A Sense of Doubt blog post #3893 - Writing Wednesday -A Lesson From Reading and V.E. Schwab

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3893 - Writing Wednesday - A Lesson From Reading and V.E. Schwab


I am behind schedule, so this will be short. 

I received THREE vaccinations today -- flu, covid, pneumonia -- started to feel ill tonight, Wednesday night, and spent all day tomorrow (my yesterday because it's Friday now) on the couch.

I read a lot of comics.

It was nice to have a day of rest.

I plan to do a more thorough post about these Schwab books later.

For now, I will make one point.

I am nearly done with the second book -- A Gathering of Shadows -- and by the time you read this blog post, I will have started the third, A Conjuring of Light.

I did not know this was a trilogy when I received A Darker Shade of Magic as a Christmas gift.

When I started to contemplate reading A Darker Shade of Magic, I discovered that although audio books were out for books two and three, the audio for the first book was due to be released next month, November 2025. I was going to wait, but then I decided to give it a go with my precious eyeballs reading time in the last days of hammock time in the summer and early fall.

I would have read the whole book in one stretch if I could. Instead it took me ten days, but I probably read most of it in three or four days, once the book "kicked in."

There are many takeaways for myself as a writer from reading Victoria Schwab. But I am only going to discuss one here and the rest later.

Some books start in high gear from page one.

Other books have to build.

Most books build even if there's an accelerated opening gambit because usually following that part there's a slow down.

But most books build up to high gear, and usually when they reach high gear, they cruise at high speed toward a strong ending.

This book seemed very ho-hum for one hundred pages or so. I was not blown away. The writing was excellent as Schwab is immensely talented, but I just felt the book was searching for its footing.

And then page 113. The book kicked into high gear, grabbed me in its jaws, mixed metaphors, yes, but it was doing all of those things. 

That's the first 25% of a 400 page book.

The first 112 pages were all setting up what was to come. Introducing characters. Introducing adversaries. Describing the basics of the worlds.

And then, the central plot thing is introduced and away we go.

Analysis of this structure in setting up and then delivering a high-speed, page-turning, rich, gripping narrative would benefit any writer.

Surely, I am analyzing this book and thinking about creating my own "kick into gear" moment in my book. I just don't have to deliver it as early as I thought I did.

Thanks for tuning in.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2510.15 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3758 days ago & DAD = 412 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.