What I Learned: #2 - Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Welcome to "What I Learned," a blog about reading that has helped my writing that Conor Gallagher has wroten. There might be spoilers.

Today, I learned: Your Characters Don't Have Complete Their Journey.

That's a real (fake) sparkly crow (raven?) I had for an unrelated incident. Yay(?)

Now, I know that sounds like BS because The Hero's Journey (Yes, that's a Wikipedia link and yes, I donate to them every year so we can all chill) is kinda literally the point of all stories, or so I've been told, but what if it wasn't?

Today, I'm going to talk about Leigh Bardugo's 462-page, 2015 novel Six of Crows to try and prove my point. All apologies if she disagrees, but also Crows is half of a duology---the first half---and comes after a trilogy---after the third portion of that trilogy, but maybe not chronologically? I haven't researched it NOT BECAUSE I'M LAZY, but because after reading Crows I fully plan to read all the other ones and you should too and these books seem really fun and good and I put my hand to my heart multiple times. Upwards of 11 times.

For those of us unfamiliar with ~tHe HEro'S jOUrneY~, it's a 17-stage progression that can be found in most, if not all, stories. It's been translated and explained in a bunch of different Google-able ways and elements of the base theory can be found in a BUNCH of different forms and texts. Save the Cat! is the most recent form I've seen it in, and yes, I absolutely read the F out of that book because *spoiler* I GET LOST WHILE I'M WRITING.

What's that mean? I'm glad you asked and that in doing so, you've agreed to read this post until the end. And it won't be the end until I write those two words next to each other with a period one final time. Trust me. You'll know.

Now, when I say "getting lost," I mean that somewhere towards the middle---or even a few times the very near the final pages---of my manuscript, I have a tendency to say aloud, "Oh no." And then I sort of guffaw and get sad or mad or start wandering on the Internet...usually to either a dating website that makes me feel empty, YouTube nonsense or...Well I shouldn't say the third thing but it's a very specific kind of procrastination that perhaps you can guess with your left hand. Yes, my left hand even though I'm a righty.

And I say "Oh no" because I've lost The Thread. The journey that I've sent my protagonist on. Sure, I've written some clever stuff and I may even be happy with how the whole plot is going but I'm left with this feeling of "So?" As in, What is all this for? Where are we going? Where have we been? I've written 120,000 words, cut 40k and then rewritten that and now the ghost witch is attacking Philomena because it's her dad who started the whole Mama McCready murder thing?

That's a real spot I got to in my manuscript. And TBH that's where that manuscript currently sits because I made an amazing new one that I'm pitching right now and you can read that query here.

So I used to get stuck there, and then I learned about The Hero's Journey and plotting and all that, and it worked for my new manuscript. And then I edited and I'm pitching and I'm starting on something new and "Oh no."

I can't figure out where anyone is going. Not even when I'm plotting general stuff out. I can see their start points, and even some delightful flaws and challenges I can't wait to poke at, but I can't see their happy ending. Or their ending in general. And then I get to thinking about my life and who wants to do that when they're trying to write some spooky horror about a vengeful Banshee? No one named "Conor Gallagher" who lives in Brooklyn, that's who.

And then I got to read the delightfully criminal Six of Crows. To summarize it with the deftness of a hammer that's never even heard of a Fabrikator (h/t to anyone else who has visited The Grishaverse), Crows is a dark-ish fantasy Ocean's Eleven and you should all read it. Bardugo's work here is important and useful for its humor, its representation, its love story stuff that isn't plodging or crammed in, its playful violence and real stakes. There's tens of tens of things I could pick to have learned from this book, and with any luck, I did; but the one that stuck with me is the resolution.

Even if you discount the semi-open-ended ending---from an interview I listened to before reading Crows, this interview on the First Draft Podcast with Sarah Enni, in fact, Bardugo planned this book and its successor Crooked Kingdom as a duology from the start---Bardugo didn't wrap up our heroes' journeys. Yes, she absolutely helped them grow and discover things and learn but most of all, and most important, she only made them take a first step.

From what I knew, or maybe just guessed at, before, a hero at the end of their quest is changed, remade and all better. We get a glimpse of them in their new life as queen or as a person who is done mourning their dead uncle, or as a dead uncle themselves! So many options. But rarely, I think, do we get to see them merely move out of their behavior pattern towards...something.

This is not a disparaging comment. I don't believe it was due to a lack of effort or ability to choose that Bardugo left things more open. On the contrary, I think it was one of the most powerful choices she made in writing Crows. All of the six main heroes are looking for something. And while this takes many forms, a simple way to put it is "freedom." Of course, this is a general theme and largely not enough, or not specific enough, to focus a character's path on, because "then what?," but Bardugo has taken this open-ended, or even empty promise, and turned it into something finite and hopeful.

In the closing pages of Crows, even as everything is sort of going to shit, you can feel the six companions stepping out of the well-worn grooves of their lives. They have a far-off and seemingly impossible goal, but they're moving towards it. They've moved beyond mere "freedom" as an objective, but haven't quite gotten a handle on whatever their lives will be in the future.

They've moved, and that's enough. Just like it is in life. They've made an action towards change. Just like when you agreed to read this blog post until the very last sentence. They've taken their first step towards something, maybe even something terrible, and it's one of the most hopeful endings I've read in a while.

And that's it. Go read it and talk to me about it.

P.S. - The Magician's Trilogy sort of does this too if you finish Six of Crows and are like "UGH. I need more one-step closer, not an actual monarch right now" endings.

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I loved Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo and can't wait to read the rest of The Grishaverse. It's also becoming a Netflix something, so, we gotta catch up before that premieres! If you're in the same boat, I hope you'll pick it up from an indie shop near you (You can use IndieBound to help find your local store) or a library. Just not ~tHe RivEr~.

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty is next. Until then, I leave you with

ONE FINAL DUMB OPINION:

That woman checking people into the prison and looking for Grisha better come back in the next book and explain herself or get fired. Cause the F? You can't tell someone has paraffin wax on their arms, or you don't care? Which is it, Patricia? I'm almost positive it's the latter, but I need more.

The end.