My current project is an historical fantasy. It's set during the reign of Richard II, a boy king who grew into a man, supposedly was a tyrant, and was then deposed by his cousin, who became Henry IV and actually fared no better in reputation. My hurdle was that I wanted to cover almost ALL of Richard's reign, from the time he talked down the Peasant's Revolt at 13 years old, all the way up to his fall from grace at 30-33 when he got revenge on several of his parliament for weeding out and executing several of his favorites. Richard played favorites a lot, giving out goodies of land and titles to best buddies. His barons resented it. They got back at him for it. He got back at them. It's complicated. So is Richard.
Yet Richard is not the main character of the story. The main character, whose identity I shall save for now, is swept into this courtly mess by circumstance. Weaving this character's life into that of Richard has been interesting, and problematic. I wanted, primarily, to start prior to the Peasant's Revolt and cover several years leading up to Richard's fall as seen partly through my MC's eyes. I worked out an outline, that, on the surface, looked like it would work, though I kept cramming in characters. Let's use the king's jealous BFF Robert DeVere here. And how about his mother, Joan the Fair Maid of Kent there? As I said. . . complicated. My MC is not all that complicated, but as I attempted to have him witness Richard's rise and fall, I found his story buried under the king's.
Scholars debate whether or not Richard really was a tyrant or if he was the victim of a tremendous smear campaign started by his successor. Shakespeare wrote him as a tyrant who, upon losing his role as king, proved to have no personal identity and therefore drifted into his own psychological doldrums before he was murdered while in captivity. I was falling into a loss of how to handle this story. It felt not unlike the Star Wars prequels depicting Anakin Skywalker growing from a sweet little boy into the epitome of evil in the galaxy. Those stories failed for me as they did for many classic SW fans. It was easier to digest Anakin simply as Darth Vader. Portraying a character from their start to their finish, seeing them with the potential to grow and then failing miserably near the end is tough to pull off and still have readers sympathize with them. In a lot of cases, I would be up for that challenge, but I had to ask myself whether or not the story required it. Yep, there it is right there.
Does the story require it?
With that in mind, I had to make a decision. What wasn't working, I accepted, were the subplots that were planted to keep drawing my MC into Richard's court in the king's younger years. The primary event that kicks it all off is what really matters, and that could, technically, take place at almost any moment on Richard's timeline. But, the next thing was to decide which Richard I needed. The boy or the man? Which one is going to impact the MC the most so that I can keep my focus on the MC. I realized I mainly need those "tyrant" years of the older Richard. Not for him to play a villain like Darth Vader, but I need the Richard whose judgement had reached its worse. It was one thing when he was a young king who could, at times, prove wise, but it is the older Richard who will drive the story into a more convincing climax and not bog down the story with historical details vs. the fictional ones I am weaving in.
Sometimes as writers, we will have to go through processes like this. We need to look at the big picture, sure, but we need to focus in on one aspect of it in order to avoid creating a big bloated mess of our work. Are there too many forced subplots that are, in the end, more of a filler than a contribution? Is the timeline too broad? What aspect of that timeline best suits our MC's story. This is not Game of Thrones (although I find Martin's writing style inspiring). I'm not trying to build an entire universe of politics, intrigue, and war. Historical fiction/fantasy doesn't have to cover decades. I am focusing on one royal court, at one point in time. Pull back. Pull back. And just tell a good story.
