Lessons on Craft and Creativity from KAOS

Episode Summary

Episode Transcript

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Oh, hey, it's that guy who read a Jonathan Franzen novel as an undergrad and decided to make it his entire personality. Blake Reichenbach.

Hey, folks, welcome back to the Inkling Insights podcast, a writing workshop for your ears. Okay, normally I dive into the Cold Open for each episode and just roll with whatever comes to mind first. You know, usually just like writer creative cliches, but this time I feel like I need to directly acknowledge that these are all just gags. I've actually never read a Franzen novel, nor made it my entire personality, so I don't know if the stereotypes about people who are fanatical about Franzen novels are fair or just. I just happen to know that it seems like people who decide to make friends and novels their entire personality tend to be fairly insufferable. So please know that my cold opens are jokes.

I have not made Franzen my entire personality. I have, however, made Willa Cather and her novels my entire personality. I even have a Cather themed tattoo. So just hang around for a while, and we'll do a Willa Cather episode or two, or three or 12. And maybe I will even share pictures of my Cather tattoo, even though it is scandalously high up on my thigh.

And speaking of scandals, okay, that's... this is a pretty forced segue, but I don't know how else to move on from talking about that comment about my thighs. Speaking of scandals, I have been watching Chaos on Netflix recently, the Jeff Goldblum Greek Gods show, and I actually want to talk about that for this episode.

As much as I try to keep this podcast focused on books, I'm not a literary with a capital L purist. And I think there's a lot we can learn about storytelling and the creative craft from other writing disciplines like screenwriting. And Chaos in particular has some pretty interesting and juicy lessons that I think we can learn. So I'll keep this podcast episode relatively spoiler free. But if you're someone who doesn't want to know anything about a book or show before you get a chance to enjoy it for yourself, go do some binge watching and then come back and listen to this episode. You have been warned.

I am going to talk a little bit about some of the characters and plot points and conflicts. I don't think I will give away anything too much. I will do my best not to give away too much. But you know, anytime you're talking about characters and their conflicts and how they grow over the course of a season, you know, there will be hints as to what happens throughout the course of the show, I'm sure. So again, this is your official spoiler warning if you want to watch Chaos before you listen to this episode. Fine, fair. I'll wait, I'll be patient, go do it. But then come back, listen to the episode and we'll talk about some of the writing lessons and creative strategies that we can extract from this eight episode season that is on Netflix.

Okay, now that the spoiler-phobic crowd has fled, let's talk about the story craft and world-building lessons that we can learn from Chaos.

Oh my gosh. So about a week after I recorded this episode, Netflix announced that they will not be renewing Chaos for season two, so it has been canceled after the first season. I took so much care as I was recording to not go into spoilers to talk about how much I anticipated what was going to happen in the second season, especially with Hades and the Underworld and Cneius, and now it's just not going to happen. So I still want to share the episode. I'm not canceling the episode like Netflix has canceled a great show because I do think that the lessons that I'm talking about in this episode are still applicable. But I did just want to say... shit. I think I actually talked a little bit toward the end about how, you know, unpredictable streaming services are when it comes to canceling shows. And sure enough, as soon as I record this episode, Netflix decides they're going to cancel an episode. So who knows, maybe I will do a podcast episode soon where I rant about the way that modern media companies treat intellectual properties like a VC fund that could be really interesting for us to unpack. But at the very least, I did just want to come on and acknowledge still valuable writing lessons to be unearthed from the first and presumably only season of Chaos. But unfortunately, we will not be getting a season two anytime in the near future.

So I make an offer toward the end of this episode where I say, hey, Jeff Goldblum, I will personally fund season two for $1,000. That offer is still on the table. I'll pony up the money, I guess, if we can do it on that budget. Damn. Oh well. Enjoy the rest of the episode, folks.

As I mentioned, currently there is a single season of Chaos on Netflix. It's eight episodes long and each episode is only about 50 minutes long. So all in all, under eight hours. If you're like me and can't really binge watch more than two episodes at a time before you start getting restless, no matter how good a show is, then you know, probably not something you're gonna binge watch in a single day, but we're not talking about a long-running show that's going to take you months to get caught up on, right? This is something that in a couple of days or like a weekend, you can get caught up.

It is a retelling, or I guess better put, it's a reimagining of Greek mythology set in modern times. The creator, Charlie Covell, who is also the screenwriter behind the End of the Effing World, has stated that he was inspired by Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. And I think that really comes through in the sense that you get these historic and mythological figures in a context that feels incredibly modern and relatable, and the aesthetic of the show manages to be both surreal and rooted in realism at the same time.

