This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #536, on the subject of Character Confrontations.
With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first eleven Multiverser novels,
- Verse Three, Chapter One: The First Multiverser Novel,
- Old Verses New,
- For Better or Verse,
- Spy Verses,
- Garden of Versers,
- Versers Versus Versers,
- Re Verse All,
- In Verse Proportion,
- Con Verse Lea,
- In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
- Con Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley,
in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book). Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages. Now as I am posting the twelfth, A Dozen Verses, again written in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights. This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed. You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them. Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.
This is the thirteenth and final post for this novel, covering chapters 145 through 156. Previous posts are:
- #524: Twisting Worlds, covering the first twelve chapters;
- #525: Character Battles, covering chapters 13 through 24;
- #526: Versers Adjust, chapters 25 through 36;
- #527: Characters Reorient, chapters 37 through 48;
- #528: Versers Investigate, chapters 49 through 60;
- #529: Characters in Action, chapters 61 through 72;
- #530: Versers Move, chapters 73 through 84;
- #531: Versers Roam, chapters 85 through 96;
- #532: Versers Chilled, chapters 97 through 108;
- #533: Characters Traveling, chapters 109 through 120;
- #534: Characters Transition, 121 through 132, and
- #535: Character Plots, chapters 133 through 144.
There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.
History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.
Quick links to discussions in this page:
Chapter 145, Slade 297
Chapter 146, Cooper 120
Chapter 147, Kondor 307
Chapter 148, Cooper 121
Chapter 149, Slade 298
Chapter 150, Cooper 122
Chapter 151, Kondor 308
Chapter 152, Cooper 123
Chapter 153, Slade 299
Chapter 154, Cooper 124
Chapter 155, Kondor 309
Chapter 156, Cooper 125
We needed this battle to run a few chapters, so Eric started it with this chapter in which Slade closes the gap, the enemy starts discovering its limitations, and the two sides threaten each other.
I was not yet on top of this fey fantasy world, so Eric drafted this, introducing a couple humans and a couple of talking dogs.
I drafted this, to get Kondor’s team to their motorcycles without arousing suspicion. I left blank what Amanda was wearing, which Eric supplied.
Eric had drafted a rather long chapter in which Cooper is made aware that Yolanda is trying to make a deal with an evil spirit to defeat the elves, but I pointed out that we had left Cooper 120 hanging on the expectation of three questions. I then drafted a section asking three questions, and came up with the idea that if the dogs couldn’t answer the third they would still owe him an answer, which he could get later.
I wrote this in two sections, taking it to the point where Slade crashed into the shield and the enemy suggested it was a stalemate. Momentarily stymied, I realized a couple points which I went with when I returned the next day. I also had some ideas for what happens next.
Eric was encouraging. I had commented previously that I struggled to write combat scenes, and he said that I had done this one well.
Eric drafted this to bring Cooper to the festival, introducing the talking moose. I added the place where he dons the Mister Justice outfit.
I had a very limited concept of how this fight was going to go; all I knew was that Kondor had to get close enough for Amanda to dart the bodyguard, and then they weren’t going to escape alive, but their deaths would be in the next chapter.
Eric drafted the beginning of this and a rough outline of his expectations. I tweaked it a bit and wrote Mister Justice’ introduction of himself, and left it with the suggestion that the chapter further include a battle in which Cooper defeats the first forty-nine knights in a single blow and is left to face the last fight in his next chapter, the chapter in which this story comes to an end.
I also raised the question of whether Tom (and possibly Sarah) might verse out with him.
Eric had suggested a few points for the remainder of this story, and then returned to finish drafting the chapter, but did not include some of his points or my suggestions. The wind was an interesting touch, though. He noted, “I got confused or something. Oops. I was planning on using MJ’s bit, but in the next chapter, which is where I ended up kinda fitting it in.”
I drafted this before the previous Cooper chapter was finished. I had outlined some expectations for how this would happen, because I needed a credible way for the psi-clone to be killed but Slade and Shella to verse out at the same time, without it appearing that Slade lost.
I made a mistake which I didn’t catch until I was doing character sheets late in the process: I had Shella arrive stage 2, having a nightmare. However, she had arrived stage 3 in the New Ice Age, and while reversions to an earlier stage are not unknown they are unusual. I made the correction to a stage 3 arrival before anything published.
Eric wrote this to wrap up the Fey story. In discussing Cooper 123 he had said something about the Fey being trapped by their own clever words, and I had drafted a bit about the Fey telling him he had to defeat these fifty warriors, and him vanquishing them all with a sweep of the glove but for the last fighter. He said he was going to use it, but wound up bouncing it to this chapter.
As I drafted this, I thought it would be the last chapter I wrote for this book. I had already drafted the one which follows, and was expecting Eric to write the one before it with Cooper’s final fight. There were still a few questions about Cooper 123, but I expected he would resolve them.
When Eric read through this chapter, he thought that I had written that Zeke versed out first and Amanda saw him go, and he said that was a good idea. I said yes, it is a good idea, but that didn’t happen, and I gave him an outline of how it had gone stating what has to happen for Amanda to see Zeke verse out, and he wrote a substantial set of paragraphs to make that happen, to which I made only a few minor edits.
I had a lot of work ahead–I was barely over a third of the way through setting up Con Version for publication, and we had already started on both Multiverser: The Thirteenth Story and Verse a Tile.
I had drafted this long before we got here, even before we had decided that Amanda was going to be present when they versed out. Eric then tweaked it some, and I came back to it and split it into a part that would end this book and another part that would be a Lauren Hastings chapter launching book 14. I removed or altered quite a bit of his points, such as that he had made the room small and put lights that were identifiably light emitting diodes in the ceiling, when it needed to be very large to accommodate the arrivals of all our versers and the technology should not be readily identified. I also removed an appearance of Eric’s pet verser rabbit. Eric expresses sadness at this, but writes, “This is an inside joke that goes way back. I still hope to have the bunny come back, and maybe even his future incarnation as General Something Something. But we are pretty much done!!!! Snoopy happy dance time.”
We officially finished the draft on April 8, 2023, with the final form of Kondor 309, although there was to be a complete read-through edit before I began working on setup for publication which itself would be delayed, as I was still doing setup on Con Version, only about a third of the way through, and realizing that I was going to need character sheets on any supers who might continue in future books, including the one we were just starting, Multiverser: The Thirteenth Story.
All the chapters were converted to web pages and this final behind-the-writings post drafted on August 27, 2023. Since today I published In Version Chapter 37, it will be at least a year before these chapters start to reach the public.
This has been the thirteenth and final behind-the-writings look at A Dozen Verses. If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.