I am deep in chronology now, maybe halfway through, and discovering that I have duplicated some events (though the way the scenes are written varies a lot) and completely left out some very important ones.\u00a0 Last night’s work session was on one such scene (a plot-mover for sure.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Getting the others into even rough order helps a lot in seeing overlaps, duplicates, and gaps.<\/p>\n
For instance, if A discovers or knows something that A really should tell B…but A has reasons for not telling B (good or bad as the case may be)….then at some point there MUST be a scene in which A tells B, or someone else who knows what A knows tells B, or B finds out on B’s own…and then there will be a scene between A and B in which A is going to have to justify (or try to) not having told B back in the beginning of the whole thing.\u00a0\u00a0 Because the real suspense here is “What will B do when B finds out what A knows and that A didn’t tell B?”<\/p>\n
How long the gap can be depends on what the secret knowledge\u00a0 is and the circumstances.\u00a0\u00a0 Obviously, “I’m pregnant” will become obvious in months and is likely to be noticed by others who might tell. \u00a0\u00a0 Can’t hide that one forever unless there’s an unobtrusive way to ditch the child. \u00a0\u00a0 “I found this obscure document proving that you are the real heir to the throne” might not ever become obvious unless someone else finds the obscure document.\u00a0\u00a0 So it could run for years (if, in a story, it runs “forever,” it’s unlikely to be plot relevant unless you’re telling the story of A who is haunted by knowledge A feels must not be told.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Story logic dictates that the length of time A is allowed to hold that secret and brood over it must make sense to readers, given the circumstances.\u00a0\u00a0 Pregnant princess surrounded by observant older women who’ve seen lots of pregnant girls…it’s unbelievable that someone wouldn’t tumble to it.\u00a0 But\u00a0 if locked in a room and being fattened up by a wicked villain with a taste for eating princesses…somewhat longer.<\/p>\n
Every culture has people it “sees” more closely than others–and specific things it (or individuals within it) look for.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Homophobes eye everyone for signs of gayness.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Inquisition eyed conversos for signs that they hadn’t abandoned Judaism.\u00a0\u00a0 Cultures valuing female virginity at marriage eye pubertal girls for signs of sexual activity and pregnancy.\u00a0 Consider what people in Paks’s world worry about or consider especially valuable…what they look for with fear or with hope.<\/p>\n
Guilty secrets make good Story.<\/p>\n
Today was mostly a bust, as I had a big eye examination thing (checking on the progress of my cataracts) this morning that left me with blurred vision and a headache for some time after.\u00a0 Still a little blurry and headachy, but at least I CAN see words on the computer screen now.\u00a0\u00a0 I have out-of-state guests coming Friday and should be cleaning the kitchen (and at least straightening the whole house) but instead I’m deep in timelines and guilty secrets.\u00a0\u00a0 I know you alpha readers are poised on your toes, and I’m sorry to be several weeks later than I said…but I’m getting to the point where the draft might make sense (instead of having all of you say “What DOES B do to A when B finds out what A didn’t tell?”)<\/p>\n
Oh—Orbit UK has Echoes listed as\u00a0 January release (I think–trying to look at the Orbit release catalog<\/a> I found it difficult to navigate and confusing, but that may just be me.)\u00a0\u00a0 Also has cover image, which I’d not seen before, and a blurb<\/a> which unfortunately makes it seem this is the conclusion, not the middle book.\u00a0 \u00a0 I found this via James Long’s SpecHorisons<\/a> on Twitter.\u00a0\u00a0 (My follow list on Twitter has bulged again as I’m finding following people at my publishers on Twitter an easy way to figure out what’s going on.\u00a0 And yet…when the sum of all the lists (LJ, SFFnet, Twitter, blogs) gets large enough, I could spend 48 of every 24 hours just keeping up.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am deep in chronology now, maybe halfway through, and discovering that I have duplicated some events (though the way the scenes are written varies a lot) and completely left out some very important ones.\u00a0 Last night’s work session was on one such scene (a plot-mover for sure.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Getting the others into even rough order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,61,53,5],"tags":[22,106,62,112,20,107],"class_list":["post-1344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contents","category-craft","category-life-beyond-writing","category-the-writing-life","tag-characters","tag-contents","tag-craft-of-writing","tag-life-beyond-writing","tag-progress-report","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1346,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions\/1346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}