And that's fine. It's certainly strange, but anything that gets the work done.
Something that Stephen King used to do in his writing, that annoys a
bunch of people, is when he gives away something that will happen later
in the story, a kind of wink to the reader, but in a pretty mean way
("If they had known that their happiness would turn out to be so
short-lived, they would've made more use of the happy time between
them. But of course they didn't know it would all fall apart, so they
didn't even notice how happy they were."). He's done it a bunch of
times, but the one that always comes to mind for me is toward the end of
The Stand, where our heroes are about to go to Vegas to fight,
and Stu has to stay behind, and King actually writes, right there and
then, "And none of them ever saw Stu Redmane again." It freaked me out
when I read it, but unlike many readers (and perhaps you), I sort of
love Unca Steve for it, and it thrilled me at the time, and thrills me
to remember now.
So, the reason I bring it up is because, as I
was nearing the end of my writing on this particular segment/chapter of
the story, I was diabolically tempted to do the same sort of thing,
with just a couple of words added to a sentence at the end. It doesn't
change any of the narrative, but it's a hint--a wink, like I said, but a
cruel one--if people are paying attention, as to what's coming next.
I
was hesitant to do it, though, so I called Big Anklevich at work (like I
always do) to ask him if I should do it or not. He said it didn't
bother him so much when King does it (he likes it a lot less when one of
King's characters is a writer), and, as long as it was not dishonest
(if you know what I'm saying), to go right ahead.
So I did.
Sorry.
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