MrPixel
Just a Regular Guy
- Joined
- May 12, 2020
- Posts
- 5,582
What I've been writing over the past year-plus has been published more or less like a TV series - "seasons" containing many "episodes", with several months between seasons. I'm about to drop another "season" into the hopper. Given the five months since the last one, I'm having a nagging thought about writing a "Chapter 0" to either remind readers where we are in the story, or as a lead-in for folks new to the series.
This fifth "season" begins the day after the previous one ended. The problem, if you want to call it that, is my editor complained to me about, "Too many characters, I forgot who they are and it's taking too much mental effort to get back into the flow." Now I have to discount that she's not a fiction reader nor takes any interest in serial dramas, literary, TV or cinema; her background is history publishing in academic settings. So she's editing mostly for grammar, spelling and punctuation, and basic readability. The red pencil has remained in the pencil cup so far.
I really don't want to write a "where we last left off" chapter. Frankly? Go back to the previous season if you want to catch up. There is a two-paragraph lead-in, but nothing outlining characters or where relationships stand as the season begins. I started a skeleton of a more comprehensive intro, and everything I wrote felt forced.
This fifth "season" begins the day after the previous one ended. The problem, if you want to call it that, is my editor complained to me about, "Too many characters, I forgot who they are and it's taking too much mental effort to get back into the flow." Now I have to discount that she's not a fiction reader nor takes any interest in serial dramas, literary, TV or cinema; her background is history publishing in academic settings. So she's editing mostly for grammar, spelling and punctuation, and basic readability. The red pencil has remained in the pencil cup so far.
I really don't want to write a "where we last left off" chapter. Frankly? Go back to the previous season if you want to catch up. There is a two-paragraph lead-in, but nothing outlining characters or where relationships stand as the season begins. I started a skeleton of a more comprehensive intro, and everything I wrote felt forced.