u/HylomorphicDualist

Will Wight constantly lies to the reader in the prose of his action scenes. He does this in a subtle way that makes the scenes more enjoyable to read. You like that he does this. To understand how he lies, let’s consider an analogy from cinema. Here is a punch:

https://i.redd.it/hyztrkau9qzg1.gif

The editor has taken two shots and put them together to create an illusion that the actress in this scene has actually punched the actor. The editor has lied to us about what has happened in order to make two separate things closer than they are actually in the mind of the viewer.

Wight does the opposite of this. He lies in action scenes to make things appear closer and more connected than they actually are so that he can pull them apart in the final conclusion. He does this throughout every book of Cradle, but here are some examples:

>“He hit the Skysworn with the back of his fist. The man was a Truegold as well, and he had been on his guard from the beginning. He raised one armored forearm to block, pink light shining out from his Enforcer technique. Lindon’s knuckles made contact. The skysworn blasted backward.”

>“Reigan Shen took another sip and then backhanded Lindon's jaw. His hand stopped an inch from Lindon's skin”

>“Crusher slapped her. Yerin caught the blow with both hands on her sword. And stopped it.”

>“So he slapped Larian instead. She was a projection of her consciousness, so it wouldn’t great harm her, but he still expected it to land. He was surprised she managed to block in time”

What do each of these scenes have in common? They contain what are called success terms. The subject “hit the Skysworn,” “backhanded Lindon’s jaw,” “slapped her,” and “slapped Larian.”  But then in each case, Wight clarifies that he was actually lying about the success of the action. The Skysworn wasn’t hit, he blocked; Lindon’s jaw wasn’t backhanded, it was stopped; Crusher didn’t slap her, Yerin caught the blow; Larian wasn’t slapped, she blocked in time. Wight should have instead said, “He tried to hit the Skysworn,” “he swung a backhand blow at Lindon’s jaw,” “Crusher attempted to slap her,” and “He slapped at Larian.” These all accurately signal an attempted action rather than a successful action.

The problem is that using “attempt” language would substantially weaken the writing of the scenes. If the author puts “tried to hit” instead of “hit” it usually signals to the reader that something is about to foil that attempt, since authors don’t randomly add attempt words in front of every action in a fight scene, but only those which will be foiled.

So, instead, Wight simply lies: He uses success terms and then takes them back afterward. The reader receives no spoilers about what will happen next; perhaps Wight will undo the action’s success, or maybe he won’t. The action flows together much more tightly. It only requires that readers accept Wight’s lies.

[I originally posted this on another, small fantasy subreddit and it was well received, so I thought it might be useful to the writers here]

Will Wright constantly lies to the reader in the prose of his action scenes. He does this in a subtle way that makes the scenes more enjoyable to read. You like that he does this. To understand how he lies, let’s consider an analogy from cinema. Here is a punch:

https://i.redd.it/hyztrkau9qzg1.gif

The editor has taken two shots and put them together to create an illusion that the actress in this scene has actually punched the actor. The editor has lied to us about what has happened in order to make two separate things closer than they are actually in the mind of the viewer.

Wright does the opposite of this. He lies in action scenes to make things appear closer and more connected than they actually are so that he can pull them apart in the final conclusion. He does this throughout every book of Cradle, but here are some examples:

>“He hit the Skysworn with the back of his fist. The man was a Truegold as well, and he had been on his guard from the beginning. He raised one armored forearm to block, pink light shining out from his Enforcer technique. Lindon’s knuckles made contact. The skysworn blasted backward.”

>“Reigan Shen took another sip and then backhanded Lindon's jaw. His hand stopped an inch from Lindon's skin”

>“Crusher slapped her. Yerin caught the blow with both hands on her sword. And stopped it.”

>“So he slapped Larian instead. She was a projection of her consciousness, so it wouldn’t great harm her, but he still expected it to land. He was surprised she managed to block in time”

What do each of these scenes have in common? They contain what are called success terms. The subject “hit the Skysworn,” “backhanded Lindon’s jaw,” “slapped her,” and “slapped Larian.”  But then in each case, Wright clarifies that he was actually lying about the success of the action. The Skysworn wasn’t hit, he blocked; Lindon’s jaw wasn’t backhanded, it was stopped; Crusher didn’t slap her, Yerin caught the blow; Larian wasn’t slapped, she blocked in time. Wright should have instead said, “He tried to hit the Skysworn,” “he swung a backhand blow at Lindon’s jaw,” “Crusher attempted to slap her,” and “He slapped at Larian.” These all accurately signal an attempted action rather than a successful action.

The problem is that using “attempt” language would substantially weaken the writing of the scenes. If the author puts “tried to hit” instead of “hit” it usually signals to the reader that something is about to foil that attempt, since authors don’t randomly add attempt words in front of every action in a fight scene, but only those which will be foiled.

So, instead, Wright simply lies: He uses success terms and then takes them back afterward. The reader receives no spoilers about what will happen next; perhaps Wright will undo the action’s success, or maybe he won’t. The action flows together much more tightly. It only requires that readers accept Wright’s lies.