While writing my secondary world fantasy story, Stars Fall Out, I figuratively referred to a character as a pinch hitter. But in order to have a pinch hitter, you need to have baseball. My options here:
- A. Delete this line. It’s not that important.
- B. Find a similar term that doesn’t involve baseball.
- C. Worldbuild a secondary world sport with a position that would be equivalent to a pinch hitter, incorporate this sport into earlier scenes with references to the pinch hitter position, all so I can use this line here.
So, probably A or B. It’s a line-level issue that doesn’t impact the larger story. Unless I’m in a procrastinating mood when I do my revision, or suddenly think it would be fun to create secondary world baseball. Because if it’s fun, I’ll do it.
Here’s the excerpt in question:
On the countertop, loaves of seed bread formed up in marching order.
My father was telling Vilari how [name of innkeeper] the innkeeper had called him in at the last minute. A secret hero, a [pinch hitter]. Reliable, dependable, known for quality. Between this honor, and the fact the Vilari had kept showing up at the bakery, my father was in fine spirits.
“He came to see me at my class,” he told her. [Some other bakery] is right there, down the hill. Practically in the basement.”
“But who wants bread from the basement?” Vilari laughed at her own joke.
“Who indeed?” Then he ripped off a chunk from one of my loaves. “You slipped on the seeds,” he said.
I tested an end bit as well, and it was pointy in my mouth and throat. “The imperials like more seeds. It seems more authentic to them.” I shouldn’t have said that last bit, but this whole surreal thing with Vilari laughing and joking had disoriented me.
Father opened his mouth, but apparently decided not to lecture me on manufactured authenticity. Not today, anyway. He’d let it stew in his head for a bit.
I could be sure of that.
Fun fact: I’m using the post-by-email feature for this post since I don’t yet have the WordPress app set up on my new phone. This is how I discovered that Gmail now has an autofill feature for email subjects.
This post got the subject “Joke of the week.” Just like a 20-year-old email newsletter!