Phenomenon

Memes in the City

No, Mackay doesn’t use the term meme, but the concept of contagious ideas that self-propagate through a population was as real in the past as it is today. We like to think that our current systems of communication are beyond compare, but the old grapevine of the past was as efficient as any email or IM device is today. Only the scale of the impact has changed.

In Popular Follies of Great Cities, the reader will recognize many themes that occur in today’s world. A phrase that is picked up overnight by half the population only to be lost again just as fast.

Applied to fiction, these ideas can lend depth to your stories but I think that it would be difficult to derive a plot solely from this structure.

Popular Admiration of Thieves

Every age has it’s Robin Hood. We need our rogues just as we need our heroes. Of course, every age thinks their rogues are more roguish than any that have ever come before, but I suppose that’s due to the sanitizing effect of time. A hero like Robin Hood would be nothing like Errol Flynn, though we modern folk tend to consider the man in Lincoln Green to be some sort of knight errant.

Mackay gives a number of examples from the past, some good and some quite nasty, but the theme is repeated over and over again. In modern times, we need only look at the women who throw themselves at convicted killers to see that love of the bad boy reigns supreme always. In fiction, look no further than Romance, but the pattern repeats itself in many genres if you look closely.

Duels and Ordeals

Who doesn’t like to hear tales of revenge or painful trials of the soul (especially when someone dies along the way)? Another great section of the book. Too bad it is tucked way back at the end. From the standpoint of fiction, both revenge and trial are tools to keep the reader engaged. Learning to develop a sense of these dramatic elements is key for any writer who wants to produce bestselling fiction.

Relics

The power of the ancient is well-known. Mystical object have always held a sway over the popular mind. Why else would ancient Greek heroes receive gifts from the gods? The myths that surround these relics are interesting to us. I suppose it’s because we could see ourselves in possession of such magical gifts, but there is little doubt that relics can draw a crowd. Just ask Dan Brown.

Extraordinary Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

Fear of the Unknown

Witch Mania

Fear of the unknown is another powerful element in fiction. Those who use fear to achieve their ends make great villains. Those who oppose fear, who try and bring forth the light of knowledge make great heroes (or martyrs).

The chapter on Witch Mania concerns the global hunt for something that did not exist, but it was also about power. Misdirection is a key element of suspense. You can achieve a lot of mischief if people are looking elsewhere.

The Slow Poisoners

As the title suggests, this section of the book is about obsession with slow death by poison, whereby the victim appears to be dying of a wasting disease of some sort. The fascination with this method of death is rooted in a love of conspiracy and the nefarious dedication it takes to kill someone in this manner.

This type of death used to be prevalent among the aristocracy and in the murder of spouses (at least in literature). In modern days, well, we don’t seem to have the patience to wait for people to die slowly and so we have them off with a pistol. Crimes of passion as opposed to crimes of calculated and certain malice.

There are some notable exceptions though. The recent case of the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy for one. While not exactly a slow poison, the murder does fulfill the requirements of conspiracy. No doubt this method of death will appear in a bestselling book within the next year.

Personally, I like the slow poison method (in fiction of course). It’s romantic and dramatic. It speaks to deep passions, emotions seeped in shadow. In a word, gothic.

This may be reason enough to avoid it though. In more modern literature, this slow poison has required a sense of the supernatural to make it interesting. Vampirism is in fact nothing but a slow poison scheme. Read Dracula with that idea in mind and you’ll see what I mean.

Haunted Houses

The macabre is another popular recurring theme in bestselling fiction. We have desperate need to be scared (at least some of us do). Haunted Houses represent this need, this desire.

Mackay explores alternate reasons for the existence of haunted houses, being that he is thoroughly against the possibility of the supernatural. Instead, he details several examples of haunted houses pulled off as hoaxes for amusement or to conceal more nefarious schemes. Both possibilities are worth of exploration in fiction and the Haunted House is an excellent device to meet that end.

Extraordinary Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

The Magnetisers

Oh, the great healing power of magnets! Whether it’s true or not, the idea of magnetism as a healing factor is an age-old belief. It comes round again and again through history and as such someone is always making a fortune.

In the writing game, the miracle cure for what ails you, your city, a country, the world, is and has always been a top selling idea. Begin with one of the oldest tales, the Arthurian saga. The grail quest, while actually more of a relic story, is about a miracle cure for the king (which in turn will renew the land). Modern variants include stories about global pandemics, but you could easily find a hundred popular stories about quack medical theories and cures if you peruse the backwaters of history. Phrenology anyone?

