Rambling About Writing

Other works of fantasy. Right now, that's what I feel like.

Don't have anything particular going on right now. Feeling a bit drained. Going to wait a day or two before beginning the next pass against Prophecies of Madatar. It's a good story - a great story - but 600-pages seems a bit much. Going to have to pick some things to chop out. Won't be easy.

If I can have a successful edit this go around (and by successful mean chop 30,000-words+ and still have a story) I shall return to Book III, which is currently under the title, "Bonds of Love". Bonds of Love will answer many questions raised in Traitor, and Prophecies of Madatar. Most of the questions aren't critical, but they're there. Book III is also my first serious attempt at following three characters in three different places simultaneously. It's something which has been done many times by many authors and writers. Done well, it works great. Done poorly it doesn't work at all. The idea, of course, is that these three separate cords are all coming together to a form a single rope.

I think was doing all right. For one thing, I'm a stickler about timing. A pet peeve of mine is when a character leaves to go someplace and arrives days before it is possible. The Star Wars Saga was horrible about this. Obiwan wanted to send a message to the Jedi Council, but it was too far. So he contacts Anikan instead. Then, within hours (minutes) of Anikan's arrival, the Jedi show up. I hate that.

I've spent days researching transportation modes to get realistic expectations of how long it takes to walk from here to there, ride a horse from here to there, ride a wagon from here to there, or fly from here to there. Then, having determined how long it takes to travel, I look at when I need the character/s to be wherever. After that I backschedule. If I can't reconcile the time, then what I want to write just cannot happen. It doesn't fit with the reality of the story. This adherence to time detail has meant extra days/weeks of writing. It also means sometimes I just cannot get characters to where they are needed. This means other characters are going to have to find a way to make do without them. Anything else is just lazy writing.

Well, I have to close. Son just chipped his last reed and we are off to Schmidt Music to buy a box of them. Catch you later.