dangly bits

Looking over the draft, I’ve realized that there are two types of dangling plot threads.

The first type is accidental (probably the larger category). An example of an accidental one would be Alex’s book. Its imminent publication was the impetus behind Jan revealing certain family history to Vicki here, and behind Sam and Alex visiting Perry here.

But, once those two things happened, the book was never mentioned again. Even if it wasn’t going to come out, there should have been some mention of it, even if only to establish how happy Tammy would have been to see it postponed.

The second type is deliberate. For example, once the intrepid crew sets out on their journey (in the dark), the Jinx are not mentioned again. No mention of Dr. Lee and CJ, or of the Jinx in the stadium, or of the rest of them. This was deliberate (forgetting about one unpublished book would be one thing, to forget nearly three hundred characters would be pretty careless), because I haven’t decided how to resolve that part of the story yet.

Well, I guess there’s a third category of unresolved plot threads, the ones which won’t be resolved at all, at least in this book. There should always be a few of those, as Marshall explains at the end.

(Oh, and there’s another cut-up posted here.)