Book Report

Aretemis Fowl: The Lost Colony
Aretemis Fowl: The Time Paradox
by Eoin Colfer

These are the most recent in a series of six books (so far) about the once selfish-criminal mastermind turning reluctant-bleeding heart, Aretemis Fowl. In these books, he's reached the ripe old age of fourteen and is finding puberty to be a pesky, distracting force as he, once again, saves the world for both the humans above ground and the fairies below ground. The series is aimed at the grammar school/younger junior high aged kids. And, I truly cannot help myself but adore them. They're a lighthearted, fantasy reading ride with not so subtle positive message undertones that take an afternoon or two to complete, cover to cover. In my now habitual process of reading a book from a writer's perspective, I picked up some good stuff with these two.

Lately, I've been trying to figure out how to break free of my very stubborn linear patterns. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it has been excruciatingly painful for me to attempt writing a story -- or an essay or a blog or a grocery list -- out of linear sequence. Obviously, my logical side agrees that it's terribly limiting to confine oneself to writing ANYthing in a start-to-finish timeline. Sadly, it's not my logical side that does the writing.

Both The Lost Colony and The Time Paradox revealed to me the very many places the writing of a story can begin. All of those clever bits of foreshadowing in the early chapters very likely were written long after the resolution of events at the end. Same goes for the final pages' tidy wrapping up of the plot while gently reminding us how the current adventure got started in the first place.

It's not that I haven't been taught this notion before or didn't understand the theoretical concept. Because, trust me, it's been pointed out ad nauseum and I always agree that it certainly does make perfect sense, doesn't it. This was, honestly, the first time that I finally saw that it's not a very good plan at all to even attempt to begin at the beginning, particularly when telling a mysetery/fantasy type of a tale.

I had the proverbial light bulb moment.

Which inspires me to give humongous thanks to the Aretemis Fowl stories and the deceivingly simple formula that each one follows that have allowed me to grasp the theory. Now, just to put it into a working practice. That's the real trick.