Aces in the Hole

One of my roommates is taking a creative writing course, and that has got me thinking about writing, and somehow my mind wandered into the common plot cliches and storylines that I run into in my favorite genres of science fiction and fantasy. It strikes me that even though some people complain about formulaic fantasy plots, the old "farm boy gets sucked into epic struggle between good and evil and along the way discovers that he has more to do with the chain events than he realizes, by virtue of hidden heritage or ability"story arc, some kind of formula is what makes fantasy fantasy. It isn't fun if the hero is the hero from the beginning. It's more fun to watch the protagonist learn and grow. The point at which things get dull is when things are too formulaic, and sound like identical stories with different names for characters. To me, the best fantasy stories are the ones in which the author has applied the "standard" formula, and really personalized it, put their own stamp on it. Another thing that can make less than excellent fantasy stories dull is when the protagonist gets every break in the book. If the task is too easy, the story is boring, plain and simple. Either give the hero faults in physical ability, or give him an emotional/mental struggle to battle throughout the plot.

So, here's my theory of Aces.

No one character can hold all the aces and have a story be engaging. The villain can't hold them all, or the hero would get crushed by the end of the first chapter, or, by the first commercial, if we're talking cheesy TV movie. The hero can't hold them all, or the villain just isn't that scary. No, the aces have to be distributed, maybe even moved around, throughout the "cast" and the plot. Maybe have the hero start with one ace, oh, say, hidden royal lineage, and meet a mentor, who passes along another ace in the form of some skill or other: magic, swordsmanship, whatever, then maybe pick up another ace or 2 along the journey, trinkets, talismans, bits of knowledge (I'm not restricting the story to a single deck here, by any stretch of the imagination). Perhaps even take an ace from the villain at some point, or lose one, or lose them all and need to rebuild to have a prayer of survival at the final climactic confrontation that will decide the fate of the universe, or whatever kind of climax your fantasy preferences lean toward.

Probably not that original of a theory, but the mind can come up with strange things during that minute-thirty while you're swishing mouthwash...

Anyway, I've rambled enough for now. For more random info along this same topic, Google "Hero with a Thousand Faces", and check out this link for an amusing list of fantasy cliches.