Forgetfulness is a way to put it. I was thinking more about the fact that people who've suffered traumas and have mental health issues often have problems with short or long term memory.
I singled out Shruikan as "completely disinterested in ruling" to explain why Shruikan wasn't acting as Galbatorix's secretary in this matter and reminding him of something this important later. That flowed into discussing what Shruikan did care about since it wasn't the politics of power.
I guess he's one of the best chess players in the world by the time Úmagon shows up. And if you don't mind, I'll steal this detail for my own work.
Feel totally free! The idea of a giant dragon playing a game much like chess with courtiers at Galbatorix's court just feels so cute to me, especially in context with some real life shit nobility actually did pull - like having servants dress up as chess pieces to play on a life-size board.
So in my head Shruikan was a chess fanatic and even if he wasn't interested in ruling the ordered structure of his mind helped compliment the creative chaos of Galbatorix's mind. Whether Shruikan was asking people dressed as chess pieces to move, moving the enormous stone pieces specially made for him, or telling his opponent his moves on a human-sized board, it's what he found joy in.
The short sentences work perfectly here. I don't know exactly how, but it works.
It's a technique I stole from poetry. Basically the reader interprets individual sentences as having a pace. Longer sentences are seen to be languorous and calming; as gentle waves on a sandy shoreline. Shorter sentences: Impart Urgency.
In a poetic form, this segment looks like so:
He’d run. He’d joined the rebels. He didn’t understand what was at stake. He needed to die as an example, but then the dragon Thorn hatched for him.
So now the king looked into Murtagh’s mind, looking for some key to preventing Murtagh from restoring elven dominion over Alagaesia. He found little evidence of Murtagh’s true name, until the voices spoke. Two of them gave him possibilities, and the third wanted to use cake as shampoo. He tried the possibilities, and one of them was indeed Murtagh’s true name.
He wasn’t surprised. His voices had helped him crack the minds of Riders far older and stronger than Murtagh.
The increasing sentence length creates an impression that Galbatorix is panicking at first, but then slowing down and thinking it through.
Fucking Roran. I knew Orrin had the right idea.
Yeah. I wanted to offer some consequence for Roran's stupidity because he was being such an asshole. Of course Roran wouldn't see "As a direct result of my actions, children were in the room when Eragon and co were murdering an old man" as his fault but still.
And he immediately links it to the experience of his youth, showing that he has never really ceased to care. As for the rest... it's simply masterful.
Part of it's inspired by a potential death in Sunless Sea. "Rise and be lost"; for travelling the surface when your captain is overcome by a yearning for sunlight.
And yeah. I wanted his final thoughts to be of Jarnunvösk, who is the reason he did all of everything he did. That's also why this story starts with Jarnunvösk's death - so I can bookend it and highlight that the person Eragon killed in such a horrible way was fundamentally an old man overcome by grief.
no subject
Forgetfulness is a way to put it. I was thinking more about the fact that people who've suffered traumas and have mental health issues often have problems with short or long term memory.
I singled out Shruikan as "completely disinterested in ruling" to explain why Shruikan wasn't acting as Galbatorix's secretary in this matter and reminding him of something this important later. That flowed into discussing what Shruikan did care about since it wasn't the politics of power.
I guess he's one of the best chess players in the world by the time Úmagon shows up. And if you don't mind, I'll steal this detail for my own work.
Feel totally free! The idea of a giant dragon playing a game much like chess with courtiers at Galbatorix's court just feels so cute to me, especially in context with some real life shit nobility actually did pull - like having servants dress up as chess pieces to play on a life-size board.
So in my head Shruikan was a chess fanatic and even if he wasn't interested in ruling the ordered structure of his mind helped compliment the creative chaos of Galbatorix's mind. Whether Shruikan was asking people dressed as chess pieces to move, moving the enormous stone pieces specially made for him, or telling his opponent his moves on a human-sized board, it's what he found joy in.
The short sentences work perfectly here. I don't know exactly how, but it works.
It's a technique I stole from poetry. Basically the reader interprets individual sentences as having a pace. Longer sentences are seen to be languorous and calming; as gentle waves on a sandy shoreline. Shorter sentences: Impart Urgency.
In a poetic form, this segment looks like so:
The increasing sentence length creates an impression that Galbatorix is panicking at first, but then slowing down and thinking it through.
Fucking Roran. I knew Orrin had the right idea.
Yeah. I wanted to offer some consequence for Roran's stupidity because he was being such an asshole. Of course Roran wouldn't see "As a direct result of my actions, children were in the room when Eragon and co were murdering an old man" as his fault but still.
And he immediately links it to the experience of his youth, showing that he has never really ceased to care. As for the rest... it's simply masterful.
Part of it's inspired by a potential death in Sunless Sea. "Rise and be lost"; for travelling the surface when your captain is overcome by a yearning for sunlight.
And yeah. I wanted his final thoughts to be of Jarnunvösk, who is the reason he did all of everything he did. That's also why this story starts with Jarnunvösk's death - so I can bookend it and highlight that the person Eragon killed in such a horrible way was fundamentally an old man overcome by grief.