Knife of Dreams - Chapters 20-21

In this section Lan resumes his quest, and Rand checks in on old allies.

Lan’s quest in the Blight has been paused since the end of The Eye of the World. In truth he set aside his suicidal need to avenge his homeland when he agreed to be bonded by Moiraine in order to fight the Shadow in a more constructive fashion. Twenty years of chasing down obscure leads in two-street villages and cities must have seemed so opposite to how he intended to live. But a Malkieri’s word is his bond, and he held to his task for two decades, finally rescuing a handful of Emond’s Fielders from the Shadow, leading them to the Blight, where he finally got another taste of the destiny that awaited him, a man vs. Blight showdown to the death.  Lan’s quest mirrored Rand’s own in The Eye of the World, and the tales of Malkier and Manetheren formed Rand into the man he needed to be to defeat Ba’alzamon. As I have postulated before, while Lan’s mentorship enhanced Rand’s manhood and battle prowess, he also led Rand astray, forming an idea in Rand’s mind that he alone could face the Dark One, and that he must do it alone, with as little help as possible. Rand still isn’t completely over that attitude, and neither is Lan.

Since leaving the Eye of the World, Lan has given cursory advice to the boys, but has had no character to speak of. Moiraine passed his bond as though he were a tool, not a man. Moiraine’s death compelled him to seek out Myrelle, who was able to save him from death by despair. Sent to Ebou Dar to help Nynaeve, he represented no more than her just reward for finally breaking her block by surrendering. He has been part of the décor, acting out his role, but had little say in anything, including the choice of where he goes. Lan recognizes that he is of little use when a hundred thousand Trollocs tear across the fields. He can’t advise Rand, he can’t fight Rand’s enemies. Rand has outgrown his need for Lan.

So, Lan grumbles that someone should be doing something in the Borderlands to prepare for the Last Battle. Nynaeve says that is his duty, while hers lies with protecting Rand from Alivia. She unselfishly grants him his long-standing wish to march into the Blight, to fight the Shadow. But, she selfishly dumps him as far from his ultimate destination as she can, to give him a chance to gather allies. Free from all past restrictions, Lan is his own man for the first time since New Spring, twenty years earlier. His quest parallels Rand’s, and there is a good chance that events surrounding Lan in A Memory of Light will be written to show what doesn’t work, to raise tension, to give examples foreshadowing Rand’s potential fate.

Verin’s letter sets a precedent for Lan’s departure. The rationale that she can serve Rand better elsewhere could easily have come from Lan, and saves a lengthier explanation on his part. The idea that followers can pick up and leave has been established, so it is natural that any other followers who can serve better elsewhere will also go, and readers will immediately understand why without having to explain it all over again. Placing these two departures in the same chapter highlights the utility of this technique.

Rand has seriously started talking about the Last Battle, making last-ditch attempts to reach terms with the Seanchan so he can focus on his ultimate task. The hundred-thousand strong hordes of Trollocs he fought at Algarin’s manor heralds the Last Battle. Aside from a handful of Saldaean soldiers, Rand’s meager forces took no losses in a battle greater than any seen in centuries. They were dispatched as though a mere nuisance. The scale of conflict has been magnified, yet it was treated as a minor skirmish, like the regular Shadowspawn attacks that used to peck at Rand in the Aiel Waste. Treating an epic event in a decidedly un-epic fashion leaves plenty of room to ramp up the emotion for the real Last Battle.

Rand saw obstreperous drunks being thrown out of inns and taverns in the early morning, in Tear. Obstreperous means noisy, boisterous and unruly. The word itself feels unruly, reflecting its meaning. Authors must feel happy to use a word so poetically.

Rand’s ta’veren aura ends the rebellion in Tear within an hour of his arrival. The various rebellions in the kingdoms he rules have served the purpose of showing that people always try to wriggle out of complete obedience, even though Rand attempts to have it from his followers. Guards who protect an empty room because Rand wasn’t precise that it was Callandor they were guarding, not the room itself, demonstrate the flaws in Rand’s ideal servants. Weiramon once again shows that if Rand tries to do everything himself, he won’t get anything done for want of continually having to place everyone back where he wants them.  Those examples are done now, the focus is moving to Arad Doman, a chaotic place where no law exists, where Rand will try to stamp out lawlessness with an enormous influx of manpower. The battle with Lews Therin over Rand’s mind and body, the willful attitudes Rand is displaying, the chaos in Arad Doman, and the imminent Last Battle all mirror and represent each other to some extent. As in the early books, Robert Jordan is back to having the locale serve the character’s story.

Writing Lessons:

Treat events with the emotional intensity you want the story to have at that point, not because they happen to be pivotal or grandiose.

