On one project – which on this blog shall be refered to as The Many Trials of a Blacksmith – the beginning chapter was written without knowing the precise details of- okay fine, I’ll admit to it: I made it up as I went along. Which meant that the first chapter was info heavy. As in really info heavy.
Fifteen years worth of history was enclosed in one chapter – along with the main character’s feelings on that fifteen years. Okay, maybe that sounds a little melodramatic and a tad bit harsh … but the fact still remains that it included a boatload of history the first time round; mainly because I wasn’t sure what was going on until I typed it out.
Now I’m on part three of The Many Trials and I know my setting much better … which means that first chapter is going to have to be edited; to cut to the chase, so to speak, make it more action packed and less ‘this-is-what-has-happened’; I’ll attempt to show the history – in the devastation, in the people, in the cities, in the conquerors’ attitude to the conquered. I’ll try to show the history in every sneer, in every fearful expression, in every mutilated and defeated old solider.
Because, I don’t know about you but a book in which the history is seamlessly entwined with the actual plot is vastly more appealing than an action packed scene followed by ‘let’s all sit down and discuss the past hundred years and their effect on us now for the sole purpose of enlightening the reader’. Maybe there’s a place for that … but not in this project.
Happy New Year!
of words & books 