Author Insight: Episode 3
A Change of Plans
Like most of my stories, this episode of “The Beast Hunter” went through several drafts before I was finally satisfied with it. While the plotline remained fairly constant throughout the editorial process, most of the narrative and dialogue was eventually replaced at least once. The biggest reason for these changes was to avoid the familiar hazard of telling a story instead of showing it. This is a common issue for many, if not all, fiction writers. For example, there’s a temptation to just tell the reader how a character is feeling, rather than taking the time to write the narrative in such a way that, not only does the reader know how the character feels, but they end up feeling the same way. Making each scene emotionally visceral usually doesn’t happen when I’m writing the first draft, but I’m convinced it makes for infinitely better storytelling and is worth the extra effort during the revision period.
A good example of taking extra time to add some emotional weight to the narrative happened to me as I edited the scene where Keltin and Mr. Paulsen are forced to travel through the poor district. At first the scene was fairly straightforward. There were no details about the poor district and Keltin’s reaction to his surroundings was revealed in an introspective paragraph. This didn’t seem powerful enough to me, especially considering that this would be the only real taste of the problems in Carvalen that Keltin gets before he moves on to the Dhalma Province. I removed the introspective paragraph and replaced it with a short scene of a father guarding the doorway to his home as his two daughters peek out through a nearby window. There was something about the image that struck a chord with me personally, and I hope it has a similar effect for the story’s readers.