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Very, very, VERY big plot bomb. Jaw-dropping for the writer looking at the mass of Story that just exploded into her head and is wondering how the heck to write it as well as it deserves. This one covers a lot of ground, temporal and geographic.
All praise to the Plot Daemon, who has outdone himself. (“All right, all right, lassie. Now will you just go back up there and steer?”)
(Back to work.)
Comment by Alaska Fan — December 17, 2010 @ 12:42 pm
The good news: wonderful new plot surprises.
The bad news: we’ll have to wait 18-24 months to find out what they are.
I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to resume writing now, Ma’am, with all deliberate speed.
Comment by elizabeth — December 18, 2010 @ 1:33 am
1:30 am. Exhaustion strikes. No, I haven’t been working on the book full time. But quite a bit.
Comment by Daniel Glover — December 19, 2010 @ 4:01 pm
This is the middle book now (yeah!) so things should be rather tangled at the end of it. Fortunately I’d stumbled on Paks just before Oath of Gold was published in paperback so I was able to run right out and get my third book fix when I just “had” to know what happened next. Expecting the longest wait to be between III and IV wanting to know how all the tangling is going to get worked out. So far I’m just eager for Kings not anxious. (grin)
Comment by elizabeth — December 20, 2010 @ 12:03 am
And I am just anxious to get III finished (and titled!!!) in the next, um, 10 days. It’s close; it’s very close; but there’s one final critical bit that isn’t quite there. Plus all the smoothing.
Comment by Adam Baker — December 20, 2010 @ 4:21 pm
When you have something like this happen, a huge plot bomb hit just at the end of the schedule, how do you tend to work through it? Is it where you have to start deciding what has to be pushed into the next book, or do you try cramming as much as possible into the current book, or a mix of both?
Comment by elizabeth — December 20, 2010 @ 5:08 pm
Adam, I’ve never had as big a plot bomb explode right at the end, when I’m already rushing. If I weren’t on contract, I’d push everything back six months and give myself time to do more adjustment. As it is, the plot bomb convinced me that the book will not cover as much time as I’d hoped (and hadn’t yet covered, but was pushing for.) In general, plot bombs are always right–they come from very deep, and they connect in all directions. (Unlike bright ideas, which come from an inventive intellect and may or may not work at all.)
A little of the plot bomb will be in this book. Some of the plot bomb was already embedded in the previous books, and the rest of it will leave chunks in the next two books.
Comment by Daniel Glover — December 20, 2010 @ 6:12 pm
Good, very good. Yes, a good plot bomb at the end of a middle book gives something to tie all the sinister machinations to hanging at the end of the book. It will keep us coming back for more. Not that the crowd here hasn’t already bought in to the system. I, for one, am really looking forward to what’s exploded. It’s only a year and half off.