Covell also commented that they didn't want viewers to have familiarity, right? To have to do homework with the classics or Greek mythology to be able to get up to speed with the show and enjoy it. And I think that comes through well as well. And I'm going to touch on that in particular in just a moment. But if you're a Percy Jackson kid or a classic scholar, you may be a little bit too well versed for the show. If you're someone who has, you know, maybe read the Odyssey in high school and hasn't touched the classic since then, like, you're not going to be out of your depth, you're not going to be that confused. You'll be able to get up to speed quickly.

Now I mentioned if you're a classic scholar, you may find it a little bit off putting. And before sitting down to record this episode, I did read some reviews of the first season and I think Covell's willingness to play fast and loose with aspects of Greek mythology has annoyed some purists. There were a few reviews that criticized their use of the conceit of Greek mythology without necessarily having a clear reason for doing so.

Since the key themes of the show aren't rooted in the key themes of traditional Greek mythology. But personally, as someone who, you know, doesn't have a particularly strong emotional attachment to Greek mythology and to the classics, as they have classically been told, it did not bother me at all. I did not find that particular criticism to be an issue. And instead, I think Covell was able to pretty effectively use the framework of Greek mythology to construct their narrative about power and corruption in a really interesting way, in a really curious way.

The fact that the themes of renewal, for example, aren't prominent aspects of Greek mythology wasn't so much an issue of either, you know, anachronism. Right. It wasn't something that felt out of place in the timeline or incongruous with the characters that were being portrayed as much as it was the show's way of saying, like, if we're reimagining Greek mythology through this lens of modern day, where the gods are real, everyone knows it. This is just a fact of life. There are other things that have to be different about the world as well and how the gods operate as well. I mean, come on, you have Zeus as this very amazing Jeff Goldblum, who I think was just kind of playing like a stressed, paranoid Jeff Goldblum in fine athleisure. Right. Like, we're playing fast and loose with the Greek gods.

We're reimagining them in this world where they're real. Everyone knows they're real. They're active and influencing the world. So I think deviating away from the classics, totally acceptable, kind of necessary for the framing of the show and didn't really detract from the entertainment aspect or the storytelling aspect.

Now, throughout the eight episodes, you follow several intertwined plot lines among several of the Greek gods, namely Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Dionysus, Hades, Persephone, and Prometheus, and a handful of mortals. Eurydice, AKA Riddy, Orpheus, Cneus, and Ariadne, AKA Ari. Along the way, this large cast of characters also interacts with the Trojans, the Fates, the Furies, the Minotaur, the Prophet, Cassandra, and more minor characters. It would be a lot to juggle and keep up with, but I think Kovel and the writers managed to perform a really cool balancing act of keeping the competing plot lines in balance and in unison with each other and each story moving each other's story forward. Okay. I think it's something that this show does well that some shows don't.

Usually when you have a very large cast of characters and we are supposed to believe that, you know, each character or many of the characters are important or powerful or influential, storylines start to get muddy or they start to get buried under bigger storylines. And that wasn't something that happened much in Chaos. There were a few points where I think certain characters could have had more of an arc, and I'll touch on that more in a moment when I start to break down some of the writing lessons. But all in all, I think the balancing act was performed really well. So with all of that context and all of that framing about the show in mind. I do want to go ahead and jump in and talk about the writing lessons that we can start to glean from the show. And I'll start by diving into this aspect of world-building because that was the thing when I started watching Chaos.

What really leaped out at me was how interesting the world-building was when we're first introduced to the characters, to that context, and starting to get a sense for what the central conflict is and what the central plot is. I actually want to start talking about world-building by reading an article from the website Creative Screenwriting, where the writer of the article discusses Koval's reflections on the first episode of Chaos, and in it, they write. The first 15 to 20 minutes of the pilot episode were the most challenging to write, according to Kovel. You need to take the audience's hand, navigate them into a big world, orient them, make them feel comfortable and not patronized or confused. Crete and the gods were introduced at one point. The underworld was also going to be introduced in the pilot episode, but there were too many stories running simultaneously. So we made the decision to introduce the Earth and the and Olympus in episode one and then the Underworld in episode two.

