The following is an author’s annotation that relates to a specific chapter of the book MISTBORN: THE FINAL EMPIRE. Note that the following is NOT the text of the actual chapter, but a companion to the chapter, revealing “behind the scenes” information. If you have not read the book up to–and including–this chapter, you risk serious spoilers! Please, if you haven’t read MISTBORN, go visit the sample chapters, or perhaps purchase the book via Amazon.

You can navigate between annotations by using the list of links on the left. The very first annotation has a more detailed explanation of what is going on. If you want to start there, go to this link. Note–thoughts in the following annotation that might spoil later chapters have been hidden. You can reveal them via the button on the left, and they will appear in red. Not all chapters have hidden text–in fact, relatively few of them do. Thanks!

Chapter One Part One

The ‘bumps’ or ‘trailers’ or whatever you want to call them–those things at the beginnings of the chapters–are a very interesting part of the book for me. If you’re reading the novel for the first time as you go through these Annotations, I’d recommend paying good attention to what happens in the bumps. This isn’t like DUNE, or even ENDER’S GAME, where the bumps give interesting–but tangential–information. These little paragraphs are vital if you want to figure out the climax of the story before it happens.

One of the advantages of moving the first chapter back and making it a prologue is that I now get to start the book, chapter one, with Vin. That’s important, in my mind, because she’s the main character of the book. Establishing her with a very strong viewpoint as the first chapter of the book adds a lot to it, I think.

We get a lot of important information in this first little section with Vin. I like starting early with Reen’s advice and thoughts. As you’ll see as you read the book, Reen’s teachings have quite a strong influence on Vin. He’s a little stronger in this chapter than in others, I think, but it’s good to start off strong. You’ll find out more about him, and about what these thoughts in Vin’s head mean.

I will admit that one of my weaknesses in writing is that I like to spend too long in contemplative, in-head scenes with my characters. This introduction with Vin is a good example of that. I like the scene quiet a bit, but I can understand that too much of this sort of thing gets boring. That’s why I move it quickly into a scene where something is happening. Given my way, however, I’d probably spend about twice as long with characters just standing around thinking.