Writing Blog - Perspective (Patreon)

I have a small confession to make.

As I was about to post the chapter containing Liu Jianguo’s backstory (Chapter 64: In the Beginning), I decided to do a quick search. Nothing major. I was just looking for the term “Storm Dragon Empire” in the story so far. 

I was completely shocked to discover the term only appeared once.

I was shocked because, in my mind, I had name-dropped it at least three or four times. My intention was for Liu Jianguo’s backstory to make some people go, “Oh, he’s from the country we have heard about a few times.” And yet, somehow, I had completely failed to properly set that up. It was a pretty big shock, and I had to do a lot of thinking to realize how it had come to pass.

See, the first mention of the Storm Dragon Empire originally took place in the first chapter. In that chapter, I describe Eastern Port City as being located close to the border with the Storm Dragon Empire.

Except, I didn’t. 

One of my early drafts mentioned that. I remember deleting it because I didn’t want to throw too much info all at once. However, in my mind, I was convinced it was still there. I was so sure of this that I carried on telling the story as if it was something everyone already knew. 

That was the first problem.

The second problem was that whenever I thought of mentioning the Storm Dragon Empire, I thought to myself, “I can’t make it too obvious. If I drop too many hints, they’ll piece it together too quickly.” I kept thinking that to the extent, I ended up dropping barely any hints.

The whole thing is kind of embarrassing, really. 

As the writer, I know a bunch of things about the setting that don’t always make it to the page. It is necessary for me to keep track of the stuff I’ve put in the story and the stuff I changed my mind about.

Sometimes, that line can get blurry.

As a reader/watcher/consumer, there have been plenty of plot twists that have caught me by surprise. I have been on both sides of the “Was this a retcon?” argument. It’s never an easy argument to have because if the writer meant for something to be one way from the start, how could he fail to make that clear?

Well, now I know how. In fact, it is frighteningly easy for things to end that way.

Perspective is a hell of a thing.