Quick note: I wrote this on Friday then forgot to upload it. Oops, here it is though!
Consistency is key. I believe I heard that somewhere. One downside of writing these stories over such a long time and not going back often to check facts and things because you’re lazy like me is that you’ll inevitably start making mistakes and inconsistencies start to appear. Not to worry, that’s what the editing process is for, but it is kind of embarrassing to look back on some of the mistakes I’ve made along the way. To give an example, in chapter two I talk a little bit about the structure of the Blueyerd Royal family. Did you know there’s a middle prince? I sure forgot about him. Well, that’s not true, there were moments when I remembered I still needed to add a sensible story for him, but I never really followed up on that. So now that I’m going through the first volume slowly I need to find the right places to refer to him. It was never my plan for him to be a particularly involved character, but it’s not like he can just never show up. Especially not in volume two, where he’s basically become the next in line for the throne. That puts Cobal in third place to become king. That’s a scary thought, I’d better make sure one of his brothers ends up on the throne or else it’ll become a lot harder for me to write about Cobal’s adventures. They’ll consist of walking from his desk to the throne and back.
In all honesty, there are a lot of small details and consistencies that I need to work hard on to fix. But when it comes to the overall structure of the story I’m fairly happy with what I have. I think volume 2 could use some more fine tuning for sure, but strictly looking at the first volume I think it’s roughly what I want it to be. That’s a scary thought as well because that means that when I’m done with this round of editing I no longer have an excuse to put off sending it to publishers. Uh oh. I’m not particularly optimistic about someone picking it up and publishing it, but weirder things have happened in the world. I think the big problem is my lack of feedback. I mostly get feedback from friends now and then and they all think it’s good. I believe them to an extent, but it’s not exactly constructive criticism. And I’m not nearly confident enough to just believe it’s good as is and can’t be improved on. Maybe that’s the attitude I need to get to become successful but it’s not in my nature. Ultimately though, the most important thing is still that I like what I’ve written. It’s my story after all, and although validation from others – in the form of sales – would be amazing since it would allow me to work less and write more, it’s not what’s most important.
Well then, enough looking back for today, let’s look ahead. There’s about two weeks left before November is here. Putting aside how crazy that is, that means that I need to start working on the plot points of volume 3 if I want to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year. I need a solid plan as well, seeing as I’ll be busy with work and won’t necessarily have as much energy each day as I did last year. And I remember last year already being a struggle, especially in the second half. But the feeling of satisfaction at the end of the month is more than worth it. I think that I should start introducing the overarching plot in volume 3. We’ve been getting hints at it throughout, with the prince going missing and the cultists appearing in different places. Not to mention, the feral wildlands are ever looming but how dangerous can they truly be if Eliana made it out of them alive? Maybe there’s a lot more to these stories than seems. I also introduced some characters in the previous volume that didn’t get much time in the limelight but will make another appearance in this volume. If you paid close attention you know someone who might be likely to show up soon. It’s a character that I only mentioned briefly in one of the early chapters of volume 2, so if you don’t know who I’m talking about that’s okay too.
Anyway, I’m sitting in a train that seems to be struggling right now, first none of the doors opened at all and now it seems to be waiting to depart. I hope it departs soon, the announcer talked about one train part moving soon, which I think is the one I’m in? If not, we’ll just go on an adventure I suppose, class isn’t all that important anyway. I do hope I have enough time left to get myself some lunch, because I didn’t bring any. For now I’ll go back to editing – and with that I probably mean staring out the window – and you should probably go back to work too. Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 