Crossroads of Twilight - Chapters 18-19

In this section Egwene is plunged into the deepest depths of Aes Sedai intrigue…

The final part of this Egwene section is a study in Aes Sedai politics that makes your head spin. There have been several mentions of the too-young Sitters, and Siuan has discovered that Elaida has the same problem. In Tar Valon there are at least three, maybe four Sitters who are too young by custom. Egwene has another eight. It would have stood out as strange in either place, but together they point to somebody who has a hand in all Ajahs and is directing their decision-making. Once the Black Ajah has been ruled out, Siuan and Egwene can’t even conceive that the Ajah Heads not only know each other but may be communicating secretly with each other.

This is the behaviour Talene was investigating, which led to her capture by the Black Ajah hunters. Some of the Sitters had been meeting secretly, but Talene and the Black Ajah and Mesaana herself did not know their purpose. Interestingly, the Ajah heads meeting and the too-young Sitter mysteries solve each other, so we know who is behind it, and some of what they have done, but their motive is still lacking. Some readers may have the intuition to look at the unknowns and wonder how they may fit together to get this far, but I think most often they remain categorized as two separate mysteries.

Egwene’s meeting with the Hall goes on for pages, with every mannerism and action potentially laden with meaning. The author convincingly shows how much noise there is covering the true signal. One tool to help simplify our understanding of this mess is a grid showing common stances on certain issues.

Rebel Aes Sedai Young Sitters Chart

Now we can more easily see the pattern that Siuan was getting at. When those five Sitters started pressing for negotiations, Egwene should have wondered whether it meant that Romanda and Lelaine were supportive of it, given the affiliations those five shared. It is much easier to see that long-time Sitters outside the Blue Ajah viscerally oppose talks with the Black Tower and favour all reunification measures, including refusal to declare war on Elaida.  

The question is why didn’t the author make this plainer to the reader? He could easily have had Egwene notice this pattern and comment on it, or summarized the votes as “the newly raised Sitters were amenable to change, the ones raised before the split would die before agreeing to this proposal.” Instead, he spread one vote over six entire pages, challenging readers to cobble together clues from this section as well as from several other books to even have a clear idea of who is in the Hall and what the factions may be. He wanted readers to work for the answer and to have a life-like representation of the political complexities the Amyrlin faces with every proposal. I wonder how much of the time it took to write Crossroads of Twilight is as a result of this decision to present this vote in such a detailed way. So many characters, so many details.

Egwene’s migraine headaches are an original disability. They don’t affect her ability to channel, but they do give an opportunity for Halima to get close to her. It’s debatable whether Halima could in some way be causing the headaches, but there is a grave risk of discovery if someone discovers a saidin resonance centered on Egwene’s tent. The metaphor works better if headaches are a natural outgrowth of Egwene’s difficulties with the Sitters and Halima’s touch offers to make the problems go away, which Egwene won’t accept, preferring to slog it out in the Hall.

To reinforce Egwene’s stance about Halima staying in her tent, one chapter opens with Egwene considering the rumours about her in the camp. The novices compare her to the stern Sereille Bagand, and Egwene recognizes that there is often little truth to rumours about her. This is soon contrasted to rumours about Halima breaking a man’s arm and being too free with her favours. If Egwene rejects gossip for personal reasons, because she knows it to be false, she now has a personal stake in not accepting gossip about Halima. That decision made, she becomes steadfast in the woman’s defense. She also has a personal need for Halima’s presence, since she is the only woman with whom she can stop being the Amyrlin for a few minutes. Ironically, this relationship helps Egwene remain grounded and not become a typical Aes Sedai.

The seed planted back in New Spring takes root, as Siuan reveals her suspicion that Cadsuane is Black Ajah. Just when we had started to trust her a bit.

Egwene proves she will do anything to reunite the Tower, holding her nose at having to use Rand’s apparent Compulsion of Aes Sedai to prove that he must not have submitted to Elaida. A foul-tasting tea acts as the metaphor throughout the discussion.

Writing Lessons:

Clues and solutions to mysteries can be hidden in noise, but the amount of noise can also be a deterrent to readers.

The Dragon Reborn - Chapters 15-20

In this section, Egwene and Nynaeve survive an assassination attempt.

The Soulless, the Gray Men, make their first appearance, narrowly failing to kill Egwene and Nynaeve. Given their failure to kill Rand in Fal Dara, it may be that Gray Men not only give up their soul to the Dark One, but also the better part of their aim. Alternately, the Pattern can always use subtle means to stave off disaster. A gust of wind, a flicker at the edge of vision that makes someone move or hesitate just long enough to be missed by that fatal arrow. The most interesting part of their terms of employment is the complete devotion to secrecy. With no ability to free his comrade, one Gray Man kills another to prevent their interrogation. Better to fail at the mission than to give up information. Nynaeve and Egwene can always be killed later, but secrets told can never be taken back.