As I mentioned earlier on, there are a lot of characters and competing plot lines that unfold throughout the first first season. So the first episode is particularly important for establishing all that is to come after it. In the first episode, we focus primarily on Riddy, with some focus drawn to Ari and Orpheus and the dynamic that modern humans have with the gods. The reason it works really well as a framing device for this season is because it gives viewers a really tangible anchor in Riddy who we can start to get emotionally invested in. Even though we also get to meet Ari and Orpheus, they are not really the focus of the episode. They exist to provide context and framing. Riddy is what draws us in as viewers. We get to see the world through her eyes and through the lens of her personal internal conflict. We get a sense of her resentment toward the gods and toward her personal prophecy, but also for who she is as a person.

By extension, we also get really grounded in some of the key mechanics of the world that we're in. The gods of the Greek pantheon are real and everyone knows it. It is just a fact of life. In addition to that, everyone has a prophecy that is unique to that person because these are accepted facts of life for the characters within the world. We don't get any exposition or, you know, info dumping establishing those aspects of the world that we're in. Instead the characters act accordingly. And within the confines of these realities. The citizens of Crete in that first episode, for example, are celebrating a holy day honoring Zeus and the gods. And it even includes a human sacrifice. That's just treated as a fact of life. It's treated as something that is a great honor. And so many of the characters that are watching this event unfold are not, you know, remarking about, oh my God, this person's being sacrificed, or this is horrible that she's dying, right? It's just like, yes, this is what we do on this day to honor and celebrate the gods. And as all of this is happening because Covell focuses on Riddy's unhappiness, her discontent, and not on info dumping. This is how the world works, right? The world-building surrounding chaos is, I think, more enjoyable for it. I think if we saw the holy day and the human sacrifice and the vandalized monuments through the eyes of an outsider who had to have things explained, explain to them, we would lose focus on why we should care about the story in the first place.

You know, if someone came in from, let's say like Italy or you know, another country that was somewhat divorced from this modern, I'm assuming, Greek culture or somehow detached from the Greek gods and had to have all of this explained to them, then I think we would just be getting that information, just be getting that like, oh, here's a history lesson, oh my goodness, let's do some quick anthropology. And we wouldn't see any of this like internal conflict with Riddy that makes us care about the events that are unfolding. And I bring this up because it made me think quite a bit about my own writing and some of the just writing faux pas that I have committed in the past. As a speculative fiction writer who deals with stories about gods and surreal settings, it's really tempting to want to dive into the world I'm creating in a very heavy handed way. Right.

When you spend so much time and mental energy thinking about how magic systems work, how the world works, how gods interact with the world, you want to convey that to your reader. You want them to know all of this really cool history and science and magic. And it's so tempting to say, look, look at this beautiful, beautiful world, like the way that I see it. But when you do that, it's not as gripping. The story lacks propulsion. Right. And I say that as someone who has done that so much in the past. I have done that in a few different ways. I think early on, as a teenager, when I first tried my hand at writing a novel I just outright info dumped and would have paragraphs upon paragraphs of explaining how things worked. Then I thought I was being really creative and subtle by introducing outsider characters as this like mechanism through which I could info dump. But like I said, it's always just a recipe for really stilted, uninteresting text that doesn't move the actual story forward. And if you have listened to the Story Genius episodes or have read Lisa Kron's Story Genius, you'll be familiar with definition of story as I'm using it here, right? That concept of the third rail, the so what that runs through each scene and propels your novel forward. That thing that gives your readers a reason to continue reading and to continue caring.

Having that third rail, having that story, can only happen when we see a character's misbeliefs or internalized ideas being challenged throughout each scene that they're in and getting a sense for how they are exerting influence on the world around them. That can't happen when we're just info dumping. So in those first few episodes of Chaos, you learn a lot about the world that you're in, and you may find yourself saying, like, hold up, wait. Olympus is a physical mansion somewhere, presumably in the world, and Poseidon just lives on a boat.

But the thing is, you catch up quickly because everything is so matter of fact, and that suspension of disbelief kicks in. You just accept it eventually. And by eventually, I mean quite quickly, you're forced to care more about the characters and how they interact with the world than you are with these specific nuances of details that you are presented with. And really, I think the only times we get explicit exposition are from Prometheus, who acts as the de facto narrator over the course of the season, but he intervenes to provide context somewhat sparingly. He does it more so in the first couple of episodes, and then it sort of tapers off in the last half of the season. And there he's taking more of an active character role than a narrator role. But the thing is, even as a narrator, he still has his own role in the story.

