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Readers go into a paranormal/fantasy book expecting the worldview to be slightly off from the norm. That’s why we bought the book. Finding out Demons exist in chapter 1 might rock the Heroine’s world, but it’s ho-hum for us. The esclation is with normal turning points. Ok, worldview shifted, now what? Which old rules still apply, which don’t? How do I fit?

Speaking of which, suddenly finding out you’re X or not X is just a regular, plain ‘ol turning point. Happens in just about every book. Unless you find out you’re a lizard – BEFORE you find out lizard people exist – it’s not a Black Swan. But the “Black Swan” is that the lizard people exist, not whether or not you are one. Or vice versa. In this case, it’s only an academic exercise as to which of the two is the Black Swan since they both result in a worldview shift accepting Lizard People as real combined with your being one of them. Substitute Wizard and you have the Harry Potter kickoff. Everything he did subsequently was just turning points. Black Swan was foundation on which turning points rested.

For rambling kicks: One of my worldview shifts was shopping for housewares abroad. Turns out they don’t sell illows in American sizes in Italy. It’s made me look at everything and wonder why it’s the size it is – and it’s usually because it’s so common changing it would be harder than putting up with the less good thing. Like Qwerty keyboards – designed to make typing slow, yet millions of people use them inefficiently every day, wasting millions of hours because learning to type Dvorak would temporarily inconvenience us for 5-10 years while everything shifted and people had to know both instead of just one system.

As to double mumbo jumbo being bad:
And I gave up on Sherrilyn Kenyon many books ago for three primary reasons – violating worldbuilding rules she set herself, Double Mumbo Jumbo, and the concept that something is inherently evil.

(Sorry, this turned into a rant. But I can’t help myself.)
SK does world building then constantly makes exceptions after carefully saying that exception isn’t possible. Not a black swan, just careless worldbuilding or imprecise language. “His cougar nature had absolute control that his human half couldn’t overcome” followed 1 page later by “his human half was fighting his cougar nature and winning”. Don’t give me a rule if it’s worthless. Say it’s hard then show that it’s hard, but don’t announce its impossibility then go do it. That’s just dumb.

Another is that she has the magic AND the time travel = DMJ. The books I read never needed the time travel aspect and she uses it poorly and it mucks with the magic worldbuilding and makes a mockery of what we know. I don’t care how outlandish your world is, but as a READER, I need to understand what the rules are insofar as they are known. Don’t toss in, “oh, by the way there’s time travel too” and then proceed to use it badly. It just makes me think she’s careless.

Lastly, the “good guys” fight the “Daemons” who are “all evil” because they eat humans. They aren’t evil, they’re just higher on the food chain. I’ve gotten to the point where I have no patience for the idea that one type of being should not be allowed to exist so other beings should kill them off. It makes sense to have guardians against your predators. It does not make your predators evil that must be exterminated.

So, sorry for the SK rant. I was hoping there would be something there that would be useful with regard to rules for paranormal things from a reader POV. But Black Swan – only one needed for a whole series. Consider it worldbuilding.

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I don’t think you need escalating worldview shifts though. Think of this “demons exist” black swan as the kick off to the story. If this worldview shift didn’t happen, the story couldn’t happen. The whole “demons don’t exist despite all evidence” mindset hanging on until page 333 would not be fun to read, so better to have it early and done with. I think the point of having it early is to establish with the READER the worldview. It might be monumental for the heroine, but it’s background for the reader so we can set up what we will and won’t accept from the story based on these new rules. I don’t think subsequent conflicts that don’t muck up the heroines worldview will be anti-climactic because of it, they just get placed in context because of it. Like when Harry Potter learns he’s a wizard, suddenly things make sense. Once he’s accepted the wizard thing, the story can take place.

If you do have subsequent black swans, perhaps they should also shift the reader’s world view as well.

Now to go read the other 75 comments. Yikes! I check every day for weeks and almost no new updates. I miss a week and you’ve blogged continuously. It figures.

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The demons definitely have issues, some more than most. None of them turn out to be good guys. The best of them is more along the lines of Spike with a much lower body count.

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The truth is, my ability to endure endless gloom and doom and angst is very limited. It’s depressing. I remember wishing young Cathy would start dressing up as the ghost, maybe encourage Heathcliff to walk off the roof or something.

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So I guess the turning point would be: Mab discovers the angels aren’t as good as she thought they were, and they have to save themselves.

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I suspect 2 and 3 could change places.

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Everyone has a comfort zone, and the majority of us (IMHO) feel some panic when asked or forced out of it. But some people, no matter how great their initial degree of panic over leaving the ‘zone’, they thrive. They come into their own. But, how do you find those people?

For Will Smith in MIB, there was the entertaining scene with the egg-shaped chairs and the other applicants. He was identified as one who would thrive because he sized up the situation, and dragged his chair over to a table (or vice-versa?).

Could it be that Mab’s transformation is along those lines? Finding that ability to thrive far outside her comfort zone? Not just being able to overcome whatever’s thrown at her, but finding her ability to thrive on it.

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I know, that’s NO help. But the theories you’re all offering are terrific, so I’m following along and trying to synthesize. Thank you so much and keep up the good work, please.

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3. She thought she knew what she wanted (that could be regarding relationships and building on her previous life)

or

3. She thought what she did would have limited impact (that could be regarding her two first BS TP)

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Which boils down to,
A) the world is different
B) *YOU* are different
C) the ‘different’ world and the ‘old’ world are really one and the same, and reconciled.

Like when they discovered that ‘new’ species of fish, and turns out, hey, actually? That’s just an early form of the common eel. Wow, solves the mystery of how come you never saw a baby eel. You saw them all the time, just didn’t call them by the right name.
Meh. Not being a writer, someone out there has no doubt said it better. I’ll go look for them now.

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Mab’s first two TPs are definite paradigm shifts, and so is the third TP by the sound of it.

The first TP is also a black swan, as the difference between a black swan TP and a paradigm shift TP is that the first requires a reality based on the non-existence of something, in this case demons.

The second TP, however, is only a paradigm shift because Mab has already left the reality in which demons don’t exist. Without knowing precisely what Jenny has Mab realize about herself, I don’t think it changes a reality based on non-existence. Is any of this making sense?

For instance, if Mab discovered a pink demon, she would realize demons exist. She wouldn’t realize pink demons exist, but remain steadfast in her belief that blue demons and purple demons don’t exist. And, I don’t know about y’all, but if I find out demons exist, any solid doubts I have about ghosts, witches, and leprechauns are history.

So, while there’s definitely a paradigm shift on the second TP, I don’t see a black swan. Does that mean the third TP can’t be a black swan? No. But, it has to start at a reality based on the non-existence of something.

On the flip side, if Jenny’s turning points are black swans, I’m all for them appearing in the story. Maybe there’s a pond at the amusement park, and after each revelation, a new black swan flies in. Or maybe the carousel has swan boats, and they turn black one by one. But those damn swans have messed with my head all day, so they should be acknowledged.

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