Hello, writers. This past week I've been color-coding my throughlines. You may've heard me mention coloring throughlines before.
I think it's possible that what I call throughlines might be what some people call sub-plots. The term “sub-plots” doesn't really tell us what we need to do. And throughlines are integral to the story, whether they have to do with character change or a minor event or with the main plot.
A throughline might be:
- a budding romance
- a budding divorce
- a character's growing mistrust of another character
- a not-yet-recognized threat
- whodunnit
- many, many other things, depending on the story
The point of a throughline is to adequately support the stuff that happens in the second half of the book. When revelations occur-- when it turns out that Snape is really a vampire, when we learn that Miss Scarlet did it with Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory, when the Callow Youth and his/her Stout Companion suddenly gaze at each other adoringly across the beak of the Least Grebe-- the reader's reaction should not be “WTF? Where did that come from?” but “Of course. I should have seen that coming.”
And then, if the reader flips back to make sure, s/he should indeed be able to see it coming. Not by mere happenstance, but because you carefully built to it, mention by mention, line by line.
On this current revision, I'm only working with two different throughlines. (I polished half a dozen on the last revision.) I'm color-coding one red and the other blue. Let's just look at the red one for a minute.
When I finish with it, I expect to have 20 or so sections of red text in the manuscript. Some will be several pages long; others may be only a couple of lines.
I'll number the sections, in order of occurrence.
Then I'll make a numbered list of them in a separate document. (One of the reasons I don't like to use Word is that it crashes when you have more than one document open for any length of time. I can't work like that.)
I'll trace the progression of the things that are revealed, going down the list. It's important that my characters keep learning, that the threat keep developing, and that my characters always deduce anything they can reasonably be expected to deduce based on the knowledge they have at that time, and act appropriately on what they know... that they not, in short, become TSTL.
Once that's done, it's on to the blue throughline.
(When I'm finished, I hope I remember to select all and turn everything black again. Occasionally I have forgotten and sent an editor a multi-colored document. I like to think this brightens their day.)
Tonight's challenge is courtesy of Quarkstomper, who says:
Togwogmagog, the Motion Picture! Cast the important characters from The Jewel of Togwogmagog. The actors don't have to be current ones, (or even the same species if you're casting the Grebe)...
...and then write the trailer for it
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