There are more and more secrets being revealed with a need to be kept, but Nynaeve correctly decides that keeping secrets between themselves is counter productive, and that they need an ally that can be trusted, something no Aes Sedai can pull off. Without hesitation she brings Elayne into the hunt, never questioning her trustworthiness or willingness to help. Cementing the deal is Elaida’s belligerent interest in Rand and in coercing the Hunters Three to reveal their secrets. Nothing binds friends together like opposition to a bully. From her perspective, Elaida sees Siuan making a mess of Elayne’s destiny and playing dangerous games with ta’veren. Siuan must be stopped.

Nynaeve is always skeptical and suspicious, and has a keen eye for noticing the ways in which Aes Sedai may be twisting the truth. Egwene is far more trusting of their authority, and is less willing to skirt the rules. Without Nynaeve supplying the backbone, the Black Ajah Hunt would be off to a much slower start. Nynaeve correctly reasons that they cannot trust any beyond themselves, and evidence if this is seen with their interaction with Sheriam. Nynaeve is confrontational with Sheriam, where Egwene manages to be meek and eager.

Given the role that Sheriam plays in later books, and strong reader reaction to her warmth and trustworthiness, I’ll examine how she has been portrayed. Including New Spring, there are two times when Siuan wants to make Sheriam the third in their own group of Hunters. Sheriam is an incurable gossip, but a close friend to Siuan, which explains how she landed the plum position of Mistress of Novices. In The Great Hunt she warmly welcomed Nynaeve and Egwene to Tar Valon, giving them some much needed orientation and acceptance after the rest of the Aes Sedai ignored them. That interaction will place Sheriam among the potential allies in the Tower. Readers should have a generally pleasant feeling about her by the time she appears on page in The Dragon Reborn.

Sheriam appears just after the assassination attempt, and is surprised and horrified at the Gray Man’s presence. She immediately offers comfort and shares closely held information about the Soulless. These are her hallmark, and it is unsurprising that Egwene, and readers, will interpret it as a good sign. They may not be able to confide in Sheriam, but they can rely on her for some help.

It takes Nynaeve’s distrust of all Aes Sedai to notice and point out the flaws in Sheriam’s actions. Sheriam didn’t ask who killed the Gray Man, but since Nynaeve claimed to have found him just so, she would have had no reason to ask a mere Accepted or concern her with such matters. Sheriam is evasive about Nynaeve’s questions, which is no proof of anything except that Nynaeve is far less willing to take Sheriam’s apparent openness at face value. Sheriam has likely never dealt with such a hostile attitude from an Accepted at any time in her tenure. Sheriam twice tells them not to speak of the matter with anyone unless asked first, a sign that she cares deeply about the secrecy of this matter, which she may well have good reason for, but could also be an indication of Dark affiliations. The coincidence of her appearing on the scene mere moments after the Gray Man’s death also adds to suspicions.

The point of the encounter is to reinforce that any Aes Sedai may be Black Ajah. By choosing Sheriam, who has had more positive interactions than any other Aes Sedai, for the first encounter after the Gray Man, the sense of paranoia is established. Readers should be firmly suspicious of all Aes Sedai at this point. Then, to let Sheriam off the hook, a confrontation between her and Elaida forces readers to make a relative value judgment between the two, which transfers misgivings about Sheriam to Elaida. Soon later, Lanfear reveals that she was in the White Tower on other business. The implied connection to the Gray Man means Sheriam was not involved, and that readers can go back to trusting Sheriam while retaining their suspicion of other Aes Sedai. I note that reader opinion at Theoryland based on factions over Sheriam remained about 2 to 1 in her favour, even after her later beatings, which could be taken as a measurement of the effects on readers of this portrayal.

The same type of worry about who was a Darkfriend never really surfaced in The Great Hunt. An arrow as fired at Rand and the story moved on. In this instance, the claustrophobic feeling that it is just the three girls against the whole White Tower is well established over a lengthy build-up, where readers are given a straightforward example of the risks of trusting even Sheriam. Themes of trust have been in place throughout the series, but become part of the reader’s psyche from here on.

Mat gets healed with a circle of ten Aes Sedai using their most powerful sa’angreal. It is not immediately obvious that if Mat needed that much Power to heal him, dealing with Padan Fain will be incredibly difficult. This is Mat’s first point of view in the series. He has been a prod to move the plot forward, but hardly an active participant up until now. In strong contrast to the other characters, the use of humour is evident in his perspective. He thinks he is the last one of them who is still sane. Meanwhile he is remembering leading the armies of Manetheren. Mat, more than the others, will be an unreliable narrator, despite his certainty that he is thinking things through. There will be opportunities to shift the tone and mood of the story by shifting to Mat’s point of view.

Lanfear is still interested in the three young men, and is certain Mat will seek out glory. It was important for Rand not to be lured by glory, Perrin is unlikely to be budged by such concerns, but Mat is being portrayed as the weakest leg of their tripod, keenly interested in getting what he wants here and now far more than his friends.

