Making story choices
I wrapped up the next-to-the-last chapter of The Enduring Legacy (title in draft form is Repairing the Legacy). Kind of a typical thing for any writer, except….
The chapter was to end with a character death. I’ve been leading up to this chapter, it’s not unexpected considering it’s been about his last thirteen years alive. I had been thinking about this chapter for a while—like about the year or so that I’ve been drafting this particular work. It’s been quite a ride. Luckily, I’ve also been writing other stories as well, so I’ve not been tied down to this one story—which is a good thing, because it’s gone deeper into the two main characters, their history, and the choices they’ve faced over these thirteen years.
Oh, and I ended up tossing a multiverse into the mix, kicked off by one of those characters when they decided to discuss choices. Worlds where their lives together were very different from what their lives have been throughout this set of books. Hey, it’s speculative fiction. Considering I was also throwing in a mind control programming worm with nefarious purposes, plus the main characters were raising a clone of the male main character’s toxic, psychopathic father—
Yeah, it’s all speculative fiction. And the multiverse element has already kicked off two books (A Different Life—What If?, now available at the usual suspects, and A Different Life—Linda’s Story, now serializing on Kindle Vella).
In any case, my original story map included the death scene, incorporating a newer character whose existence started to be hinted at some chapters back. Except—when it came to writing that sequence—I didn’t write it.
Instead, I ended it with what happened just before, and had him going upstairs.
The next chapter opens after his funeral.
Why did I make that choice?
For one, it felt right.
For another—and I just realized this—to write that scene would have been over the top, and too much like Heinlein in his later years. Gabriel Martiniere would be appalled to be compared to Lazarus Long.
But it was also an issue of pacing and feel. The chapter already had a healthy dose of angst, drama, and feels. Going with the original plan was a distraction and not true to the book. Oh, I could have written it—but it didn’t feel right.
And that is part of how writers work sometimes. You develop a feel for your story, and, hopefully, have the awareness to know when you’ve diverged in a way that isn’t going to work for your story. Sometimes it takes an editor to slap you alongside the head and point out the problem.
In this case, all it took was for me to write a paragraph, then the sentence after. Then look at the two together, and realize—this is the chapter’s ending. This is the correct beat. More is not needed.
(That said, my betas might disagree.)
In any case, the last year working on Legacy has been—interesting. The story now is not what it started out to be. It has a more epic, family saga feel to it. But it’s serving its purpose, and, hopefully, I’ll get the darn thing released before I finish serializing it over on Martiniere Stories.
Though we shall see what the rewrites do to me….