Plus ça change – March 11, 2026
This is an inside joke from my critique group, a wonderful bunch of people.
Every author dreams of thousands of readers of published novels. But we all start small. No draft survives the light of day. Polished words are not automatic. The author must have feedback. When others see the construct that appears out of my head, the perspective shifts. “Oh, I didn’t think of it that way.”
Sometimes, nope, not going there. I’m the author, and that’s a bridge too far. But as a writer if you are not open to seeing your world with other peoples eyes, well, the story is gonna suck.
One of us writes wonderful adventure stories in the manner of a Saturday serial. It’s great stuff, with machine guns, airplanes, zeppelins, and mind-controlled zombie armies. He used the words “clustered together,” and I gave him smiling shit for it. “When have you ever seen a group clustered apart?”
Being writers, supportive friends in the pursuit of our art, we all had a great laugh. And another of us said, “Jim has given me a challenge. I must now figure out how to get ‘clustered apart’ into the next novel in a way that fits.” She can do it! More laughter. On a previous occasion, the phrase was “polite mayhem,” and we were all in awe. My friends are highly skilled. I want to work that into Laveaux: Mother.
There is someone even more central, the first reader. Every writer has one, or should have. I am especially fortunate that Jessi finds me acceptable enough to live with me. She is far more than my reader, she is my brilliant co-conspirator. It’s not her effort, it’s mine. But she has all the insight required to be plot consultant, character consultant, and idea trampoline, as well as first reader.
The scene is inside a business exchange in 1827 New Orleans, called (at the time) Hewlett’s Exchange and Coffee House. Think of the upper-crust opulent English Old Boys’ Club. But this is French, in the French Quarter, and this is where business happens. I have the draft all done. See Who Wears the Pants in this Outfit. That chapter.
An underlying tension in New Orleans, and in the novel, is the growing dominance of American over French. A point in this chapter is that French is the dominant language of business. Major character Christophe Glapion, Marie’s husband, is doing business. He speaks French, English, and Spanish.
By the time my first reader sees it, I’ve been over it a half dozen times. I actually like editing. It’s like poetry, crafting the words that make the story. The mechanics of grammar and language are rarely a problem. Jessi reads this, and says… “I got nothing. But why is Christophe doing business in English? Wouldn’t he be speaking French?”
God bless my first reader. I had him doing business in English for a reason. French is WAY better, I can see that. DUH!
So this morning I revisit, shift the opening words of the business conversation into French, and then pursue the ramifications in the rest of the scene, and it is brilliant. Here we are inside the antagonist’s head, as he tries to figure out why his machinations have failed.
The quiet conversation near the window, drifts in again. Why am I noticing this? he wonders. Then he realizes, it’s the French. Of course. Hewlett’s isn’t the problem, it’s the symptom. Every American businessman learns French, comes to the French Quarter to deal for businesses, stocks, real property, moveable property, estates; slaves; plantations. He sees himself as the exception that proves the rule.
The fact that Glapion, sitting nearby, is dealing in French with an American stock broker makes the point. Shifting it into French enriches the subtleties of the thought process going on inside the American antagonist’s head, as he sits in the shadows, catching the odd word in a foreign language, and making plans for undermining the French.
The change is subtle, beneath the notice of a reader, but it is the girder out of which I can build the story and make it powerful.
The cool thing is, my critique group will never see the version where the business conversation was in English. My first reader moved me into a better place. And the group’s feedback, when they see this, will make it even better. Because we are all clustered together to make it happen.
Most but not all of us, including not me.
