Paksworld

Writers are often asked (OK, I am often asked) why I put bad things in stories about good people.   What is the purpose, someone asks, of having war, terrible wounds, grisly deaths, and torture afflict characters?    Is it to teach the character a lesson?   Did the character deserve it?  Or was enduring such things the only way to create a paladin?

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No sooner was I into a new POV in Book Three than the whole words thing came down on me.

A character “intoned” something.   Now we all now that “said” and “asked” are the safest ways to denote speech: they’re just about invisible and don’t stick out in unwanted ways.   But every once in a while the way of saying or asking matters, and in a situation where a physical gesture won’t do.  In this case, a gnome is quoting The Law.   It’s like a preacher quoting the Ten Commandments…he’s almost chanting it.   Intoning it, in fact.

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As mentioned, some alpha readers found “motivation holes” in the book.  Motivation holes arise when a) a character’s actions aren’t tied to a motivation or b) when the reader doesn’t find the motivations shown to be believable.   Motivation is a huge topic–critical to the success of any story–and it’s a fragile, brittle link between writer and reader.

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