Petition is a structurally weird book.

If I were to break down its narrative structure according to the MICE quotient framework, I’d categorize the various plotlines in Petition and their archetypes as follows:

A plot: fantasy job interviews (tournament) <Event>

B plot: stop the creepy cultist murders (murder mystery) <Inquiry>

C plot: Rahelu develops a sense of self-worth (character arc) <Character>

I suppose I should also include the two relationship arcs:

D plot: Rahelu/Lhorne (romantic* arc) <Event**>

E plot: Rahelu/Nheras (rivalry arc) <Event**>

In this book, however, I view the Lhorne and Nheras relationships more as subsets of/beats in Rahelu’s overall character arc, because it’s more about how Rahelu’s feelings towards Lhorne and Nheras change as a result of her sense of self-worth rather than the relationships themselves.

There’s also the cultist arc in the prologue/interlude/epilogue that is part of a larger, series-level storyline:

F plot: Azosh-ek murdering citizens in a creepy cultist ritual <Event>

The way Mary Robinette Kowal teaches the MICE quotient framework, the best way to create a satisfying narrative is to nest your plotlines like HTML code. First, you gradually introduce each arc:

<E> Azosh-ek begins cultist ritual
 <E> Rahelu working on her Petition
  <C> Rahelu believes herself unworthy
   <E> Nheras destroys Rahelu's Petition
    <E> Lhorne pursues Rahelu
     <I> Rahelu and team investigate the murders

Then you’re supposed to close off the arcs in reverse order:

     </I> Rahelu and team catch the cultists
    </E> Rahelu/Lhorne romantic tension resolved
   </E> Rahelu/Nheras rivalry resolved
  </C> Rahelu's realization of self-worth
 </E> Outcome of Rahelu's Petition
</E> Outcome of cultist ritual

I…did not do that.

I consider there to be three climaxes in Petition: one action climax (stopping the cultists in Chapter 22), followed by two emotional climaxes which don’t take place until Chapters 25 and 26). Plotlines are closed off in this order:

     </I> Rahelu and team catch the cultists
    </E> Outcome of Rahelu's Petition
   </C> Rahelu's realization of self-worth
  </E> Rahelu/Nheras rivalry resolved
 </E> Rahelu/Lhorne romantic tension resolved
</E> Outcome of cultist ritual

Why did I write it this way? And why did I write a whole limbo chapter (this chapter) where we’re just hanging around with Rahelu as she tidies up loose ends like her Guild debt?

Well, there were several reasons.

#1: Climax and narrative outcome

Epic fantasy stories and tournament plot archetypes typically have a long build-up to a big action sequence that serves as the climax. That showdown/fight/battle/whatever typically is also the definitive turning point that determines the conclusion of the narrative.

It doesn’t work for Petition.

Though the fantasy job interviews, as I’ve conceived them, are essentially run as tournaments, there’s a gap between the result of the “final round” and the actual outcome. The Houses are the ultimate arbiters of Rahelu’s Petition, and that evaluation of her performance happens off-page.

At this point in the book, I don’t think there’s much doubt as to whether Rahelu is going to get an offer from the Houses, and whether she’ll accept it.

The only remaining real question is, which House will she choose?

#2: The stakes have changed

The opening chapters of Petition have narrative beats that are similar enough to what you see in “protagonist tries to get into prestigious institution” stories that a lot of readers get “magic school” vibes, even though I’m not writing magic school (because I have nothing to add to magic school).

But the moment you see Rahelu fail and witness her mother dying in Onneja’s Augury, those magic school vibes are gone. I tried to signal this narrative shift more explicitly back in Chapter 16, when Rahelu shoves Nheras into the background literally.

#3: Emotional journey

Petition is a story about debt, duty, and sacrifice.

Yes, there’s a big plot focus of the murder investigation on, “Can we stop the cultists?”, but the emotional core of book is about understanding the costs and still choosing to pay them.

The superficial question of “which House?” needs to be answered, but in my opinion, provides the least emotional resolution, because it has nothing to do with what the book is really about.