He has his own goals and interests that he is pursuing. And when he is speaking, even if it's about other characters and what they're doing, you get this uneasy sense that he's pulling on threads like a scheming puppeteer, and not just acting as omniscient narrator. So there's never really any info dumping or like monologuing exposition. It's more so that when we have that Narrative voice, step in. It's very clear that this is not an unbiased narrator. This is still a character. And we're still getting that element of story where there's that cause and effect framework constantly at play with what they are doing now. Speaking of Prometheus and his role as someone who is constantly active, I think that that really attests to the other big writing lesson that we can glean from chaos, and that is that every single scene is rooted in one of the primary characters, driving conflicts and story arcs.

There really aren't wasted scenes throughout the season. You're constantly seeing the evolution of Zeus, vanity and paranoia, or Riddy's willingness to act on what she wants, or Ari's desire to understand and expose the truth. Right. The story genius framework maps well to much of the first season and how the plotlines evolve over time. The characters are constantly going through a process through which their actions have clear consequences. And they're constantly having their beliefs and misbeliefs challenge even some of their core beliefs about how the world works, such as what they've been raised to believe as a universal truth about the cycle of life and death and renewal related to beliefs and misbeliefs. The characters we follow are also deeply flawed, which of course is one of those hallmarks of good writing.

We don't want perfect characters, and we don't want characters that are so awful that they have no redeeming qualities. It's often best to have heroes who are also sometimes assholes and have villains who have you at times saying, yeah, I see why you're doing what you're doing. Orpheus, for example, is positioned as one of the heroes of the story. And the entire time you're kind of rooting for him, kind of hating him. Like, at no point was I ever fully on his side, but also at no point was I ever fully disliking him. He is simultaneously lovable and horrible. And I think, honestly, the same can be said about Ritty. In many ways, she is set up as the hero of the first season. I would argue she's our central protagonist and she's a very sympathetic character. But also sometimes you do want to shake her and scream at her to stop being so steely and frigid.

Caeneus and Ari are the humans I found most consistently likable, but I did wish we could see more from them, especially Caeneus. I feel like he was the character who lacked the most. I don't know, the most agency or the most complete arc, especially as we got into the second half of the season, we mostly got to understand Caeneus through his backstory rather than his like, cause and effect actions and reactions throughout that, that second half of the season. He's not a passive character, he's not an uninteresting character. He's, like I said, I think one of my favorite characters in the show. But I did just find myself saying I want more from him. Like, I really hope we get a season two because I feel like there's so much just lingering on the horizon for Cunaeus that we didn't get. But the gods, I've talked a bit about the mortals, the gods, oh my God or oh my gods plural. They are all kinds of messed up. I think Persephone is fine. She's got her act together. It seems Dionysus is lovable, but dumb as hell. But the more powerful gods like Hera and Zeus and Poseidon are all clearly vain and so self-interested that they fail to see half of what is going on around them. And I think that that flaw, that vanity and their obsession with their own power is really interesting as a plot device because when we think about how the story unfolds and how, you know, every action that the characters take has an effect and how that cause and effect relationship moves the story forward, it's really the gods wanting to preserve their power and not be flawed that leads to, you know, the end of season one where again, I'm not going to give away spoilers, but I would say their group on power is much more tenuous.

So what I'm getting at is that when we're navigating the myriad scenes and plot lines, we're typically doing so through the lens of some deeply flawed characters. Deeply, deeply flawed. And their flaws make the scenes more interesting. Their flaws are what drives the story forward. Without their flaws, the central conflict wouldn't have nearly as much traction. And maybe the biggest spoiler that I'll give but Zeus's obsession with his prophecy and the fear that he'll fall from power, that particular flaw is I think, the primary catalyst for everything that occurs in season one. And I'm doing my best to avoid spoilers. So there's so much that I want to say about the dynamic with Prometheus and Riddy and Cneus, about how Zeus perceives his prophecy and the role of the Fates. But I'm going to hold off. I think I really want to just start info dumping on it.

So if you are someone who has watched Chaos and you want to hear like some of my crackpot theories do it. Reach out. You can find me on Instagram, howdycuriosity or on Twitter. I refuse to call it by its new name. Twitter is the only thing I am okay with deadnaming. My handle on Twitter is MBReichenbach. But yeah, finally, let's talk about chaos. I have some theories here, but again, Zeus's flaw, his obsession with power and his extreme vanity, his just Goldblum of it all is what I think is so easily manipulated and able to move everything forward.

Now let's get in one more writing lesson from season one and with it I want to discuss the last scene from the last episode of the season that is currently available on Netflix. And again, I will be very light on spoilers here. I will tread carefully and again you can reach out to me and we can talk spoilers off the podcast if you want to do so when the season ended I found myself saying no, give me more voice cracking and everything. It was exactly like that. Very dramatic, I promise. But when it ends, you're pretty hooked and ready to see what happens next. And yet, even though you're hooked in wanting to see what happens, you can make assumptions about what happens.

