Chapter 6 — Horses for Courses
Hello Friends,
Welcome to the sixth installment of this fun project.
Before turning to the next chapter of The Curve of Time, I want to talk about a theory I have about writing, a theory that says: it’s all about questions.
One dimension of this theory is that writing is about the questions that the readers are asking. Specifically, it states that: If at any point, the reader has no questions about the story … well let’s just hope that doesn’t happen.
Now this might naturally sound quite plot-centric, but the questions in the reader’s mind could include anything from questions of character, to the structure of the world in which the book takes place.
Of course, my own predilection does revolve around my pre-occupation with plot, but I’m not entirely alone in zeroing in on this element as the most essential. I believe Steven Soderbergh was once quoted as saying the three most important things in a movie are: “story, story, and story”. I get that some might argue that plot and story are not one hundred precent synonymous, but——at least in my mind——they’re certainly related.
This all leads me to what is probably an overdue call for engagement among you lot. Time for a call to action: So, now that we’re six chapters in, I’m very interested to hear what questions are on your minds.
To be sure, I hope you have had questions from the first line, to the first paragraph, to the first chapter, and so forth. I’d love to hear, if you recall what you wondered when you read the opening sentence: The first time Saskia came unstuck in time, she didn’t spot herself in the background. I’d love to hear what you are wondering after today’s chapter. What has piqued your interest thus far?
Out of curiosity I asked Claude (Anthropic’s LLM GPT) to review the first chapter of The Curve of Time a few months ago, and I was pleasantly surprised by the questions it wondered. Of course, it would be even more wonderful if human readers were similarly intrigued. So, please let me know what questions you have wondered over the last few weeks. I’d love to compare and see how well they match the questions I was hoping to incite in your mind.
Until next week, be kind to someone and keep an eye out for the ripples of joy you’ve seeded.
Cheerio
Rufus
PS. If you think of someone who might enjoy joining us on this experiment, please forward them this email. And if you are one of those someone’s and you’d like to read more
And now, without further ado, Saskia will finally, as promised, meet up with Mica at the Santa Anita racetrack to show her how slipping in time works.
