Part 7, run: Call for feedback
Action to come! The dance of conflicts. Definition's soliloquies. Feedback?
Now the plot of Quibble has all the pepper it needs, and it’s boiling over! We’ve taken some time to get here, but as you might have gathered from the ending of chapter 39, “Subterfuge,” we’re on the cusp of a major confrontation. In the next chapter, “Array,” a glass fight will erupt between Zeros — finally, some more action in this story!
As a novelist, I’m an anti-Dan Brown: I don’t press the pedal to the metal, hooking my reader with constant action. I’m more intrigued by characters’ internal conflicts. Also, I believe good external conflict arises in part from internal conflict, so I take the time to explore the internal before giving the go-ahead to the external. A good story’s plot is a dance between the two. (Maybe this is a subject for a future reflection?)
In this part of the novel, chapter 37, “Grief,” is my pride and joy. I believe, as readers and writers, we yearn for stories to deliver profundity, to say something weighty and universal about a timeless theme. But profundity must be earned, and it doesn’t come cheap. Often, we have to put characters in deep, dark holes — and get down in those holes with them — to realize something profound. In “Grief,” Nish comes home to the Dazed monastery, confused and heartbroken by Quibble’s rejection. She tries to pick up the threads of her previous life, but she finds them — and herself — frayed beyond repair. This sets the stage for two soliloquies on the complex nature of grief. Does my story earn such soliloquies? I hope so! Reader, make up your own mind.
Any feedback on “run”? Questions about how Quibble is shaping up?
The essay series “Infinite Lock-In” is nearing its end. Parts 1, 4, and 7 are available in full to free subscribers. Part 11, which comes out next week, will also be free.
Part 1: Cybernetic Totalism. What does it mean to reduce human beings to information?
Part 4: Digital Heaven. Who thinks we can mind-upload? What scheme is being proposed for the Singularity?
Part 7: The Luddite’s Tale. The longer you resist a new paradigm, the harder your life gets. How did I manage life without a smartphone? What are the benefits of typewriters?
