Transition chapters
Aug. 20th, 2006 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmithSome chapters are harder than others. Yes, they should all advance at least two of the following: plot, character, and theme. But sometimes these advances involve transitions, profound decisions that really jerk the steering wheel and move the story in a very different direction. And these transitions can be difficult to set up because so many things need to work together just so to ensure that a true tipping point is achieved. The plot needs to advance to the point where the character makes a decision, and that decision in turn needs to be supported by the information revealed to that point, and by the actions of the deciding character and all about her, and by the overall flavor/sense/*theme* of the book. It seems obvious, but when you're dealing with any sort of mystery/puzzle/crime, you need to lay out the facts in a way that the character can uncover them, then give the character enough information to make a decision.
And when it's a Jani chapter, and she's already planning to do something that more than one person who knows her guesses she is going to do, and she needs to mask that decision in a costume of sound political judgement because she knows that none of her friends wants her to do what she's planning, and because as this is going on, underlings are actually digging to databanks and mining information and gathering evidence that supports her surmise but you know, constitutes actual evidence...
I'm just trying to say that this chapter is going to take longer to write than I thought. But if done properly, it will provide the footing for much of what comes after. So it needs to be done right. Because the "and then a miracle occurs" stage of the draft is long past.
But I got to make up a class of diseases and a method of transmission, so that was cool.
And when it's a Jani chapter, and she's already planning to do something that more than one person who knows her guesses she is going to do, and she needs to mask that decision in a costume of sound political judgement because she knows that none of her friends wants her to do what she's planning, and because as this is going on, underlings are actually digging to databanks and mining information and gathering evidence that supports her surmise but you know, constitutes actual evidence...
I'm just trying to say that this chapter is going to take longer to write than I thought. But if done properly, it will provide the footing for much of what comes after. So it needs to be done right. Because the "and then a miracle occurs" stage of the draft is long past.
But I got to make up a class of diseases and a method of transmission, so that was cool.