The first season I think very, very clearly set up for for a season two, but it is still a self contained story. You can fill in the blanks for yourself about what the main characters probably do next. I think Caeneus and Hades have the biggest question mark and ambiguity for me, but then again, maybe I'm just dumb. Maybe I just really want that season two focus on Caeneus so we can get more from him. Hera has a bit of ambiguity too with her last line, but with her and how she develops throughout the season, I think her final scene has a bit more concreteness to it than Cunaeus and Hades, but for the rest of the cast they have next steps. There's more that they're obviously going to do, but you can anticipate what is likely to come. The fact that the season is simultaneously self contained and just begging for a season two is so hard to pull off. Writers always get the advice for their novels, especially first time novelists, that they need to basically do the same thing right? Their novel should be a complete self contained story that can stand alone whether or not it gets a sequel. And that is largely a business motivated decision. It is much easier for agents to sell a standalone novel. Editors are much more likely to buy a standalone novel from a new novelist than they are something like a trilogy or a series.

So each novel you pitch needs to be complete the way Chaos does the same thing is pretty impressive and something I think writers can learn from. It's a full story with implied next steps that you want to see, but you have a full story already if you don't see them again. I really hope we get a season two of Chaos, but given how streaming services are, that's probably a gamble if I'm being honest.

Jeff Goldblum, if you hear this, if you're a devoted listener, I will personally fund season two. So long as you can get it done with a budget of like $1,000, I can probably put up for it. Yeah, let's go with that. Jeff Goldblum if you can do Chaos Season 2 On a budget of $1,000, I will personally fund it. That is a pinky promise. Anyway, what if Jeff Goldblum reached out and was just like, oh hey, this is Jeff Goldblum. I'll take that thousand dollars now for season two.

Anyway, the way they pulled off the ending of season one, it reminded me of Leigh Bardugo's Hell Bent, where at the end of that book, and again, I'm not giving away any spoilers, but at the end of Hell Bent you see the main characters sort of rushing toward their next adventure and you can assume what's likely to happen. You are primed for a follow up book, but it's not necessarily required that you go to a sequel to get a sense of completeness. Right at the end of Bardugo's Hell Bent, how the story concludes. You have a complete story and you're probably pretty contented with the arc of the story that you just read, but would love again to have that, you know, other adventure with those characters. By the way, read the Ninth House. Read Hell Bent. Leigh Bardugo is great, one of my favorite contemporary speculative fiction writers. I think she's fantastic. Absolutely. Go read Hell Bent. Go read. The Ninth House is the first book, Hellbent is the sequel, and then I believe there is a third book on the way. I think, oh, I hope I'm not lying about that.

I've already have Goldblum coming after me for a thousand I don't want to have Bardugo coming after me for promising a book that may or may not be coming. I'm not going to try a Bardugo impression. So before I get tempted to do so, I do think I am going to go ahead and wrap up this episode.

It's time for me to give this episode a sense of completeness that leaves you wanting more but feeling feeling satiated with the arc that we have been through. If you haven't watched Chaos yet, I do recommend it. If you're a classical scholar, don't expect a faithful retelling of Greek mythology, but if you're a storytelling nerd, be on the lookout for how Kavel and the actors dive into world-building without being heavy-handed. How they keep viewers focused on the story at hand and constantly propel that story forward forward. How they develop multifaceted and flawed characters who you simultaneously want to hug and punch and strangle and I don't know, I'm not going to go with what may accompany Strangle Strangle, but in a sexy way, let's go with that and how they managed to tell a complete story that is simultaneously self contained while also setting us up for a second season. If you have seen the show already, again, let's talk about it. But if you have seen it already, perhaps the most important takeaway is that your middle management cubicle job is already basically a brutalist purgatory.

So give yourself a little color, a little flavor, and do something creative today. Don't forget to subscribe to the Inkling Insights podcast if you haven't already, to get each new episode as they drop. You can also head over to community.howdycuriosity.com to join my free online writing community if you want a little extra support, accountability, encouragement as you are on your writing journey. Writing does not have to be a hermit's activity. It does not have to be something you do in isolation. You shouldn't feel lonely and sad when you're writing. Do it with friends. Do it with the community. Do it with me. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go steal fire from some deities and give it to humans. I sure hope no eagles start eating my liver. Well, bye.