Writer to Writer by Gail Carson Levine

Author:Gail Carson Levine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

And we’re back. I repeated the tense switch on the return with the sentence For the first time, on that sad, long-ago day, she had collected her hair in a bun at the back of her neck. Then she had scattered the party responses onto the floor. Two techniques make the transition smooth: the tense shift and an action that bridges the gap in time, in this case opening the mail.

But suppose we don’t want to interrupt the story and we still want to provide the history. What are our other choices?

We can start our story at an earlier time, with the death of Daddy Card, continue to a scene or two from Queenie’s later childhood, maybe including the first time she issues her execution cry. Then we jump forward to the present, in which most of the story takes place.

Or suppose Queenie always touches her throat before calling for an execution. If her husband, Kingie, the King of Hearts, who thoroughly understands his wife, manages to put his arm around her quickly enough, she relaxes and doesn’t give the order. A newcomer to court can observe this and ask a friend to explain. In a short bit of dialogue the backstory of the father’s assassination can be revealed.

Or, if we’re writing from Queenie’s POV, the reason for the beheadings can be revealed in thoughts, as in Ten years coming up in a month. I was nicer before Daddy Card’s assassination.

Then we go back to the action. Five pages later, she might think something else, like Dr. Two of Spades says I lost my father at a girl’s most sensitive moment, no matter how he died. What a fool he is.

She makes a weighing gesture with her hands and thinks, Disease . . . assassination. Disease . . . assassination. Not the same.

More action. Later on she can finish the backstory by thinking, I probably killed the assassin long ago, but as long as I’m not sure, as long as he or she could still be playing croquet, I’ll keep the executions coming.

If we’re writing from another character’s POV, that character can be present for one of Queenie’s execution orders and think about the past in a sentence or two.

Or the reader can do without the backstory. Everyone knows Queenie orders people’s heads off. It’s one of the facts of her reign. People avoid playing croquet with her and are terrified when they have to. If she’s an important character, we can show her touching her throat, loving Kingie, seeming relieved when her husband pardons people. She’ll come off as a complex character. Excellent.

Suppose we need the backstory of the whole card kingdom, not merely of Queenie’s personal tragedy. Let’s suppose Alice has a mission in Wonderland. In order to have a chance at success, she has to understand the place. One way would be to have her find a tome about it in her parents’ library, and we can put a page from the book right in the story.

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