On God, War, and Fiction

Whether we like to admit it or not, religion has played a major role in popular fiction. One cannot ignore the impact of such stories. After all, the Bible is still the bestselling work of fiction of all time and is likely to remain so for the next few hundred years. The same thing goes for War. Why wasn’t it just a few years ago that Troy graced the screen again?

Hair and Beard

This section of the book deals with the influence of politics and religion on “the hair and the beard”. I’m not sure what cutting your hair has to do with themes in fiction, but I can see how a character’s grooming habits could influence a reader’s perception.

The Crusades

Like every great and terrible war, the Crusades has (and continues) to spawn bestselling works of fiction. This chapter on the Crusades is really fascinating. Mackay dives into the mechanics of wide-scale conflict, how it changes society and patterns of belief. He also talks about the grand stories that flow from the battlefield, the mythology that springs up time and again.

I think of smaller, lesser wars, like Vietnam, and I see all of the same characteristics evinced by the Crusades. The war in Iraq is no different. Nor WWI or WWII. Conflict sells and conflict backed by political and religious fervor sells even better.

Extraordinary Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

Fortune-Telling

I was thinking of a good way to introduce this section of the book, but Mackay does a great job of it himself in the second paragraph:

An undue opinion of our own importance in the scale of creation is at the bottom of all our unwarrantable notions. How flattering the pride of man to think that the stars in their courses watch over him, and typify, by their movements and aspects, the joys or the sorrows that await him! He, less in proportion to the universe than the all-but invisible insects that feed in myriads on a summer’s leaf are to this great globe itself, fondly imagines that eternal worlds were chiefly created to prognosticate his fate.

He goes on like this at a good clip for another half a page, but the idea is clear enough from this amusing sample. People are enthralled by the idea that someone might divine their futures by the movement of the stars or reading the pattern of tea leaves in the bottom of a cup.

And there is profit in writing about it. Just ask the editors of newspapers or magazines, any of them. They all print at least one major article on the predictions for the coming year, usually tailored to their audience of course. Writers of certain types of fiction are also fortune-tellers in their way.

Most readers might think I am talking about Science Fiction, and surely this genre has its fair share of prediction. But it isn’t the only sort. Thrillers tend in this direction too. It’s the idea of what comes next that keeps us enthralled.

Doubt what I’m saying? Remember Nostradamus?

The prophecies of Nostradamus consist of upwards of a thousand stanzas, each of four lines, and are to the full as obscure as the oracles of old. They take so great a latitude, both as to time and space, that they are almost sure to be fulfilled somewhere or other in the course of a few centuries. A little ingenuity might easily make events fit to some of them.

Mackay goes on the prove his point in the footnote:

Let us try. In his second century, prediction 66, he says:

“From great dangers the captive is escaped.
A little time, great fortune changed.
In the palace the people are caught.
By good augury the city is besieged.”

“What is this,” a believer might exclaim, “but the escape of Napoleon from Elba — his changed fortune, and the occupation of Paris by the allied armies?”

Of course, the prediction could be fulfilled by any number of historical characters. The idea though is that people love the art of prediction. After all, they read their horoscope every day, don’t they?

Extraordinary Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

Modern Prophecies

An epidemic terror of the end of the world has several times spread over nations.

This section of the book deals with the idea that the world is about to end. It is a perfect dovetail to the modern thriller genre. All of the mechanics of this genre are represented in the great terrors of the past. There are always those who whip up the frenzied masses, either out of ignorance or (more commonly) personal power and profit. Mackay describes the Christian terror that swept through Europe in 1000AD and then goes on to describe similar events surrounding plagues and war, environmental catastrophes (like earthquakes). Quite often, a prophecy is tied to some much earlier prediction of destruction. Modern soothsayers will point to the predictions of Nostradamus or even more latter-day mystics that predict catastrophic geological shifts that will turn Denver into a seaport in a fortnight.

The fundamental mechanism here is that people not only wish to believe these prophesies but that they will encourage the belief by taking part in the lies themselves. We see it when people claim to be abducted by UFOs when they are clearly mad. These are the same folks who would claim to be transformed by witches in the past.

