Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Didn't write yesterday because I was stuck.

Tuskers II, III, and IV all overlap to some extent in the timeline, but from different locations and points of view.  I think it works fine, but I have to be careful that it makes logical and logistical sense. In "Tuskers IV" I have the central core group of characters taking up most of the first half of the book, but I wanted to at least have one chapter from each of the other two groups of  main characters in the first half.

I wrote a couple of chapters, and I really liked them.

But in reading them yesterday I realized that, while these chapters made emotional, thematic sense, they were from a different timeline. In other words, they weren't logical; they would have to be moved to later in the book.

Damn.

My job today is to find a couple of new chapters that do the same thing thematically, but which also fit the timeline. It means I have to revisit some of the events in books II and III, but not repeat myself.  I'm thinking that I need a single event which introduces the characters in book IV, but which doesn't contradict or duplicate what I've written before.

I don't even know if this is possible, and I definitely want to feel the rightness of it before I do it.

Linda is at work, so I can pace the house and talk to myself and work myself up into a lather about it, and maybe, just maybe something will occur to me.


OK. thought about it for about an hour and came up with something for the Southern Group. I think it will work. It establishes a plot point I want to make and adds some thematic gravitas to the story and introduces the character.

(Why couldn't I think of anything yesterday? It's like my brain wouldn't work. Last night, I got a good night's sleep, could it be as simple as that?)


I wrote the chapter, but Linda was still confused by the timeline. Sigh.

Both books III and IV have overlapping timelines, and I'm just hoping it works. I understand the timeline, but I can see how others might have a problem.

But I don't think I can change it.

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