Thread:Sakaros/@comment-29301-20180903145046/@comment-104549-20190328180237

MPK wrote: Hoping the next one'll be a little shorter, though. :P

Man, you and me both. See what I meant when I said it got away from me?

I'm glad you liked it! I actually tackled the narrative in the order it's written, except that I went back and added two sections: Daveito's piece (the poor guard Kysl Ssron influences) and Sil Kadych's cameo. I felt the narrative of Ssron's escape didn't make enough sense without the Daveito side of the story, and I thought Kadych should have a cameo because a) he's on Corellia, Mali's home planet, and Mali respects his experience and would want his advice, and b) I love how scathing he can be; if I had a headshot of him, it could be the page image for Good Is Not Nice.

I always intended to open with Mali's duel with Karzded, and I always had the ending planned: report that Aldayr's ship went down at the end, followed by a flashback of much more optimistic and happy Mali on Day 1. I knew I'd have little time skips throughout, but somewhere in the midst of writing A Flow'r, Once Fallen, it occurred to me I could broaden the anachronistic order to the entire narrative. The only thing I actually shuffled around mid-writing was the order Mali got his help; I initially had him going to Elata, then Corellia, but it made more sense (narratively here and for future stories) for the order to be reversed.

Incidentally, this is where my Notepad strategy of "[part #]. [what happens in part] ([whose perspective])" went from "helpful" to "absolutely crucial", especially since I added a second parenthesized "[on what day it takes place]".

I'm really glad you stayed engaged despite the few direct confrontations, because that was a big concern of mine. In hindsight I appreciate James Luceno's pacing in Darth Plagueis; there was enough action sprinkled through that people without my taste for intrigue and politics would stick with it. I actually didn't even have Ksyl Ssron as a character until I was writing the courtroom scene where he and Bevrelles were arraigned; like Athena, he just sort of sprang out of my brain fully formed.