Extraordinary Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

Tulipomania

This form of money madness takes the shape of fashion, the whim of the moment that creates a desire for something absolutely ridiculous. In this case, it’s the question of tulip bulbs. There are other manias of course. We see them every year at Christmas with the hot toy of the season. It’s an irrational desire for something that one feels the need to possess immediately.

Like the South Sea Bubble (or any bubble), manias can provide a good backdrop to chaos. Think of the lines outside Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving. Think of the fights that people get into (and are reported on the news) while bustling to get the deals. It’s insane. Now, layer this onto something like a luxury item that only a few can afford, bring the camera in for a close focus on just a few individuals, and soon someone is going to get a knife in the back – and then you have a story that someone will want to read.

Love of the Mystic

Alchymists

I originally picked up Extraordinary Delusions and The Madness of Crowds for this section alone. Without a doubt, this is the best concise overview of Alchemy and Alchemists available (spelling modernized for this sentence unlike the header).

But what do Alchemists and the practice of Alchemy mean to the reader? I assume it is the love of the Mystic, the sense that there is some great power that we can all grasp given enough time and study.

In popular theory, the ultimate goal of the Alchemy is the procurement of the Philosopher’s Stone which has the power to transmute substances (lead into gold) but also to extend life indefinitely. This power over the universe is something we see repeated in science magazines and newspapers. People are fascinated with our supposed power over the natural world. They are even more interest in the perils that result when foolish mortal tread in places they should not.

The story of Faust is a great example. We hail Michael Crichton as the father of the techno-thriller, but in fact his cautionary tales are all just a retelling of Faust in modern guise.

Extraordinary Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

The South Sea Bubble

Having lived through the Internet Bubble, I read this particular case with interest. Again, we have a story about greed but in this case it isn’t inside information but mass greed. The South Sea Bubble deals with a scheme to pay off debt by granting a monopoly to a single company working the import business of the South Sea. Most bubble start this way, some company or another will claim to have sole possession of a new market or service. The public, by sheer determination to ignore the impossibility in the service of greed, will begin to invest in this bubble. Shares rise at astronomical rates thus fueling more insane growth. Then, at some point, investors begin to pull out taking their cash with them. The market falls, perhaps slowly at first, but then with increasing speed, cutting the legs out from underneath the poor fools who stayed in too long.

Obviously, I’m simplifying here, but those are the basic mechanics. Mackay has a nice list of bubbles of the day. Reading through them one is sure to find that nearly all of them are in existence today. It seems to me that more than a fair number of these bubbles deal with mining or other natural resources, things people generally view as scarce commodities but find that the worm turns quickly when a new source is found (or the original source was overstated, overvalued, or both).

I’m not sure though that there is enough tension in a story like this to keep a reader’s attention. They might be willing to read about real-life losses, but developing a fictional view on a crash is likely to inspire more depression than concern. However, a fanatic struggle to keep a bubble afloat might produce more than its fair share of murders and mayhem.

Extraordinary Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

Money Mania

Every age, every decade (heck, every year) some new financial scandal unfolds that first captures the wallet of the unwitting and then the ire and rage of the public once informed of the nature of the swindle. Mackay begins his book with three great scams that persist (as all great scams will) into this very enlightened day.

The Mississippi Scheme

This was a very complicated series of schemes that all tied back to the idea of getting on the game behind the scene. This method is generally known today as “The Spanish Prisoner” whereby a sum of money needs to be procured from the mark in order to secure a supposed larger sum from some other source (often a bank or an inheritance). During the course of the con, the mark is led to believe that they are special and that this deal is only being offered to them. In reality, there are usually several marks being led down the same path and at the end is not a pot of gold but the realization that the scammers are gone and there was never any treasure to be had. The modern variant is spread by email and known as the “Nigerian Scam”.

O’Henry, the great short story author who wrote Gift of the Magi, was also fond of writing about con men. He actually did a few stretches himself and so he wrote about this lot with authority. The Mississippi Scheme was a favorite, but I don’t assume he wrote about it because he liked it. He wrote about it because it sold.

Other crime writers do the same thing, but why does this particular one capture the popular imagination? I suppose it must have something to do with the tension of multiple scams running at the same time. The marks possibly coming into contact with one another and figuring it out. These deals usually have something illegal about them too and so the marks are also qualified as willing to take a risk. They’ve cross the line and that makes them dangerous. It’s that kind of heightened tension that is sure to people glued to the story wondering if the graft will be successful or if caught what will happen.

