Layers

I waited a very long time before I began writing because I always thought it was much too complicated. I could not imagine juggling plot, characters, setting, dialogue, motivation, foreshadowing - all those things we know go into a good story. I was fortunate to have a friend who "eased" me into writing by getting me to write letters in character. As I wrote I wasn't thinking of these varied elements, only about writing a letter. So I entered the profession by the back door, so to speak, getting hooked on the storytelling and learning the craft along the way. One of the most important things I've learned about novel writing is the importance of layering. I'm not referring to the layers of complexity in a particular story, but to an aspect of drafting it.


Because of the way I create characters, plot, and world, rather than pushing through to a rough draft as quickly as possible, I try to lay down the story as completely and with as much specific detail as I can as I write. Sometimes I obsess a bit too much over getting the right plants or the right name for "that thing they carry as a reminder of their dead family members," when I ought to insert a pair of empty square brackets and go on, [I do that sometimes] but, in general the method serves me well. Yet inevitably I discover I've described two female characters as round-cheeked, or that I've got to give a date, which means I have to finally decide whether this world without Pope, Roman gods, or Zodiac really uses a Gregorian calendar, or I've described Damoselle Maura as "well contained" emotionally, yet I remember several instances of laughter, brilliant smiles to a stranger, and so forth.

Many writers would advise making a note and plunging ahead, but I prefer to take the time to sweep through and layer these things in. Get rid of "fortnight" as this society is using a ten-month year. Go ahead and name the months. Remove the damoselle's bright laugh and replace with a face that "livens with amusement" which appeals greatly to Portier, whose "mother lived in a constant upheaval of emotion." In this way, I can move forward, dropping in dates, faces, emotions, and cheeks that are "the color of milked tea" without fretting that somewhere excess round cheeks yet lurk.

I'll have many more layers to spread, both in drafting and in revision - layers of clues, of motivations ("oh, NOW I know why he did that, so he would never have revealed his fear to a stranger") of world-building. But I will work them into my Sabrian Veil "vocabulary" as I go. Now, on to the harbor, where the exploration ship, Destinne is to sail this morning, rather than its original launch date of the fifteenth day of Cinq.