Writing Lessons:

Don’t just have your characters wonder who to trust, show what happens, use examples to make readers worry as much as your characters.

The Eye of the World - Chapters 48-53

In this final section, enemies more powerful and numerous than any seen before are faced and defeated.

In the last act of a story, the stakes are typically raised significantly. Any part that wasn’t full of action, was full of revelation. In terms of heightened danger, Rand once fled Trollocs, and now trounces a Trolloc army. He ran from lone Myrddraal, and now vaporizes a handful of them.  The group clashes with living trees and deformed blight-creatures. Strange new foes like worms and Forsaken are encountered.  And of course, Ba’alzamon is met on uneven terms that favour Rand for a change.

What makes all this possible is the Eye of the World. We aren’t told what it is until just before the final confrontation. Learning what it is sooner would have made it that much easier to guess that one of the boys, Rand most likely, can use the One Power. There were clues, but most of the build-up around men using the One Power has indicated they must be stopped. The reader has been told that a male channeler is a villain. The first time you read it, some events are perplexing. On a reread (or eight of them) it’s incredibly obvious each of the five (count them) times Rand uses the One Power in desperation, looking for some way to escape. His behavior perfectly matches Moiraine’s description of how girls learn. But we’ve spent the entire book thinking of him as a lucky hero. Now it turns out it was the One Power all along. Many of my complaints about missing a chance to explain the quest, turn out to have been purposefully done to conceal (or not admit) that Rand can use the One Power. This is epic fantasy, and we can all guess that Rand is the Chosen One, even as we play along with the mystery. While the intent is clear to me now, I think without the rousing bits of adventure and excitement, the payoff might not be worth the suspense.

So what is the Eye of the World? One hundred Aes Sedai used their lives to filter the taint away from Saidin, and place it in a well which came to be known as the Eye of the World. Beyond the Power itself, the Eye of the World has protections built in that allow one to channel more than they could unaided, like an angreal. Rand can’t already be at Aginor’s strength, or Ba’alzamon’s, so it must be that. The Eye of the World also is preferentially attuned to the Dragon, otherwise Rand would never have been able to wrest control from Aginor and incinerate him.  The Eye also places knowledge in the mind of the one who uses it. Up until now Rand has instinctively used the Power for simple applications, but is now able to Travel, make a sword of Power, and destroy opponents in various ways. Rand does a lot of spontaneous learning later, usually attributed to Lews Therin’s knowledge. I think the Eye of the World is an equally plausible means of explaining his ability to learn whatever he needs on the spot.

Perhaps most importantly, the Eye of the World overrides Rand’s actions and destroys every creature of Shadow in the vicinity. After broiling Aginor, Rand Travels to Tarwin’s Gap, and sees the forces of Shienar on one side. That is the last time his name appears for two pages, with one exception, after that he is simply called ‘he’. Everything ‘he’ does after, from decimating the Shadowspawn army until ‘he’ arrives in the room of stone faces, is impersonal, and not under his control. The Eye of the World shows him what it can do, and then, as Ba’alzamon confronts him, ‘he’ finds the void. In the void he finds Manetheren, the truth about himself, and free of doubt, Rand is now in full control.  

The use of doubt as a tool of Ba’alzamon and the enemy of willpower is well demonstrated. Ba’alzamon lies, exaggerates, takes undue credit, and dismisses every choice or conclusion Rand would make on his own, but for one: the choice to serve him. Everything he says could be true, yet Rand decides to trust himself instead of accepting that doubt back into his heart. His steadfast refusal to give in through all his trials has finally given him the Power to destroy those doubts for good, in the person of Ba’alzamon.  

The exception for Rand’s name appearing in the Tarwin’s Gap sequence is when the ALL CAPS voice speaks. We are told that it’s not Rand’s thought, but it is like a thought booming in his head. Whether it’s the voice of those who programmed the Eye of the World, or the voice of the Creator itself, it seeks a condition that is not met. It is not here, at Tarwin’s Gap. The Horn? The Dragon banner? Something else? It seems fairly certain that the Eye of the World was intended to be used at the Last Battle. With the condition not met, the voice packs up and leaves, giving Rand one last bit of help by sending him to the room of stone faces. Will the voice come back in A Memory of Light? Or is mankind on its own now, waiting for the Chosen One to do what must be done, if he so chooses?

Is the room of stone faces in the World of Dreams? Grudgingly, I must say that evidence indicates it is. How Rand manages to get there, leave there, and whether he was there in the flesh, is unclear. The Eye of the World drew him back when it ran dry?

