Preview Soon

Coming soon: a preview of my story that is a work in progress. In this I will hopefully be able to provide a glimpse of how everything that I have shown so far can be used to shape the writing and make the exposition a little more interesting. Anyway, the sneak preview is over... but today I want to talk about setting up the mood of the novel before going into the beginning of the story (aka: talking about back story).

This idea does not work for all novels, but it can also be used throughout the story to make it easier for readers to understand some parts of the story. For example, there could be flashbacks at random intervals so that the reader can understand the character's history better. After all, have you ever wondered why a character has a certain quirk-- why is he or she overprotective, or why does the character get so emotional when people say a seemingly unimportant word or phrase?

Sometimes we cannot fit a lengthy blurb about the past into the novel, and sometimes it is unnecessary. I think that the best way to incorporate the past is in reference to dreams-- the character can relive the past in the scope of a dream, or a dream can provide some sort of insight into why the character behaves a specific way (are they dreaming of the future?) so that the reader can better understand. While it is up to the judgement of the writer on where to incorporate it, if written at the right spot, one can successfully set up a good foreshadowing of part of the plot or give the readers more information to make the character make more sense. My example is the very beginning of my story, which highlights the events that lead to specific plot elements that are revealed later. While the time jumps after it, I feel that it does a good job of setting up the story and some of its elements.

  

There was a rumbling through the ground, and the queen recoiled as if she had been punched in the stomach. The king rushed over to her, and helped to keep her on her feet. “What is the matter?” he asked, and she looked into his eyes.

“Something is wrong in time… but I do not know what it is.” She almost sighed when the tremor passed and slowly unfolded as if the most sudden movement could make her fall into pain again. The king helped her through the halls to doors that opened onto the realm where time manifested itself. When they reached the doors, she froze as she saw a small bundle curled up in front of them.

“Love,” the king had to shake his wife gently before she came back to herself. She bent down and brushed coppery strands away from a sleeping face, and an icy blue eye opened sleepily to look at her.

“Where do you come from, young one?” she asked, but the child decided to close her eyes again and fall back to sleep. The queen sighed and picked her up, cradling her in the crook of her arm. “I guess questioning her will have to wait until morning.”

“Do you think she had something to do with the convulsion of the gate of time?” he asked.

“Maybe; power seems to be flowing through her.” She handed the girl over to the king, “I’m going to check on the gate, and I’ll ask Sam if he knows anything.” She opened the door and stepped through into the realm of time.

Any Thoughts?