Quantum Storytelling

I’m working on a part of my story where I wanted a betrayal to take place. The betrayal is being committed by a secondary character. I didn’t like that the character was introduced in the very scene where the betrayal occurs. That makes it somewhat… arbitrary?

Betrayal seems like it would be a more powerful meme if it’s coming from a character you care about. Even if the character is not completely endeared to the reader, the character should at least one that you’re somewhat familiar with.

So I’m going to introduce the traitor earlier in the story. He will remain a secondary character, but I will plunk him down much earlier in the timeline than I had previously conceived, to give him time to develop at least a minimum of a relationship with some of the other characters.

Thus is the nature of writing in layers. You get to a part of the story and as you dig in you realize there is a better opportunity to do a particular thing different than you had originally imagined. When I have these realizations, it makes me glad I didn’t waste too much time on fancy prose (yet) — because it’d be just that; A waste.

Writing in layers is the nature of the beast.