David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

I’ve been having trouble getting a handle on Jason, and yesterday I recalled something from The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing about using contrast between characters. I know that Sienna grew up poor, is still poor, and this has shaped her. I was thinking that Jason would also be from an impoverished background of petty thieves, like Kevin Mitnick, but that makes them too similar. What if he grew up rich instead? What if his hacking (and maybe his bisexuality) are a reaction to that background? What if he is committed to making it on his own — he has estranged himself from his family? This explains why he is working in a coffee shop but has serious computer skills and an apartment full of hardware. (Or does it?) Anyway, I think it gives me the “handle” I’ve been looking for. It also gives some parallels between Jason and Clarity — they are both rebelling against their parents and background. But in the case of Jason and Clarity, they are so different already that creating parallels is a good thing. This also gives them something in common to explain their sexual relationship. I have not yet decided whether Jason and Clarity meet during the novel or beforehand. Probably beforehand, and reveal the relationship in flashback. As for Jason and Sienna, I want to start the novel when they meet, but it might be better to begin in media res. Ah, but if so… where? I am also not yet sure what effect the aliens’ preference of one-to-one vs. one-to-many communication has on their society and psychology. I had written “they are more individualistic and more hierarchical than we are”, but I wonder if hierarchy is not their style either. An alternative thought I had was “they form networks rather than hierarchies”, which sounds great, but what does it mean? I need to answer this question before I can get a handle on Clarity. Wrote about 900 words on the history of the world, 2003-2051.

Just got back from a writers’ get-together at Kris & Dean’s. Talked with folks about how to handle multiple viewpoints and subplots. Mike Moscoe recommended The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling as a good example of multiple viewpoints, and The Honourable Company by John Keay for information on the English East India Company. Kris Rusch recommended The Bone Collector by Jeffry Deaver, and gave me a copy of her own first novel The White Mists of Power. She also said that the alternating timelines outline I’ve been considering, which many folks have said will be too difficult for the readers to keep straight, is worth tackling if I think it’s the best way to tell my story. “You’re a good writer,” she said, “don’t listen to anyone who tells you you can’t do something.” Also talked with Nancy Boutin, who is a doctor and recommended a friend of hers who is an infectious disease specialist as someone I might talk to about how epidemics work.