103: Risky Business
10/31/2015
I did it. By some miracle, I actually finished Twa Yal-Jukun by my deadline today. Just in time, too. I wasted two days this week thinking about Chapter 27: Sisters, but with no luck. So, I jumped to the last two chapters and did both Chapter 37: The Krabado, and 38: Wounds of the Trail one day, then Chapter 39: A Dangerous Bridge, and 40: Together Under the Moon yesterday. Then pulling a miracle out of my hat, I finally did Sisters today in one day.
I’m nervous about A Dangerous Bridge, and how I let things go way off course with Alena. I left things open to implications, but it’s still really risky. Implying that she was going to be molested or raped by Wamba and his friends was not at all what I had in mind. I only intended for the chapter to end with her losing her virginity. But the way the circumstances unfolded – Joyul not being there, all of Wamba’s friends being there, a girl alone with a bunch of boys in the middle of the wilderness, and all of this following her Flirting chapter – things just started to point in a dark direction. And since I knew Wamba was going to ruin her reputation in Part Three: Ghost Frog, this only jumped the gun on that. But still…
I think I mainly allowed it because, A) It’s an easy fix if I change my mind later, and B) I tend to lean towards upsetting the reader’s expectations. As for how this alters character development and the future of the series… For now, I’m willing to see how it plays out. Like I said, it’s an easy fix if I change my mind.
Tonight’s chapter, Sisters, was another sexually audacious move, making Kiza a lesbian and giving her a sex scene (the first one so far, aside from Mosai and Lual’s vignette in The Yara). I knew this chapter was going to be sexually charged no matter how I tackled it, which is why I had such a hard time figuring out how to orchestrate it.
Does Dougga witness a sister bathing? Some such scene was needed so Dougga’s mother could catch him and humiliate him, to illustrate the ongoing emasculation of her son. Yet, as it turns out, Sisters was less discomfiting in the end than Alena’s chapter was. Further proof that I really don’t know what my book will be until the words hit the page.
Present-Day Reflection
9/5/2026
As it turns out, I never did seriously consider “fixing” A Dangerous Bridge. I simply moved on and more or less forgot about looking into whether I wanted to alter it or not. I also decided that it plays more into Alena’s character that she would downplay the event, rewriting her own role in it so she wouldn’t view herself as a victim. This would be her way of rendering it less traumatic than it otherwise would be, while also protecting her sense of pride and personal agency. The long-term effects on her for choosing this perspective, however, will be shown further down the road.
Sisters assumes a similar function in terms of planting seeds with long term consequences in the development of character. Dougga is one of the more fascinating characters for me in how and why he ends up developing the way he does. He doesn’t grow into the man one might expect, given the characteristics he demonstrates in his youth. One of my beta-readers even confirmed this expectation by asking if Dougga was going to end up being gay, which within Batu sociology might render him as one of the amori.
Dougga is not so simple, however. But then, nothing ever is.
In the end, the characters themselves choose their own paths. As their narrator, I really can’t say for sure what their story will be until the words hit the page.
