11 May 2017

The Soul Blade Chapter 32 - Commentary

Brenna identifies the prime suspect, in The Soul Blade Chapter 32.

The police have been keeping busy, even if Brenna spent most of her time with her friends.  Now that the police have a name and a confirmation of a suspect, they can go after Tricia.  Detective McCoy, who really became a major supporting character despite being an unplanned presence, has been listening to Brenna, even when she was suggesting odd motives.  If McCoy does need a warrant, he can get Brenna to make a sworn statement.

The police protection came out of the plot organically.  What would the police do?  They'd make sure that Brenna was protected, being their best witness.  Officer Henderson turned into a fun character to write, the stone-faced cop who is unfazed by everything around him.  Sure, he just had to deal with bickering sisters this chapter, but he, like Carly, became useful to keep.  He isn't really the Blade's type, but Henderson is in uniform, so Brenna is attracted.

Brenna's cousins get a large mention here.  Aurora, who Brenna calls Aura and Grace calls Rory, is the eldest, roughly Brenna's age.  Summer is the middle girl, university aged but younger than Grace, and is the one who lost the book with the magic rites written in it.  Rae is the youngest, still in high school.  The incident that Grace pointed out was from when Rae was three.  Brenna's correct in saying that Rae isn't going to have problems in bed like she did thirteen years ago.

This chapter wound up shorter than the previous ones.  When I wrote this in 2009, I was still trying to get a handle on how to chapter a book.  The breaks I'm using are scene breaks I used, but they weren't meant to be proper chapters.  They work as such, though.  I'm getting better; writing a story as a serial helps.  With a serial, I need to have a good length, a proper chapter ending, either to provide key info or a decent cliffhanger, and keep the action flowing.  Works like The Soul Blade weren't written with serialization in mind, so everything is being retrofitted.  With my experience writing Unruly and the unpublished project from 2016, I'm improving with creating chapters.  Of course, one would think that I should have that idea after Subject 13, but I hadn't considered the concept of a serial when I wrote the bulk of that title.

Friday, protective custody, in The Soul Blade Chapter 33.
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, on adapting characters.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, Deadpool.

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