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Making Connections

connectionOne of the key fac­tors in writ­ing a nov­el is mem­o­ry, which is to say, the abil­i­ty to remem­ber what you wrote, while remem­ber­ing where you are going. One of the strengths of the nov­el is the mak­ing of con­nec­tions, con­nect­ing what has hap­pened to what will hap­pen, remem­ber­ing char­ac­ter traits, or oth­er details that bind the book togeth­er, that can give it depth. Con­sid­er, for exam­ple, the Har­ry Pot­ter books, which, tak­en as a whole, and in this con­text, are a huge achieve­ment. Make no mis­take, read­ers can and will take the author to task if you make a mis­take, if the shoe, so to speak, which was put on the right foot, appears on the left. Read­ers, I believe, love those con­nec­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly when you catch them by sur­prise, yet they grasp what you have done. The seed dropped, so to speak, on page two, which flow­ers on page two nine­ty two, smells sweet. Not only do read­ers love it, writ­ers love it, too.

2 thoughts on “Making Connections”

  1. I do appre­ci­ate an author’s con­sis­tent use of details. For the read­er, it feels like a reward for pay­ing atten­tion and being deeply engaged in a sto­ry. I think you did a good job of that with Sophie’s War–I real­ly felt like I was back in the era and the pro­gres­sion of details through­out the sto­ry felt true.

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  2. This is one of the qual­i­ties I love in Beyond the West­ern Sea. That Patrick in Liv­er­pool sees “Shag­well Cot­ton Mill” on a cart. And that the scene between the Sergeant, Tog­gs, and Fred is a replay of the argu­ment between Lord Kirkle, Albert, and Lau­rence. It makes reread­ing a joy.

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