Since this is basically just a continuation of the last chapter my goals are largely the same; emphasis on good, tense ‘action’ scenes while continuing to grow the this particular subplot. However, I will take a moment to talk about one of the things I feel very strongly about–even if I don’t always pull it off. And that’s making sure my subplots have a lot of weight to them; they need to matter, which means there has to be more to them than just introducing a new character or plot twist. With that in mind I took a look at this one and thought that, on the surface, it’s pretty weak. After all, once Ohrder gets involved is there really any doubt how this is going to turn out? The ‘problem’ is that stories are all about conflict, but it looks like we’ve got an incredibly powerful wizard verses a band of street thugs…ho hum, gee, I can’t wait to turn the page to see how this turns out–not! Bottom line, its time to either morph this subplot into something meatier or toss it out and start over–sadly, sometimes that does need to happen. In this case, I started asking myself what could the royal heirs have gotten themselves tangled up in that would leave even Ohrder scrambling for answers. If there was something–or someone who could do that, then I felt I’d be onto something worth pursuing. What I came up with was more than just a person and a situation, it’s so heavily layered that there was no way to fit it all into a single chapter…but, I’m very okay with that as long as it aligns with what’s already going on and continues to do so going forward. Conceptually, that’s what I was thinking, but let’s see how it actually worked out.
Overall, I like the chapter. In fact it’s my favorite type of chapter to read in a story; it’s full of ‘action’ with Ohrder having to become a ‘shifter’ on the fly, and then the major new twist of Dougerty and his mysterious past thrown in at the end that hopefully leaves you wondering about so many things. The writing wasn’t polished, but it wasn’t horrible either. So, all in all, chapter seven turned out better than I expected. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that need fixed. The actual ‘picking’ of Fingers was clunky, the initial interactions between Ohrder and Dougerty needs cleaned up too. And Dougerty’s role in things going forward will have to be carefully managed. That’s the thing about introducing new ‘power’ characters, they have a gravity about them. You can’t just ignore them. You have to take into account how they’ll effect everyone and everything around them. Because, just like in real life, they’re not going to just sit back like a bump on a log and let the world go by. And the more you come to know about Dougerty, the more you’ll see how true that will become.
All the best to you and yours,
Mike
Leave a Reply