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WriteOn! Pick a Card, Any Card [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-09-21  

Last week we discussed leaving our main threads entirely to present tangential information and characters in a section of their own. This week we will stay firmly in the protagonist's point of view, but still bring in info they didn't know.

One of the ways to get information to your character without breaking point-of-view is to have them read it. Books, letters, cards, library research, websites, handbills, advertisements, newspapers…. Matters from around the world can reach even a medieval or Victorian character in letters from abroad.

Now, admittedly, tales from afar may be...dubious. Travelers' tales were notoriously embroidered in the ancient and medieval periods. This led to truthful but remarkable observations being dismissed as fanciful; throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak. Today's researchers may be inclined to dismiss older reports simply because they have not yet found the proof for themselves. Herodotus was right.

And the problem of authentication persists today, made even worse by higher tech. Social media and AI are blurring truth and fiction badly.

Still, finding written information is a tried-and-true means of advancing a story or planting a clue.

Getting a letter is also a common trope in the denouement of mysteries and romances, where a now-absent character lets the protag know what has happened to them, maybe even confesses at a safe distance.

Challenge: Your character has received a card. Greeting card, postcard, business card with note on the back, even a tarot card. What information do they glean from it and how do they react?

READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/21/2143416/-WriteOn-Pick-a-Card-Any-Card

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