00:00It doesn't make you go, oh, for goodness sake, we're on page four of the explanation of what the puzzle book's acquired is.
00:04I've had enough of this. I don't want to lose your attention at the same time.
00:09So, one of the things that writers like myself do is find sort of slightly more comfortable things to do,
00:19particularly early on in the book, to try and draw you into that book and to make you slightly reassured.
00:24So, one of those things I would describe as sort of relatability, that is to say, to give you as early as possible a character or characters or a thing that you can relate to.
00:36You go, well, I know what that is, or I identify with that person.
00:40This might be a completely alien world. This might be, you know, 40,000 years in the future where there is only war, the galaxy's on fire, and everyone's got a headache.
00:47But I do respond to that character that has been presented to me.
00:51In fact, this is a side note for 40K fans, but actually, if I wrote 40K in what might be described as a completely authentic way,
00:59really as if it was in media res, in that universe, I think it would be unreadable,
01:04because it would be full of inexplicable characters doing ghastly things to each other without, and saying things to you, going, what is he talking about?
01:10Because that's the way it works.
01:11So, actually, I'm already applying what I would describe as a fictional filter to this by making, giving you characters like, say, Gort or Isaac Gort,
01:18where there is a certain sort of empathy with that character that probably wouldn't exist in that real universe.
01:24Not that it's a real universe.
01:26I'm like, you'll be going to have some paradoxes tonight.
01:28But giving you some empathy with that character, just so he can, as it were, metaphorically hold your hand and take you to the story,
01:34and go, all right, I'll explain what everything is as you go on.
01:35I'll explain what everything is as you go on.
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