Consequences (Patreon)

Not the dangerous ones, unless you live in my story worlds.

This might surprise those who have read my stories, but I’m not a world builder. By that I mean that I don’t sit down and plan the world the story will take part in ahead of time beyond when I know when the idea hits me.

Using the Death by Predation series as an example. When I had the idea, I knew predation on other people was a thing, hence the world. I knew that as a consequence the society would have a method of tracking and valuing people. The rest I discovered/made up as I went. Yes, a large part of the word I made up as needed to fit the story, sorry for bursting your bubble.

Because once I made up something it is permanent (that’s the difference between doing the part well or not) they have consequences that I discover as part of the writing or I’m reminded of them by my alpha and beta readers if I forget.

And sometimes, those consequences aren’t part of the story.

Case in point. In the world of Death by Predation, if someone leaves a body and doesn’t pay the tax it gets investigated (if the tax is paid the system doesn’t care what happens to the body, it’s your money to waste) my co-scripter, in something only indirectly related to this story, pointed out a situation I hadn’t considered the full ramification of in today’s meeting.

When happens then there isn’t a body? Well, that’s easy, the Missing Person Bureau deals with it, I address it in book 1. BUT what if that lack of body is because they are dead? The Registered Investigators investigate bodies, not the lack of them.

Consequence? Turns out the MPB is also in the business of dealing with tax evasion. That is something I hadn’t realized at all until he commented on it.

As I said, it doesn’t impact the story, BUT it is a dimension I hadn’t considered to the world, and those are always interesting to explore. Who knows, maybe I’ll be revisiting the world of Marlot and Trembor one day to see just how the MPB works

I’m back in the truck. I can’t remember if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but my surgeon decided to wait until my next checkup to decide if he will have me go through the 6-week treatment for my cancer or not. I’m hoping it’s a good sign,

And that’s it for now, so I’ll see you on the next one.