Synchronicity

The to-do list for the next draft: places where the book contradicts itself, where it drifted from the plan, and real-history slips. They get checked off here as they're fixed.

1. bibleThe inventor needs a new name

   The inventor's name in the bible is the same name another of Wes's projects uses for its lead character, and the Writing Portfolio flags it as a reused name. The guide calls him "the inventor" for now. Pick a name that belongs to this book alone.

2. bibleWhat the older Duo is called

   The antagonist is a future Duo, but every doc calls him by the inventor's first name rather than Griffin or Duo, and the early brainstorm calls him Deus Ex Machina. If he takes his original's name on purpose, the story needs to show why; otherwise pick one name.

3. bibleAlexandria or Area 51

   The bible, and the concept notes, put the program in the Voltaire, underground below Alexandria, Virginia. The same concept notes open with Area 51, Nevada, and the Writing Portfolio's logline says the military builds the machine at Area 51. The public post names this as undecided.

4. bibleTwo nineteen-year-olds under a cutoff of nineteen

   The rule is that only minds under nineteen survive a jump (the early notes call it "a cutoff date of 19"), but Gwen and Ethan are both nineteen. Either the cutoff is nineteen and under, or they need to be eighteen.

5. structureFour chapters for five acts

   The only chapter outline is a prologue and four chapters that squeeze the five acts together; the Chrono-Censor discovery, which is Act Two in the plot, lands in Chapter 3 after the older Duo appears in Chapter 2. The outline needs rebuilding to match the five-act order.

6. structureHow it ends, and what happens to Duo

   In the early brainstorm the older self kills his younger self inside the black hole, stops existing, travels further back, kills the inventor and throws the fusion core into the black hole. The bible keeps only the core's destruction and the reset, and never says whether Duo survives the confrontation. Decide Duo's fate and whether the inventor dies. Killing the inventor would also need squaring with the Censor, which blocks the death of anyone important.

7. bibleIs tethering once ever, or once per mission?

   The concept notes say tethering can only be done once. The worldbuilding doc says it may be once per mission or once per person. The bible says a one-time pull. Settle it, since it decides how often the team can escape a bad jump.

8. bibleWhere Chance was found

   The concept notes say Chance was found at the laboratory after being dropped in from the future. The character file and bible say she was found on a jump. Pick one; it bears on who sent her.

9. bibleDoes the tether change Duo?

   The concept notes say that when the team is tethered back, Duo comes back "a little insane" along with the losses to Ethan, Chance and Gwen. The bible lists the other three costs and drops Duo's. Decide whether he pays one too.

10. bibleWho is Griffin Rockwell the first?

    Duo's full name is Griffin Alexander Rockwell II, which implies a Griffin Rockwell before him, but he's a clone of the inventor, who has a different name. No doc explains the "II". Either give it a reason or drop it.

11. bibleWhat "nuclear energy ceases to exist" means

    The Cosmic Reset ends with nuclear energy and black holes ceasing to exist. Stars, the sun included, run on nuclear fusion, so taken literally the reset would end far more than time travel. Define the reset more narrowly (nuclear technology, the machine's kind of black hole) or make the scale deliberate.