Cutting from the deaths of Hzin and the cultists straight to “here’s the verdict from the Houses” feels wrong. Petitioning was a more gruelling ordeal than Rahelu ever anticipated, and the personal cost she had to bear was much higher than she thought possible. Skipping over the time Rahelu needs to reflect and recover would lessen the narrative and emotional weight of her journey.

(Also, can you imagine the tonal whiplash if the book went from “we stopped the cultists but not before they killed a bunch more people, so actually this victory feels like a failure” to a plot beat about Rahelu and Lhorne’s relationship? Or Rahelu and Nheras’s rivalry?)

So Chapter 23 is a denouement, of sorts. It’s slow; it’s introspective; it has a “treading water” feel to it.

It’s also 100% true to life of the agonizing wait to hear back from an interview for a job you desperately need.

I know for some readers this chapter and the next will feel like they drag. I remember being frustrated myself during the drafting process, because despite wanting to just get on with hitting the next plot beat of “which Houses made an offer?”, I couldn’t move on until I had written through the emotional resolutions.

And because I was worried about the lack of forward plot momentum, I ended the chapter by introducing another open loop—which you’re really not supposed to do when you’re trying to wrap up a book.

Maybe if I were a more experienced writer, I would have been able to think of a different, less unconventional way to write it.

On the whole, though, I’m satisfied with how it works.

*Note 1: I say “romantic” rather than “romance” because one of the biggest lessons I learned about genre during my publishing journey is that readers like me, who predominantly read fantasy, will use the term “romance” to describe any relationship that is romantic in nature. However, capital-R romance as a genre requires a “happily ever after” or “happy for now” ending because romance stories are fundamentally about how the characters fall in love and get together. (Which, as I discussed in the annotations for Chapter 9 and Chapter 19, I have no interest in writing because I kind of detest the HEA/HFN concept in principle.)

To be clear, I’m not making a definitive statement about where the Rahelu/Lhorne relationship will go because I won’t know what will happen in the later books until I write them.

This is just more of a heads-up/warning that I do not and cannot promise you a capital-R romance because I don’t pull narrative punches and my characters don’t have plot armor.

(To wit: during the beta read of Supplicant, my beta readers were making bets in their in-line comments and feedback on who was going to die next.) [return]

Where Rahelu and Lhorne—or any of my characters, for that matter—will end up depends on where the story takes them, the kind of people they become, what they choose, and whether they survive the consequences of their actions.

**Note 2: one thing in the MICE quotient I struggled with was how to approach relationship arcs. Initially, I always thought of them as character arcs because intuitively you go, well, it’s about characters and how they relate to each other, so of course it’s a character arc, but whenever I tried writing relationships as character arcs, it just confused the hell out of me.

It wasn’t until I listened to this Writing Excuses podcast on character relationships that it clicked for me. In hindsight, I should have realized why writing these relationships as mini character arcs didn’t work from the start.

Fundamentally, character arcs are about a character being dissatisfied with an aspect of self, and to apply that to a relationship means the character must be dissatisfied with the relationship.

For Rahelu, in terms of her relationships with Lhorne and with Nheras, that’s simply not the case. She’s content being friends with Lhorne (though he isn’t) and hating Nheras (who likewise detests Rahelu).

Event arcs, however, are concerned with disruptions to the status quo. When Lhorne reveals he’s interested in Rahelu romantically, that’s an external disruption to their friendship. When Rahelu finds success beyond what’s expected of her, the elevation in her social status threatens Nheras’s position.

In both cases, the main question for Rahelu is whether she accepts the change in status quo. That’s a decision she has to make based on where she is her character arc.

(Interestingly, I think this means if I were to write Petition from Lhorne’s POV, I possibly would have to approach his relationship with Rahelu as a character arc rather than an event arc.)

Realizing that these relationships needed to be approached as event arcs rather than character arcs didn’t necessarily change how I wrote them, but it did help me understand what I was trying to do, and thus clarified what was/wasn’t working so I could tighten up the narrative during revisions. [return]