As the group rode into the Blight, I couldn’t help but feel this was the end of Lan’s lifelong quest, and of his life. He has spurned Nynaeve, he alone has not yet passed the torch to the Two Rivers ‘sheepherders’, he can save Shienar to atone for surviving the end of Malkier, he wants to die fighting the Shadow, he has fulfilled his oaths to Moiraine. There seemed to be many reasons to believe he was a goner. As a blank canvas through much of the story, his origin and the choices he must make as Shienar faces destruction still pull at the heartstrings. Moiraine and Lan’s quest, begun in New Spring, partially ends here as they leave an empowered Rand free to go where he pleases.

The Blight is a bizarre ecosystem, where everything exists to kill each other. The Dark One really hates life. How does anything live there at all? They must spawn by the thousands, like insects or frogs. Or Trollocs. There’s no other way to keep that many living things around, is there?

The Green Man would have been a great resource to tell us about the Age of Legends, despite only being reliable for context, not facts. He gives some obscure clues about the Aiel origin and Wolfbrothers.

Egwene and Nynaeve’s enthusiasm about feeling Moiraine channel reveals their thoughts of the future in Tar Valon. Egwene is eager, Nynaeve is cautious and considering.

Nynaeve has more reason to be antagonistic towards Moiraine. Lan hardly knows which way to jump. Their budding romance was subdued enough that a reader hardly notices it, even on a reread. That may be intentional so as to not detract too much from Rand and Egwene, whose romance began uncertainly, and is ending a bit more certainly.

Sensing Mat’s dagger appears to be how the Forsaken found the Eye of the World. Is Shadar Logoth and Mordeth their ‘old friend’ because it betrayed Manetheren, even while it opposed the Shadow?

Almost the first words out of Aginor's mouth were to reveal that the Forsaken do not get along and will try to undercut one another. Aginor and Balthamel were mentioned by name earlier, but with little other context than they were powerful male Aes Sedai who serve the Dark One, and their names are used to frighten children. The confrontation with them was exciting enough to overcome their seemingly random appearance. A lot more could have been done to build them up. See my post on the Big White Book Chapters 2-5 for an awesome back story that is completely left out of this book. http://greatlordofthedark.blogspot.com/2012/01/big-white-book-world-of-robert-jordans_02.html

Writing Lessons:

Keep building up the thematic elements that are most important to your story, consistently throughout the story.

New Spring Chapters 23-26 and Epilogue

I cannot figure out how Malkieri society could have functioned with such rigid codes of behavior.  They must have just not spoken to each other very much. Or maybe they just had scripts handed out to speak from.  How much of this culture is due to its martial nature and low life expectancy? How much of this is just Bukama trying to make Malkier live again through Lan? Will Lan be relieved he can toss off this ridiculous way of life and not suicide himself in the Blight as a final tip of the hat to Bukama’s expectations? Has Lan mellowed in the main series with regard to his interactions with women? I’ll be watching to see if he waits for women to address him before speaking to them.

I also came to wonder how the Tower treats Aes Sedai who leave and never come back. They obviously don’t go looking for them, or they’d have known about Cadsuane. How long before they begin to assume Merean is dead? How long until the Black Ajah reaches the same conclusion? Do they reorganize the Black Ajah Hearts?

There are a few books in the series where the final conflict sort of comes out of left field, and this is one of them. The buildup is slow and uncertain, with a resounding crash suddenly in the last 20 pages. But did I ever enjoy this battle. A closer look might tell us why it worked.

Moiraine’s meting out justice in the rough quarter gives us an appreciation for more of her powers. The chapter could have been written with her simply finding Siuan after half a day, but we’ve still seen little of her powers. Some fireworks, a booming voice, lots of tricks to bug Lan with, even during her testing the solution was never other than completing the assigned weave. So we get to see some of her more useful weaves, and it’s becoming clear that there really aren’t many scenarios Moiraine can’t weave her way out of. Expectations are being set on her pedigree and her Channeling to get her out of jams. Again, we see Moiraine’s preparations for the unknown involve visiting a hairdresser and a bank.  Still no sign of a villain.

Moiraine presses Lan for some help, which he is held to by his adherence to a pledge made before he was born. Moiraine breaks Tower Law in exchange for it. She actually didn’t tell him much, the juicy bits she just thinks to herself, for our benefit. It is a measure of her desperation that she must begin to seek allies. Moiraine’s breaking Tower Law raises the tension significantly, and tells us that her ends justify her means.

The main plot finally clicks into place with a minor subplot: Iselle doesn’t want to marry Lan, so after Moiraine rebuffs her plea to be taken to the White Tower, she immediately turns to the other Aes Sedai in the palace for help, setting in motion the final conflict. Iselle is a pawn, a tertiary character not even speaking on page until her plea to Moiraine. Yet it is her desire for freedom, heretofore unknown, that brings the whole affair to its conclusion.

