When I announced this newsletter, I said it would be a work-in-progress, not a serialization of a finished, polished story. This week, it seems, is when I follow through on that promise.
In the first edition of this newsletter, I shared a scene in which the protagonist learns about the game of life. Now, seven weeks later, I’m sharing that same scene again, but rewritten (with different characters) and expanded (to almost twice the length!).
I’ve known since week two that I would have to rewrite the opening. When I first drafted the scene, I was imagining a story organized around a loving and supportive relationship between the protagonist and her mother. But once I adopted the search for superstability as an organizing theme for the story, I felt I had to change Mira’s relationship with her parents. It seemed that her interest in the mathematics of stability could be best explained if her non-mathematical life was chaotic, unstable, and uncertain. That would include her relationship with her parents. Instead of opening with the protagonist and her mother, I’ve introduced a new mentor figure to help eight-year-old Mira navigate the pages of Scientific American: Mira’s Uncle Mark.
I’ve also used this rewrite as an opportunity to linger a bit longer with Mira as she learns Life, to give readers a greater chance of grasping its rules. This scene is the primary opportunity for readers to learn how Life works, so I want to make sure it offers a satisfactory explanation without being too didactic. If after reading this scene you have no idea how Life works, please let me know! (A quick response to this email will do — just copy-paste “I read the scene and I’m still confused!”). If it needs to be clearer, I’ll come back and do another pass over it.