It’s been another big week for my work-in-progress, and though I’m not finished yet, it’s gone well so far.

Samarkand

There’s been a lot going on.  The story seems to change day by day, but while initially I’d worried that was a bad thing, going back over my archives from my former site on Blogger (the one I used while writing Wide Horizon) made me feel a lot better.

Samarkand may hardly be a new idea, but then neither was Wide Horizon when I began writing.  In many ways, this story is still in its formative stages: day by day I’m getting a better idea of where it’s heading, what will change between chapters, between phases.  I’m learning how the characters interact, and finding individual voices for each one.  And as I do, things are bound to change.

Much of this week so far has been devoted not to writing but refining the story on the whole, figuring out the format.  One of the biggest breakthroughs in that regard has been the addition of repetends.  Repetends are a common literary device, especially in science fiction.  Taken from a word referring to a repeated phrase or refrain, in literature a repetend is the use of quotes or other passages not directly related to the action to advance the story.  Frank Herbert made extensive use of repetends throughout the Dune novels, often taking the form of quotes and excerpts from fictional historical texts that applied to the action in the story, framed as nonfiction works written after the fact.

In Samarkand, I’ve taken to devoting one of every two or three chapters to repetends written as quotes.  These quotes are written as though taken from interviews years later with various individuals involved in the Samarkand Expedition.  Some of these quotes come from main characters, others from lesser characters or individuals not featured in the story itself.  Through this, I hope to better develop the characters, frame the plot, and help the reader to understand human society in the early 22nd century.

As far as the overall format, I really like the way the new four-phase progression is working.  The more I get into it, the more it now feels as though the novel will ultimately play out as four distinct shorter stories linked by an overarching plot; each will have a beginning, a middle, and an end, its own unique set of characters, its own climax, and its own conclusion.  I’m really looking forward to seeing how everything comes together; already I’m finding it easier to see how the plot will progress.

While it’s an ambitious goal at this point, right now I’m hoping to knock out the first phase by the end of the day Sunday (though finishing earlier would be welcome).  Once phase one is complete, as is customary I plan to take some time off from the story to regroup.  In this case, the downtime will comprise not only revision of what’s been written so far but also moderate reworking.  While I chose to start from scratch when resuming Samarkand, I didn’t simply pitch what I’d written to that point.  I still feel there’s useful work in what I cut out, and part of this first revision phase will involve poring over my previous work and trying to form a synthesis between old and new.

The more I get into this story, the more excited I get.  Samarkand is, without a doubt, unlike anything I’ve ever written before.  At first that almost terrified me, but now I find it thrilling.  I truly feel I’ve created a unique, engaging story with an important point to make, and in the end, that’s what writer’s always hope for. – MK