This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #525, on the subject of Character Battles.
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 second post for this novel, covering chapters 13 through 24; the first post was #524: Twisting Worlds. 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 13, Kondor 260
Chapter 14, Slade 255
Chapter 15, Cooper 77
Chapter 16, Kondor 261
Chapter 17, Slade 256
Chapter 18, Cooper 78
Chapter 19, Kondor 262
Chapter 20, Slade 257
Chapter 21, Cooper 79
Chapter 22, Kondor 263
Chapter 23, Slade 258
Chapter 24, Cooper 80
Eric continued, making the coup personal for Kondor and suggesting an uncharacteristic uncontrolled rage.
Eric continued the attacks on Slade.
Eric devised Cooper’s escape route, using the sword but causing it to sap Cooper’s strength.
Eric continued developing the resistance against the coup, bringing the previously captured spy called Big Boy into the effort to prevent war and restore the original government.
Eric put this together, but there were some problems including a serious continuity error in his original draft.
Eric continued writing with me trying to keep up on editing and comments while I was still working on character sheets for book 10 and formatting my An Analytical Commentary on The Book of Romans for publication.
This was still Eric’s work. He had included that the enemy used one of the saucers, but I pointed out that the tech level involved in so much as piloting such a thing was beyond them by an impossible margin, so that was deleted. There was also an issue of how the Gatling gun was being moved and why Kondor and Zeke didn t capture it, which I resolved without fully explaining.
Eric had outlined a sequence of chapters that included the syndicate attacking Shella. I added her use of her missile turning spell.
I felt that Eric was trying to rush Slade and Kondor through their current stories and into the next world, so I suggested that this had to be slowed a bit, that they had to do more to make their actions in these new stories credible. He expanded both a bit.
Eric continued creating his space world here.
Eric continued with a suggested meeting and an anticipation of treachery.
Expanding his syndicate story, Eric created this scene.
Eric continues creating his space world.
This has been the second 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.