Plot eccentricities
I always knew Cold Witness would be something different, but right now it's hitting home just how different it really is. I've come to the start of the climax section--in this case, the last 175 pages of the book, where all the subplots come together and the elusive answer is revealed. My next chapter (labelled SECOND ENCOUNTER) was initially supposed to be a UFO sighting. Lunar Squadron gets out there onto the marshes with all their kit, and Lt. Brown gets to nuke alien spaceships with his DEMP-3 gun (which really makes his day). It was meant to be fairly intense; a view into a world parallel to and yet beyond our own.
But. (There's always one, isn't there?) As the chapter title suggests, there has already been an "encounter" before this--First Encounter, the third chapter of the book. That's when our little friends come to say hi for the first time. And I've also got a kind of third encounter planned; the world-famous Rendlesham/Bentwaters Incident, where USAF SPs and Lunar personnel from Cold Witness investigate a crashed UFO in Rendlesham Forest. This Rendlesham Incident forms one of the pivotal points in the plot, and as it's so famous, I really want to get it right. Above all, it needs to feel authentic. I've visited the actual landing site of Capel Green at night. Standing there on the edge of the forest with the moon rising over the Stonbridge Marshes to the south and the sweep of Orfordness lighthouse on the far horizon is an eerie experience. That chapter will be an important one.
So here's the problem. If I have another UFO encounter two chapters before the Rendlesham Incident, it will severely detract from the otherworldliness of the events later on. And that's something I have to avoid. Above all else, the Rendelsham Incident must make the reader really feel from the point of view of the officers involved. They knew they were mixed up in something way beyond their comprehension.
But if I have another chapter almost exactly like it fifty pages further back, that effect will be deadened. I'll lose the unique sense of strangeness, and the climax of the book will be badly damaged as a consequence.
The solution to the problem? I play down Second Encounter, but concentrate far more on the reactions of my characters. Most of the Cold Witness staff left for their Christmas holidays about three days ago, so there's only about ten people left on the base. The power of the ubiquitous "bunker field" is growing daily, making everyone uneasy and paranoid. If they think they're being spied on by UFOs, on top of all their other problems .... well, you can imagine it. Some of the officers are already starting to get superstitious about it (you know, stuff like 'It all started going wrong after that damned UFO turned up, didn't it?'). If I can use a minor UFO sighting to heighten the general feeling that something is not quite right, it will have far more impact, and in a way that is more useful to my plot. Maybe I can even get the officers at each others' throats again. *grins*
*Phew*. Let me tell you, plotting Cold Witness can be a daunting task.
I always knew Cold Witness would be something different, but right now it's hitting home just how different it really is. I've come to the start of the climax section--in this case, the last 175 pages of the book, where all the subplots come together and the elusive answer is revealed. My next chapter (labelled SECOND ENCOUNTER) was initially supposed to be a UFO sighting. Lunar Squadron gets out there onto the marshes with all their kit, and Lt. Brown gets to nuke alien spaceships with his DEMP-3 gun (which really makes his day). It was meant to be fairly intense; a view into a world parallel to and yet beyond our own.
But. (There's always one, isn't there?) As the chapter title suggests, there has already been an "encounter" before this--First Encounter, the third chapter of the book. That's when our little friends come to say hi for the first time. And I've also got a kind of third encounter planned; the world-famous Rendlesham/Bentwaters Incident, where USAF SPs and Lunar personnel from Cold Witness investigate a crashed UFO in Rendlesham Forest. This Rendlesham Incident forms one of the pivotal points in the plot, and as it's so famous, I really want to get it right. Above all, it needs to feel authentic. I've visited the actual landing site of Capel Green at night. Standing there on the edge of the forest with the moon rising over the Stonbridge Marshes to the south and the sweep of Orfordness lighthouse on the far horizon is an eerie experience. That chapter will be an important one.
So here's the problem. If I have another UFO encounter two chapters before the Rendlesham Incident, it will severely detract from the otherworldliness of the events later on. And that's something I have to avoid. Above all else, the Rendelsham Incident must make the reader really feel from the point of view of the officers involved. They knew they were mixed up in something way beyond their comprehension.
But if I have another chapter almost exactly like it fifty pages further back, that effect will be deadened. I'll lose the unique sense of strangeness, and the climax of the book will be badly damaged as a consequence.
The solution to the problem? I play down Second Encounter, but concentrate far more on the reactions of my characters. Most of the Cold Witness staff left for their Christmas holidays about three days ago, so there's only about ten people left on the base. The power of the ubiquitous "bunker field" is growing daily, making everyone uneasy and paranoid. If they think they're being spied on by UFOs, on top of all their other problems .... well, you can imagine it. Some of the officers are already starting to get superstitious about it (you know, stuff like 'It all started going wrong after that damned UFO turned up, didn't it?'). If I can use a minor UFO sighting to heighten the general feeling that something is not quite right, it will have far more impact, and in a way that is more useful to my plot. Maybe I can even get the officers at each others' throats again. *grins*
*Phew*. Let me tell you, plotting Cold Witness can be a daunting task.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home