Mary Catelli's Erraticly Updated and Exceedingly Ill-Organized Journal

Was settling characters into their places, because they stop wandering for the next part.

Realized that I need to introduce other characters. There are four knights at this post, plus of course servants, but there are more in force when the clash comes.

I think I will merely have them say, as two youngsters leave with the wizard, that more knights will arrive to make this a proper post, because the others are not important character. Proper disemphasis.

The thing about a princess going off with her army to find the prince who visited when she was sleeping. . . .

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The thing about going through a portal and having something unpleasant follow them. . .

It doesn't have to be obvious at once. Especially since it's both little and a shadow.

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I had an inciting incident.  So I wrote up the outline that far.  And have all three characters with their packs ready to march off somewhere. . .
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So the year rolls on through the seasons. . .
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"Show don't tell" is one of those rules you hear early in the writing life.  And it has its points.  It's a very odd story that can be told well without any showing, and a scene shown is almost always more dramatic than a scene told.

Still, there are places.

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You want to keep the story hopping with liveliness and activity, or at least filled with quiet drama, all the time.  Cut out the dull parts rather than summarize them, to keep the reader engaged.

Well, usually.


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And he's not gonna tell you what it is.

I used to find the scene cut at the point where the hero stands up and says, "Now this is what we are going to do." very, very, very annoying.  Cut straight to the people running about doing stuff and you get to see what the plan is when it unfolds.

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Nothing is more interesting that needing to interpolate some communication and concluding that it goes in that conversation.  Except that when you get to it, you don't know where it can go.
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Besides the person chosen, there's always the question of how loose the POV can be.

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