What is a Chiefdom?

Just added another piece of music I'd love to cover one day. Discovered it listening to an archaeology podcast; this student in a cultural anthropology class made a video on just that subject...in song, set to the tune of "What Does the Fox Say?"

Awkward, meandering lyrics. Here's a sample; "State is big, bands are small, tribes are weak and states are strong. Bands go hunt, some tribes farm, and the State will take your food. Priests show up, and currency, and sometimes slavery. But there's one form that no-one knows; what is a Chiefdom?"

And then I was reading an answer on Quora and they referenced the author Kit Whitfield who was a sometimes-contributor to the Slacktivist blog. And referenced another writer that Fred and PZ both mentioned and that's getting down a small degree of separation.

And the Season 12 finale of Doctor Who showed up on the Amazon stream and it was, um, weak.

So I'm thinking hard about story now. I'm still trying to load up specific details for the opening chapter in the new book; read enough of my Archaeology texts and read up on metal detectors and at some point I need to unearth the research I did on that. At least I managed to compile stuff on the Treasure Law into a place in my notes where I could find it again fast.

I've had a bit of time to think. To think in more general terms, take a longer view. Walked to work all last week and looks like I'll manage this week as well. With that and extra hours at work I haven't been able to get any actual writing done, though. The merest sketch of a draft of the first scene.

And a new realization yesterday. I have been working at winnowing the "facts" that are going to be in there. I'm rejecting the advice of my two beta readers, though. There are dense books, and there are people who like dense books (I'm one of them). This isn't something that is going to chance. I can focus in, but I can't arbitrarily strip out detail without losing whatever it is that I do as a writer.

But I can dramatize. And that's something I almost missed. I was thinking about what really needed to be touched on in the first chapter and what could be off-loaded to a later chapter. But that's not really the question. What I need to be looking at is how to make what is there be interesting.

To show whenever possible. And to show in the most showy way I can manage. Dropping dry narration is the worst. Dialog helps, but there can be better than dialog -- at worst case, you are just putting in a mouthpiece to read the text aloud instead of having it in the narration. Having it demonstrated by action is superior, when that can be done.

I knew this, of course. But that's the thing about writing. You know much more than you can remember. Much less actually employ.