Extraordinary Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

Contemporary Plot Techniques

I’m going to break with my promise above to write 10,000 more words about plot and summarize the rest of this book in quick fashion. At this point, you’ve already read close to 11,000 words. If you’re not certain about the things Maass can teach you, there isn’t much else I can do. Looking at the next few areas, I personally see little I can add to the discussion. I’ve already poured my heart out on the main topics.

The New Shape of the Novel
The Character-Driven Story
Self-Discovery in the Plot-Driven Novel
Nonlinear Narrative
Tension on Every Page

Criticize John Grisham if you must, but there is this to learn from him: Tension on every page is a technique that keeps readers glued to a novel, even in the absence of artistic prose, rich atmosphere, complex characters and lofty means. It is the application of macroconflict on a microscale.

It is a key breakout skill.

If you read all of those headline above, you might wonder what it is you’re missing. Check it out by all means, but I didn’t find this section helpful. Reading novels by breakout writers is probably more instructive.

Multiple Viewpoints, Subplots, Pace, Voice, Endings

Here, I would recommend looking at Albert Zuckerman’s book for more actual assistance. The idea of how many views and subplots, the pace of the story, and the way to work toward an ending are dealt with in far more detail in Writing the Block Buster Novel than in Maass’ text. What Maass does accomplish here is reminding the author of all the questions they need to ask while reading, which is really I guess Maass’ speciality.

Breaking Out

This section is about getting published and pushing the limit. It’s far too limited considering Maass’ experience and the fact that he is an experienced agent. No biggie though. I don’t expect folks to giveaway their secrets entirely. Anyway, like most books of this type, people are not really going to read all the way to the back. Just like I as the reviewer, dropped out of the race when I made it halfway through.

Conclusion

This is one of those books that will hit you in the gut. But like anything that does that to you, this one will eventually wear on your patience because in the end it is you, the author, who needed to get to work. No one can tell you exactly what it is you need to do, but they can show you the way to get there and the questions you might want to ask. In the end, it’s work, hard work and honesty that will set your book apart from the pack. Maass’ voice is a dose of realism in the vast ocean of pretty self-help writing guides.

Writing the Breakout Novel

High Moments, Turning Corners, Killing Characters

Mmmm. Puppies.

Ok, I’m not going to go on about the puppies, but really once that kind of thing gets in your head it’s tough to get it out again. Or as I said to two friends in a hotel room once, “There are some things you just can’t unsee.”

And that’s sort of what this section is about. Part pumping your fist in the air, part memorable scenes, and in the end, things you just cannot forget. If your novel is missing these types of scenes, how is your reader going to connect in a deep and meaningful way with your book? Better yet, why on earth would they recommend it to friends?

No really, Jessica, you need to buy this book. There’s this sentence on page one hundred and twenty seven that will just blow your mind. The use of alliteration changed my life.

This quote doesn’t come from Maass. It’s mine, and the point is that you are never going to hear this kind of talk from anyone except maybe a handful of dedicated literary souls. Nothing wrong with that, but Flaubert isn’t going to pay the rent.

Structuring the Plot

Up until this point, you might accuse Maass of flinging platitudes down from on high. I mean, yes, it’s wonderful to talk about “high moments” and other things you must have in your book, but how the heck do you work that in?

Maass knows what you’re thinking:

At this point you may be thinking, All that sounds great but what about structure? How can I be sure my conflicts will escalate in a powerful way, that they will provide a sense of rising action?

And so Maass begins by introducing several concepts in rapid fashion, structures employed by other novelists to address your particular needs. It isn’t an exhaustive list, but it is a start. He talked about frame stories and flashbacks. He talks facade stories (which are based on ideas we hold true but through the course of the story are proven false). He also touches on visitation stories (someone comes to town, hi-jinx ensue). But he never dives down further than a few sentences.

I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of this section is because it could be so much more. Frankly, I need it to be more.

Larger Plot Structures

This is where Maass dives off the pier and into the deep water of archetypal theory. This is probably the fifth or sixth book in a row where someone has done this kind of thing. Read Hero With a Thousand Faces. Read The Writers Journey. Super. I’ve read those books and I’ve written about those books. Great books, but this isn’t helpful. Hopefully there will be more in the next section.

Writing the Breakout Novel