Bukama’s death brings a transformation to Lan. His final point of view words are that he did not care who saw him. He was ready to run away from his duty to Malkieri custom, but even while seeking out Bukama to pursue this dishonourable course of action, he adheres to it, trying to avoid being seen by those who would know he had broken custom. When he stops caring who sees him, he has already begun following his own rules instead of those imposed on him. A transformation of identity is a more powerful excitement builder than the death of character. It’s not their death that matters, but what that death represents and how it affects our other character’s identity.

Much like the Aiel confrontation in Chapter 1, Moiraine finds herself pondering the forces arrayed against her.  She thinks her opponent is considerably more powerful. When she confronts her, she learns that she underestimated her chances. Her pedigree and channeling will not help her win. Ryne’s superiority with the sword is confirmed. The buildup is somewhat similar to what I laid out in the Chapter 1 analysis table: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AofJmajj1aXydGd0dndhY2Z3R0NTY3QxQ0d1N0NHSGc&hl=en_US#gid=0

Each paragraph describes how bad their chances are, then it is demonstrated that it’s even worse than that. And then finally Moiraine is shielded. That’s it, game over. Embrace Death.

Our heroes don’t embrace death though, they only stop fighting after they are dead. Pure determination wins the day. Force of will and knowledge of self will be a recurrent theme in many future battles. No wonder I love this series so much. How can you argue with life lessons like that?

Moiraine gives a final challenge to Lan as she erases the evidence, and despite whatever he may decide about Malkieri custom, he knows he will always oppose the Shadow. “We win this battle, or the world dies.” On top of all that, the payoff is that you can delve right into the main series and pick up twenty years later as they reach the bottom of Moiraine’s list of names.

Determination.

Writing Lessons:

You stop writing after you are dead. Write every day. Every page leads to a complete manuscript.

Events can grab reader’s attention, but how those events affect the characters will do so even more.  

New Spring Chapters 19-22

When Moiraine and Lan first meet, it is through Moiraine’s Point of View. Every decision she makes is explained and seems sensible to the reader. Then we get Lan’s point of view and his response to all of the sensible actions Moiraine took. Lan finds her insulting and she fails to make any of the impressions she hoped to with him, mostly due to the rigid codes of behavior and honour through which Lan tries to interpret everything .

This technique of reversing the point of view to show how poorly the cultures or characters understand one another will be used frequently throughout the series. An alternative way of presenting the scene would be with an omniscient narrator, so that you wouldn’t have to wait to understand where the miscommunication lies, you’d just get both viewpoints on the spot. But with the third person limited viewpoint, as used here, the reader is forced to spend more time getting into that character’s head and understanding that one interpretation. The reader might identify more with that character and their actions, at the cost of immediately understanding the plot and the repercussions of the actions taken. It then takes immersion in another character to give the reader the full understanding of what took place. And you can’t just leap into Lan’s interpretation here, there is some setup in explaining what his expectations were and how Moiraine has broken them.

All in all, this technique gives up the speed of plot advancement in favour of character development and a stronger understanding of those characters. After a scene like this, you could imagine how Moiraine might react in other uncertain situations, and get a sense that Lan will be insulted at anything that breathes at him with the wrong inflection, but will swallow the insult as his honour dictates.

The greatest satisfaction comes from seeing Lan back up Moiraine’s threats to the formidable force of brigands on the road to Chachin. I’m a gonna count to ten! One! Two! Never mind, they’re gone. This is the first real anticipation I’ve felt in the book. It’s all been entertaining so far, but I’ve mostly just been following where it meanders (again, due to its structure where this section was the middle of the book, not the penultimate section). Now, seeing Lan and Moiraine take on opponents together, readers should be anticipating a threat that will take their combined might to overcome.

Writing Lesson:

Point of View and Narrator can affect the speed of plot and depth of character revealed. If you are showing a character with an ‘alien’ behavior, look for ways to make that behavior understandable and thus believable to readers.

New Spring Chapters 15-18

The second half of the novel makes up the original short story New Spring. We find Moiraine is already on the quest and the focus shifts to how Lan joined the hunt.

Every antagonist we’ve seen so far suddenly drops off the map, and a new array of threats (Edeyn, Black Ajah, Cadsuane) are introduced for the first time.  This made more sense when the story started here.

Lan finally gets to do something, and we learn Malkieri are as peculiar as Aiel. Aside from 2 pages explaining he dawdled in the southlands for a few months, Lan has been absent since Chapter 1. In the original, the viewpoints were better balanced between Lan and Moiraine.

We get a list of relative strength in the Power:  Cadsuane, Meilyn, then Kerene. Two of them will be dead in the next chapter. The next 5 are sharply below Kerene and include Moiraine, Siuan and 3 others, one of whom is retired. We quickly calculate that Moiraine and Siuan will at least be on equal footing with Elaida once they hit full strength.

