I’m finishing up the last of the ‘artifacts’ in my story. Basically, I’m stuffing fictional primary sources between my chapters. They’re meant to pull the reader in and give them the sort of background information that a person in my world would already know. I don’t need to have a character write out how the local government works because that’s something every character in the world should already know. The question becomes, how can I tell the reader things without dumbing my characters down?
My solution has been artifacts. I’ve got one for each chapter so far, but we’ll see how many make it into the final draft. I like the idea, but my worry is that they will become burdensome. Not every reader wants to know everything about the world and if its not strictly pertinent to the story would it be better to leave it out? Brevity is always desirable, but there’s a different between redundant wordage and ancillary knowledge. The first is like wading though mud, the second is a short scenic detour.
So far I’ve been happy with the artifacts because they’ve given me an opportunity to play with a number of different styles. I have a court transcript, journal entries, advertisements, a travel itinerary. I’ve been able to write a poem, a few scripts, and even a short homage to hard-boiled noir fiction.
While I have enjoyed writing the artifacts, the same thing that makes them enjoyable is potentially a downside. By changing the voice and tone so dramatically, I threaten to dilute the ‘brand’ so to speak. My artifacts are relatively short, but in total they come to around 25,000 words. That’s a good fifth of the novel. Editing will cut that down some, but not enough if they aren’t any good.
I’ve yet to make a final decision. That’ll be a decision for a later article. THis weekend I’ll be starting the final edit so I’ll have a few things to say there I’m sure.
