The Pros and Cons of Forewords

My work in progress, a new novel called Truesilver which I will discuss more in future posts, is set in a world parallel to ours. This led me to consider which details of our own world should be familiar and which might have developed differently. I don't believe it's sufficient to simply rearrange the geography and imagine new event histories. The world should feel distinct from ours, yet not so much that we struggle to relate to it.

Readers of my early drafts found my treatment of time particularly confusing. I devised a metric alternative to our 24 hour days, carved up into 60 minutes of 60 seconds each. My intent was - and still is - that all such differences should emerge from the text. Yet this one failed to do so.

My PA suggested I write an explanation, and thus the Foreword was born. In it, I describe this and other differences from our own world. Almost inevitably, I was tempted t0 expande it to include other "useful" information. Those who read the Foreword struggled less with the concept of "tenths" instead of hours, and some even suggested other details I could include.

But, as one of my beta readers pointed out yesterday, not everyone wants to read a Foreword. If I'm being honest, I don't either. When I open a book, I want to immerse myself in the action immediately. Prologue? Fine. Foreword? What? Nah, I'll just skip that, thanks. Unless, perhaps, it comfortably fits on one page.

Don't make your readers work too hard. Don't deter them from even beginning your story.

This has been one of the most valuable pieces of feedback from my beta readers so far, and I'm still considering what to do with it. Should I abandon my notion of "metric time"? Should I work harder to describe the concepts within the main text, such that they are both clear and don't distract from the story? Is a much briefer "Note on Time" a suitable compromise?

I know what I'll be working on the next day or two!