NaNoWriMo Brainstorming Forum

Okay so consider this... Not scraping them but moving them. When I was looking for the quote of the day yesterday, I came across one I almost used. I don't remember it exactly, or who said it but essentially... Write all the stuff you think you need to tell then scrap the first few chapters and begin where the story actually starts with an event that changes the characters world in some fashion.

I know flashbacks are frowned upon by many but they can also be a successful tool for telling a story within a story. You can also add the details of the political system and that kind of thing that are needed in small places here or there while telling the story you want to tell. Mom and Dad's story would make a good follow up story.

My novel is the first in a series. At some point in time people are going to want to hear Niobie and Arik's story. Its the story I want to tell but haven't been able too. So I bring them in, I think in book two along with Arik's twin who some how has magically become the queen's betrothed which I did not expect at all. But, I don't tell their actual story about how the ended up where they are until many books later. I want people to wonder about them. To love them before I ever show how Cruel Arik was or how timid Niobie was. I want them to understand that an evolution happened through the course of time that made them the strong vibrant characters they become. But, they might not like Arik and Niobie as they originally were, if I start with their story from the beginning. So, I'm not.

I don't want people realizing that he calls her Present because his brother literally gave her to him as a gift, or that she was bred to be pleasing. They need to know she grew a spine and he came to see her as a true blessing not just something someone gave him once a long time ago. But, if I show them the timid Niobe and the Aggressive Angry Ruler she was given to, I'm not going to like them very much and neither would my readers. I want them to be liked. So I'll show them as they are now and then go back and give the story that turned them into the people I fell in love with.