I’m about 15% into the first draft of Hollow Whispers. I have about 13k words on paper, and a full synopsis and timeline to work from. The target word count is 90k. So far, I’m on track.
I was doomscrolling Reddit today when I came across this gem of history:
In this (reportedly) 1962 copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the entry respecting Chinese language reforms complains that “many of the Chinese characters are clumsy and unwieldy”, among other things.
I snorted a laugh, then had a flash of inspiration. I had just written a passage last night where the main character, a young Chinese woman, explains to her father the (very charged) reasons why she wants to go to London. The passage happens to have a gibe about the English language. It would be a perfect place to reference this Encyclopedia Brittanica entry, I thought. So I did:
To be fair, I prefer my original verbiage because it fits the style of the narrative better, but I think I’ll keep the easter egg for now until a future editing pass because it’s simply too perfect of a diss to pass up on.
