Shadows of Evil: Prologue

As promised, I'm back. Here's my rewrite of the book I'm being subjected to. I started at a different place, I suspect my journey will be in a completely different direction, but the idea of writing against something like this is good motivation.

It's a short extract (it's all I've written) and it may be too portentous and a bit pants. Still, it's the first I've written properly in aaaaages!


Analysis is intriguing and is from 750words.com as ever.


Rating: PG-13 (sexual content[?] and violence)

Feeling mostly Self-expressive, and concerned mostly about Death.

Mindset: Extrovert - Positive - Uncertain - Feeling

Time: The Past; Primary Sense: Touch; Us and Them: Them

27 minutes at 30 words per minute

To prologue or not to prologue?

Time gathers pace and so my idea-sleet continues - of course.  I can't just have one idea for NaNo, I must have loads and then find that none of them are developed enough to actually manage to write and finish a novel or even a plotline!

Anyway, in amongst all of this there is a question to be asked.  Should one prologue?  I mean, with my autism-politics plotline I thought a prologue would be a good way to show how the end goes down in such a way that draws a reader in.  However, I also remembered that there are plenty of people and readers whose opinions I respect that say that they never even read prologues.  Which makes sense.

So, should I bother writing one or should I cheat and make it chapter one?  Or, horror, should I just not open and instead rely on the early life of my autistic future revolutionary to grab the reader?

Then there's the Aftermath plotline that keeps pootling around my head.  I originally cheated and added it to the end of the plotline that appears on this blog as Bradford Interchange but... I dunno, I have a soft-spot for the idea of a non-linear plot but for the fact that I would have to write it linearly to begin with - that would be hard for me to do.  In that sense it would be the perfect candidate for NaNo because I would be forced to write it and get it all done - and I may even edit it - but in another I worry that I would destroy it and get bored and then abandon it.

The Day The Tanks Came

"Hans!"

Summer had come early and the shout was almost muffled by the torpid air.

"What is it?" Hans had been looking forward to a lazy afternoon with the family, little Addy was ready to work in the fields now and Anna had been making noises about a third child, a duty that he had been anticipating nicely.

"Hans, have you been able to get anything on the radio?"

Rudolf was a worrier, the whole village knew it, and had never been a ranking officer despite having been in the army almost as long as service allowed.  Old age had failed to take the edge from his concern but nor had it made him any harder to live with.  As a single man he was unusual but he was well-liked and a useful man to know in case of electrical repairs.  "No, Rudi, you know I don't bother with that thing."  Sometimes the music was nice, but lately it had become a little political for his tastes, "Besides, since when did we need it?"

"Hans, I listen to the radio always, and I tell you that it has gone. Now, what do you think of that?" Rudolf's face was flushed, he'd been running.

"I tell you that you spend too long listening to the radio and now there has been a break in the service and that it will do you some good."

"Hans... Mister Group-Leader, I-"

"Please, not now," Hans cut him off, the rank brought back a whole phalanx of memories that he had long ago grown tired of dealing with. "Rudi, you are a radio man, that is fine.  Go ask Konnie if he has anything and then work with him, yes?  For now, it is Summer, it is nearly harvest and I have 'duties' to perform for my family.  I do not expect you to understand but I do expect you to give me some peace."

"They were talking of the Front again-"

"And they always will, you know that.  Now, run along to Konnie, he may have more time for you."

Konrad was new to the village, recently discharged with distinction, and had a young family.  Starting was always hard, but the cameraderie of the Old Guard meant that he had been well-supported, and his aptitude with technology made him a natural appointment for the village broadcast and reciever station.  It saved him from running his own fields, something Hans doubted the youngster would enjoy, and meant that they had enjoyed the full benefits of the radio for some months, something Hans reflected on with some pained displeasure.

"Yes of course, Mis-"

"Oh, just leave man!"  Hans turned and walked off his porch as pointedly as he could, deliberately ignoring the obvious salute.  Rudolf was a walking testament to why men needed to be married: so that they could turn their worries and anxieties to real concerns rather than phantasmogorical ones.