Writing Chapter 3 went fairly smoothly, but when I got to Chapter 5 I realized that I’d made a geography error in Chapter 4. To fix that involved going back and laying in some small details in the first two chapters and rewriting the last two pages of Chapter 3 in order to lead in correctly to Chapter 4.

I’ll be able to keep the emotional throughline of Chapter 4, but have to move it to a different location.  Now, I could wait and just make a note that I’m going to fix that, but it’s almost as easy to do the shift now.  Sometimes I do that, just make a note [move this to rose garden] and keep writing as if it’s already there.

In this case, the change of location is also going to change the reactions of some of the characters so I’d rather fix it now becuase the potential for it to cause other changes is large enough that I’ll save effort by doing it now.

I’ve got this puppetry workshop I do in elementary schools where we adapt “The Three Little Pigs” Each group of kids gets to do their own production and make changes to the basic story. The one big rule of adaptation is, “If you change one thing, it changes everything else.”

True in puppet shows. True in SF worldbuilding. True in moving scenic locations.

Here’s a snippet of Chapter 3

Jane nodded, as she followed his train of thought. “The twist of the glamour creates, in essence, two layers of fabric that keep the interior from being either a mirror or a dark sphere. And you think a jacquard would enhance the effect?”