Think like a tourist
This week I’ve gone back to revisit the novel I started for my MA major project in 2009. It’s interesting reading it back to see how much my writing craft has improved since then. In the second chapter of the original manuscript I had an investigatory team going down to a planet covertly to investigate suspected atrocities. They find them, but the trouble is that I’m showing that scene through the wrong character’s eyes. In the original manuscript I had my female main character watching a livestream of the action on the planet from a starship in orbit. This meant she had no agency with regard to the scene, and it had to be changed. Now I’m going to write that scene, which is brutal and shocking, from the viewpoint of my male main character. He is down on the planet and in the audience watching this so-called ceremony. This does two things: it allows me to describe the city through his eyes, and it also gives his reactions to the brutality going on there. In my original version