Cadsuane is introduced here for the second time, the first having been way back (ahead) in A Crown of Swords. The introduction here is perfect. The strength in the Power felt first, then the attitude, then the legend explained. In contrast, her bizarre Deus ex Machina introduction in A Crown of Swords left me confused due to the complete lack of context. Here it works because we know that strength in the power equals rank, and Cadsuane is not just above Moiraine, she is the only one who could be SO FAR above Moiraine. Intimidation and threat to our protagonist is instantaneous. The attitude tells us what she’ll do with her rank, and the legend reinforces it. Her other introduction lacked the strength comparison and the legend, and instead it relied on the reactions of the other Aes Sedai. Not as powerful a signal to the reader as a direct source of information.

Writing Lessons:

One way to have a character make an impression when introduced, is to make sure the POV character is credible and informed.  

New Spring Chapters 11-14

Moiraine enters the Tower life proper, Moiraine exits the Tower life proper. The Cairhienin succession provides a believable reason for her to scoot. Threats to the character’s identity always work best to me. In real life, unhappy people often seem to have threats to their identity, their destiny not conforming to their wishes. And since we want Moiraine to be happy, we want her to not be queen.

Knowing the rules of who you defer to and why, it is obvious that for most Aes Sedai, the path to power and prestige is to be a Sitter. The scuffles for those three seats must be epic. Those who lose, join the Black Ajah? Maybe settle for a decent rank in the Ajah as eyes and ears or Eighth Reasoner? Or just conclude that you should set out into the world where everyone defers to you and leave this political claptrap behind.

The introduction of so many more Aes Sedai by name nicely creates the impression of the numbers of Aes Sedai in the Tower and the complexity of their relationships. I’m not sure the same could have been done without introducing so many of them. Of course, there is a benefit to having half of the new introductees already known by readers in the main series, giving them tags for the readers to identify them and keep them apart in their minds.

Having only Elaida to base our perceptions of Reds on, we get Sierin, who should have been Red. Yikes. Stereotype reinforced.

Moiraine and Siuan are living each other’s expected lives, Siuan in the Tower administrating, Moiraine on the road living adventure.

Writing Lessons:

Providing motivation to a character is easily done by attacking their perception of their identity.

New Spring Chapters 7-10

Perhaps the events just lend themselves to the gradual revelation of the White Tower’s inner workings, but I found the step-by-step introduction to the various aspects of Tower life well done. In this sequence we see inside the Ajah quarters, and with our knowledgeable guide Moiraine explaining things, we get lots of information in a natural way, sans info-dump. Aside from the fact that Moiraine started the book in the presence of the most powerful woman in the world, we’ve inched upwards from learning about Accepted life to learning about Aes Sedai life.

In a similar vein, we’ve had Moiraine know the most important piece of information in the world, and inch slowly forward trying to interpret it, refine it, and give it more detailed meaning.  In both of these cases, the logic and speed of progression is satisfying to the reader. Moiraine and Siuan want more, can’t get it, so they reach out and take it for themselves, giving them even more ability to reach out and take the next step. I love doing this professionally, and it is stunning how no one ever complains, just wonders at how you pull off the stuff you do. Had Moiraine and Siuan not pushed, had they followed the rules a little more, the outcome would have been different. I love rebels!

We get first-hand confirmation of Elaida’s bullying. It’s somehow worse when they do it for the victim’s own good. The testing and preparation for it are again reminiscent of school exams. It’s not clear yet just what Moiraine is capable of, despite seeing her in the testing ter’angreal. But we’re beginning to get a sense of it.

Writing Lessons:

It’s tempting to push information onto the reader, but pacing the revelations and explanations in a logical way and as necessary can keep from encumbering your story.

New Spring Chapters 4-6

We were introduced to the concept of Aes Sedai numbers dwindling, which is repeated frequently later in the story, and had just been remedied by Egwene in Crossroads of Twilight. Moiraine estimates 1269 Aes Sedai (423 in the Tower, twice as many out of it), 60 Accepted, and less than 100 novices, fewer than 20 of which will become Accepted. We are also introduced to a number of the current class of Accepted, a number of which will decide to join the Black Ajah in the next 20 years. We haven’t been told the Black Ajah exists yet, and won’t be for a while yet, but their names are in these chapters. Why do they join? Were they friends as Accepted with the top recruiter? How the Black Ajah recruits noobs has got to be tricky. Does everyone who joins just think back to the friends who shared their disgruntlement and pressure them to sign up? I’d be afraid the authority figure I hate and am trying to tear down is actually the head of the Black Ajah. Why else would she behave so destructively to our organization? Oops, real world interlude… sorry.

