characters

I considered, especially on days when keeping the prisoners all straight becomes hard, or when I can't quite figure how much and what to do with everyone, of having fewer prisoners to accompany Candice. Part of the reason for adding more in the first place was to offer contrast between scenes, not only in the content, like how the Cerel treat the military or govies vs Candice, or how they treat men and women, but in the texture and flow. Many scenes with Candice are one-on-one discourses, but as fun as that is to write and for some people to read, the reader needs a break. According to one study, we have about a ten minute attention span, after which point the topic can stay the same but something needs to change. In writing, that can be pace, mood, the flow of a discussion, a shift between dialog and narrative, scene description and action, emotion and physical activity. I figure one way to achieve the same, and give opportunity for those kinds of changes, is to have scenes focused on Candice and some Cerel, and scenes with several characters chiming in. The group scenes can be messy, but if they come out well, they can add a richness of texture that I don't think scenes with fewer prisoners could achieve.