Snowflake – Novel Questions
Fraser Ronald of the Accidental Survivors podcast and Sword’s Edge Publishing has given me some thoughts on the chapter I posted earlier. Since this project is as much about exploring and exposing the writing process as it is about getting the novel written, I thought I’d post my thoughts here. (Okay, maybe “as much” implies a little too much emphasis taken away from the goal of finishing the novel, but exploring the process is still a goal of mine.)
Fraser wrote:
As a global, this chapter does what it needs to do as a first chapter. I am situated in the setting. Here’s what I understand the setting to be: Late 18th, early 19th century type setting with airships. Temperate climate. Pseudo-European culture. And monsters come at night.
If I’m wrong about any of that, it means the chapter didn’t work as well as I thought it did.
The only character I have a grasp on is Crynn, but right now he’s James Kirk mixed with Horatio Hornblower, meaning I don’t know him yet. I have a sense of him. He’s the hero. He’s responsible and heroic. He’s also very competent. He commands respect and loyalty. His willingness to put himself in danger for his crew/innocents is a good reason why he would command respect and loyalty.
Here’s what I’m asking myself (these aren’t questions to which I want answers, but this information wasn’t clear from the chapter):
Is this the navy or a merchant fleet–I know what HMS means on Earth, but is it the same in this story?
Who is McCreedy? How did his boy get left behind when everyone was “present and accounted for?” Are there families on the DeVron?
If the wood is being used to heat air for a hot air balloon, how big are the balloons to be able to lift both the ship and its anchor? If the wood is not being used in that fashion, what is it stoking? What are the physics of these airships? (This is a question that doesn’t need a full explanation in the chapter, but some hints so that the action is consistent with the reader’s understanding of the airship)
What is the ship carrying? What is it doing in the ‘bad neighbourhood?’
All of these questions are good ones, and I intend to answer them all. I’m curious, though, when should I answer these questions? How much ambiguity is okay in a first chapter?
I approached this chapter with the intention of answering most, if not all, of these questions in the second chapter. Crynn has to go face Becca, Erik’s mother and a figure from Crynn’s past, and in the conversation, most of the information about how Erik ended up unnoticed and what the ship carries and the like would be answered. I didn’t want to repeat myself, so I left it out of the first chapter. Is that okay, or should I bring it up twice?
I have a similar question about the time period. All of Fraser’s assumptions about the setting are correct, except for the timeframe, which, admittedly, is a little odd. This is actually a story that takes place in the late 20th century. However, I’m working from the assumption that if most of humanity gets wiped out and pushed out to sea sometime near the end of the 19th century, then technological progress is going to be put on hold while we figure out if we’re going extinct or not.
Can the time period of the story be something which reveals itself naturally over the course of several chapters? Or does it need to be laid out more explicitly in the first chapter or (more likely) a prologue?
Thoughts?
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If I may, I’d like to take a stab at your questions, given they originated with my questions.
When should I answer these questions? Soon, but not necessarily in the first chapter. Things like the nature of the ship (military or merchant) could be answered organically through the story (ranks and missions vs. informal chain of command and entrepreneurship)
How much ambiguity is okay in a first chapter? Only so much as does not confuse the reader. In this case, the only question that I think really needs to be answered in chapter 1: Who is McCreedy? How did his boy get left behind when everyone was “present and accounted for?” This is because the situation of the ‘man overboard’ is directly contrary to ‘ present and accounted for,’ which may cause confusion. Even something as simple as “He thought all the deckhands were accounted for. Someone would answer for this.” OR “This village kid was going to get himself killed.”
Is that okay, or should I bring it up twice? I think you were correct in not wanting to repeat this information, but some indication of who this kid’s identity–is he part of the crew?–should be provided.
Can the time period of the story be something which reveals itself naturally over the course of several chapters? Or does it need to be laid out more explicitly in the first chapter or (more likely) a prologue? I didn’t realize this was supposed to be Earth. I figured it was a fictional otherworld. As a fictional otherworld, the “time period” would simply indicate the level of technology. Therefore, a post-apocalyptic world that has resorted to medieval technology would be–to me–a medieval time period even though the date is 2065.
And if the tech is meant to be late 20th century, the ships should use some other kind of fuel, like petroleum or nuclear. Even coal would give me a sense of Victorian or pre-Word War I technology. Also, for weapons, something like a machine gun or assault rifle would definitely point to late 20th century tech. Assault rifles were introduced in the 1960s and didn’t become popular until the 1980s, so given that firearms are included in the scene, they can be a good indicator of time period.
Given all this, the time period is almost always introduced organically, through clues in the text. If this is meant to be Earth, a date can be provided to explicitly indicate time period.
I definitely agree with providing more information about why the kid was left behind. That was something that gnawed at me when I initially wrote that, and I think I know how to fix that without being redundant later on.
As for the time period is largely set based on the tech level of the world, then, yeah, this is probably a world stuck at an 18th/19th century level. The year puts us technically in the late 20th century, but technology definitely paused and diverged from the 19th.
One thing I definitely need to nail down for myself is the fuel society uses. Oil and nuclear are out. I don’t know about coal. There are some logistical concerns I need to work out regarding the Crawlers. I am working on it, I just haven’t figured out the answers yet.