This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #534, on the subject of Characters Transition.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first eleven Multiverser novels,

1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
2. Old Verses New,
3. For Better or Verse,
4. Spy Verses,
5. Garden of Versers,
6. Versers Versus Versers,
7. Re Verse All,
8. In Verse Proportion,
9. Con Verse Lea,
10. In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
11. 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 eleventh post for this novel, covering chapters 121 through 132.  Previous posts are:

1. #524:  Twisting Worlds, covering the first twelve chapters;
2. #525:  Character Battles, covering chapters 13 through 24;
3. #526:  Versers Adjust, chapters 25 through 36;
4. #527:  Characters Reorient, chapters 37 through 48;
5. #528:  Versers Investigate, chapters 49 through 60;
6. #529:  Characters in Action, chapters 61 through 72;
7. #530:  Versers Move, chapters 73 through 84;
8. #531:  Versers Roam, chapters 85 through 96;
9. #532:  Versers Chilled, chapters 97 through 108; and
10. #533:  Characters Traveling, chapters 109 through 120.

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.

Chapter 121, Slade 291

Eric drafted this, bringing out Slade’s beliefs that this was preparing him for war against frost giants.

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Chapter 122, Kondor 296

I had commented to Eric that I was interested in what he had in mind with Amanda contacting Kondor for a favor, and he said he had nothing in mind.  I sort of punted on this, leaving open the possibility that she would ask for his help despite his claim that his organization was tracking him constantly, but also taking a step in their relationship.

I had commented at some point that if Kondor married again it should be someone like Cali from Blake’s 7, that is, someone with some serious skills.  When Eric introduced Amanda, I recognized that she just might be the right sort of person.  I don’t know if that s going to happen, but I m putting the possibility in place.

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Chapter 123, Cooper 113

I drafted this to get Cooper settled into the campsite.  The plan is for him to stay here for an extended time which passes in a couple chapters, and then be killed when the volcano erupts.

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Chapter 124, Kondor 297

I doubled up the Kondor chapters at this point because I recognized that Cooper might be in his penultimate world and Slade might be versing into his penultimate world very soon, and that we wanted to end with all three characters coming into the same world and have it be the twelfth world in the book, so we were going to have to move the Kondor story more swifty.

Eric created this conflict.  I made a few adjustments, because he had given Kondor a sword and had him kill a man with one blow, but Kondor has no training in swords so I gave the sword to Zeke and let him deal the fatal attack, while giving Kondor a knife, with which he had been in training.

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Chapter 125, Slade 292

Eric wrote this, continuing the battle against the climate.

I had read something about Third Man Syndrome, and decided to drop it into Slade’s experience here.  I inserted it and ran it past Eric, who said it added good color.

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Chapter 126, Kondor 298

I drafted this.  The explanation of the video was something Eric had put in the notes for inclusion here.  I kept it short mostly because I liked the cliffhanger ending with him charging at the enemy.

I realized when I was doing setup that Kondor left earth a few years before the events happening in this world.  In the text, he had made the suggestion of uploading the video to the internet and pushing it to go viral, but I deleted that because it wasn t something he would have known.

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Chapter 127, Cooper 114

I drafted this.  I needed to pick up speed, but had to get Brian settled into the camp before moving forward.

It was about this point that we agreed that the final chapter would have all three viewpoint characters verse into the same world, something Eric calls Lovecraft’s Starship; that the ship would be named the Chris J. Henderson and nicknamed the CJ, after the author; and that Lauren Hastings would also be present in the room.  We tentatively agreed that it would be from Cooper’s perspective.

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Chapter 128, Kondor 299

I put together this combat to wrap up the museum scene and move forward into the next adventure.

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Chapter 129, Slade 293

I decided it was time for Slade to lose his battle against the ice age, and also that he should go to somewhere incredibly hot next.  That’s about as far as I got, and left some notes for Eric for the next Slade chapter.

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Chapter 130, Kondor 300

While I was thinking through this scene, Eric started writing it.  Significant parts of the setting did not match my imaginings, so I came back later and made significant changes, although I saved his in the notes for discussion.  I retained his description of the atrocity, but removed the suggestions of a hood over Amanda s head and a secret location, and threats against her life, and replaced the old school paper files with an advanced video system.

I had to rewrite a fair amount of what I’d written in this chapter and Kondor 299 because I had mistakenly thought Bradley was with the agency; he’s with the fusion project.  When Eric pointed out my error, I did a lot of fixing.

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Chapter 131, Cooper 115

Eric drafted this, but I made some changes for style and some because he wasn’t well oriented to the island setting as it was described in For Better or Verse.

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Chapter 132, Kondor 301

I decided that I’d have that coffee date I’d promised between Kondor and Amanda, and that he would explain things to her, so that’s what happened here.

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This has been the eleventh 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.