I wondered if it would come up. It did. There is no plot in the first half of the book. This is not exactly by-design, but it’s not accidental, either.
There is a “theme”, but that’s not the same thing. Our intrepid heroes don’t have a goal. They’re not intrepid heroes, yet. They’re just two guys on vacation who suddenly become werewolves. “Hey, we’re suddenly werewolves, what does that mean _for us_?” is the theme. There’s no quest. There’s no particular reason for them to do any particular thing. They do what they want to do. They’re purposefully staying away from other people. There’s no “It’s nice that you’re werewolves, but what’s happening to the rest of the world?” (yet).
Ploughing through that hoping for a later payoff is a lot to ask of a reader.
Somewhere a while back I noticed this and mentioned it. I’m writing a cozy/slice-of-life story. But that doesn’t mean there cannot be a goal. There is a goal: Numbers go up. But they don’t talk about it. No reason not to make it explicit early. It is explicit later on.
I do mention “we need to level up so the murder-hobos coming out of cities don’t crush us”, but it’s not really a driving factor. If I wanted to argue about the issue, I could use that. However, the mere fact that I’d need to point it out and argue about it means it’s not the plot.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it. I’m going to do something, but I’m not going to do it, now.
Not at all related: People are too passive. Our intrepid heroes are the on-screen cast, but I need to remember the people off screen are doing stuff, too.
Not at all related: An update on “they’re too calm.” It’s not just what they say. It’s stuff such as this:
They fell into a routine. Plunder the pork supply for breakfast. Patrol the area looking for dangerous creatures. Eat the dangerous creatures for lupper. Return to the lodge to discuss next steps over a beer. An evening sparing session. Make up sex. Then a good night’s sleep as wolves. They’d realized their senses were good enough to wake them so there was no need to stand guard.
That’s the start of chapter 7, which is +5 days. Reading “+5 days”, I realize that “routine” is too strong. But that’s not the point. The point is the normalization of it, whatever “it” might be. It’s not normal. I see it, now.
Update: For “what to do about it” purposes, the narrator is too calm. The dialog may reveal not-calmness (although that fades away pretty quickly, too), but the narrator smooths over any tension that may create.
Marked Up 