Arc 3 Notes - The Stream

Arc Three: The Stream

Chapters 41 - 62

I had always wanted the main character to stream her life back to the Earth where she came from. When I was first conceiving this story, she wasn't even aware that she was able to stream, and was just streaming it nonstop.

People were literally able to peep into her life, lol.

I decided that was a little too much, and wasn't all that interesting or challenging from a character development sort of view. Well, okay, it would have been seriously challenging.

Imagine doing all your normal everyday things, like going to the toilet. And having that be publicly available to millions of people. In my mind, that isn't a very positive scenario, and actually rather traumatizing. And so I avoided the idea altogether. Well, sorta. You'll see.

Anyway!

So this arc is essentially the beginning of this whole book. By that, I mean that when I started to think about writing the book itself, scenes and themes inside of this arc were among the first. Eva's emotional journey (and also Amal's) starts here.

As a side note, Miko's emotional journey doesn't start here. There's just certain story elements that haven't been revealed at this point, and so she cannot start that journey. As a result, she remains with a rather flat character arc until then. But once it does get going, it'll be crazy. I promise.

There are also two more Ravens coming down the line, too. But that's neither here nor there right now.

Now, when I say this is the beginning of the whole book, it's also true from a literal perspective - I end the first act with this arc as well. So it literally is the beginning of the whole book. Or the last part of the beginning, anyway.

Confusing, I know!

Okay, let me explain. You're probably familiar with the Three Act Structure, right? The three acts are: Setup, Confrontation, Resolution. Super common in movies nowadays. I personally use the Five Act Structure, which is just a further breakdown of the Three. That goes like: Setup, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Denoument.

In any case, Arcs One to Three comprise the Setup. Arc Four marks the beginning of the Rising Action.

If you're still confused, I'm sorry.

Also! A fellow author asked why I didn't use higher technology during the funeral scene. I didn't want to answer it at the time, because I didn't want to give away any 'writer secrets'. But that seems ridiculous in hindsight.

The reason why I very often use anachronistic technology during specific scenes is for a number of reasons. The first is usually thematic. The second is typically dramatic.

For example, Amal is thematically the Angel of Death, right? Imagine if she instead used nanites to make the corpses *poof* away. Not only would that have been dramatically flat, it doesn't do a good job of informing us what kind of person she will become.

Or, imagine if Luke Skywalker used lasers to vaporize Vader's body instead. The emotional power of that entire scene would have been eviscerated.

Fire has deep meaning for us. It's our oldest and most powerful technology, and simply being in front of one creates an internal response. Possibly a genetic one.