Speaking of Elaida, another universal experience we can identify with is that of the bully. Even bullies have been bullied, we’ve all been bullied. This is a different approach to how she was introduced in the Eye of the World, as the menace who might gentle Rand. You’re concerned about threats, you don’t despise them like you do with bullies. This is a great setup for her character and her later actions. I can see how my interpretation of the Splitting of the Tower and deposing of a certain Amyrlin will take on a more personal aspect. Funnily, Elaida is under virtually no Dark One influence at any time. The Pattern itself set her up as a bully to be despised so that events could unfold as needed. What a destiny. Thanks Pattern!

Writing Lessons:

How are you setting up your antagonists? Bullies, bosses, threats, minions, overlords and random monsters work because they are built up appropriately.

New Spring Chapters 2-3

Virtually all of the new material in New Spring the Novel focused on Moiraine and how she began her search for the Dragon Reborn.

One problem with prequels is that they don’t have the payoff that the main sequence story does. Readers already know how the characters will fare, and it is mostly details being filled in, often with “easter eggs” for the obsessive fans.

Another problem is that whatever tension or mystique you’ve built up around the characters in the main sequence is lost. In the Eye of the World, Moiraine and Lan are mysterious, and part of the story turns on whether the heroes can trust them completely.

In New Spring, Moiraine has little mystique.  Neither does Lan.  Moiraine’s whole plan for the Dragon Reborn is laid out early, the story then follows her through the steps of setting off on that quest.

Moiraine comes across as a very sympathetic character in this story, and I think it is in large part to relying on the universal experience of wanting to accomplish more than you’re being allowed to. It’s a pretty standard teenage complaint, or of anyone working a menial job. And the fact that the Accepted act a lot like my old college dorm reinforces it. Moiraine is at an age where people are asserting themselves as adults and full members of society. The old ‘coming-of-age’ story.  

What works less well is a big bit of info-dumping so that we can understand by chapter’s end what just happened to Gitara with this Foretelling. Without the benefit of having read the main series, it’s a bit much to wrap one’s head around. I suppose it’s part of starting the story as late as possible, with Rand’s birth, but it feels forced.

Were Tamra and Gitara waiting for something to happen that Dawn? It sure seems like they were…

The most surprising concern I had about the early chapters of New Spring is whether they affect expectations of the series of a whole. Obviously, the story is still about Rand, but with all this attention on Moiraine and Lan, is it now more their story? Rand dies, right? Are Moiraine and Lan the bookend characters? They start and finish a quest to save the world and Rand dies, and they high five and say well done and the last book ends with the characters that it started with? I always figured the last character POV would be Rand’s because it was his quest, but now I am not so sure.

Writing lessons:

A universal experience like ‘wanting to grow up faster’ will create powerful connections with your readers.

New Spring Chapter 1

New Spring was first published in the Legends Anthology in 1998, before the Path of Daggers came out. Later in 2003, it was released on its own with an additional 200 pages of material placed at the front. New Spring the Novella was meant to stand on its own. New Spring the novel was also meant to stand on its own. This prequel essentially added a prequel to itself! For these reasons, New Spring feels structured differently than a typical novel.

We often talk about Jordan’s ability to pack plotlines into the story, so I took a bit of extra time to look at a single chapter in detail, a chapter I found a bit dry, to see what was going on technically in the story. I came away a little amazed at how densely the subplots are packed together in Chapter 1 “The Hook”. The best way to present this is visually, so I laid it out in a spreadsheet which you can hopefully access by clicking this link.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AofJmajj1aXydGd0dndhY2Z3R0NTY3QxQ0d1N0NHSGc

The spreadsheet should be self-explanatory, but nonetheless here is a brief explanation. For each paragraph in the chapter, I have briefly described the main action taking place, and in other columns briefly described the information relating to each of a number of subplots I identified. I am sure you can find more subplots, or order them differently, but the point of the exercise is to look at what the authors is doing, and where. It is surprising to see plot points that will be touched on later in the story already being gently and unobtrusively placed.

I found that for this chapter, roughly ten paragraphs each would be consecrated to a subdivision of the main plot. Lan tours the camp; Lan and Bukama ‘debate’; a messenger arrives; they race to the Hook; the Aiel arrive; the battle is avoided. Meanwhile, larger plotlines are barely touched on but groundwork is laid here. All of Lan’s Malkieri behavioral codes make more sense later in the story after we’ve seen what his honor dictates he should do in this ‘simple’ situation.

Even more amazingly to me, I found that almost every single paragraph told the reader something about the Milieu, an Idea, the Character(s), and the Event (The MICE quotient, from Orson Scott Card if I recall correctly). Every paragraph? Heck it might even be every sentence. This doesn’t happen accidentally, writers, you must have to be thinking of it.

I’d like to try this grid analysis again on a later chapter if time permits.

Writing Lessons:

Are you fitting as much (or as little) as you want into a sentence, paragraph or chapter? Be aware of opportunities to lay groundwork for later understanding and avoiding the dreaded info-dump.