progress and history: Caution, IFGS D'oril spoiler (of sorts)

     I've added a scene to chapter one, and another scene to chapter four, setting up the revised plotline for Imperfect Hope.  I feel that both scenes are a bit weak, mostly because I was jumping back and trying to fit the new pieces in place.  I know it will come together during rewrite, though.  In chapter 7, I've inserted a new scene that will complete the foreshadowing and turn the next three scenes into a more suspenseful ending, and just started work on the next scene.  This scene will set the tone for the climax, so I'm approaching it with a bit of caution.  Regardless, I feel I'm on track to finish Imperfect Hope by mid July.

     One of the additions I'm tacking on is to increase the shadow emperors (as Prable the second is known outside the empire of Tallux) power and influence, and setting up the means by which he and the previous emperors have controlled their vast conquests.  It ties in with the wintergems, corrupted by shadow, which is a natural resource that they (the empire) have almost depleted within their own lands.  Thus the means for them to maintain power of the lands they already hold depends on them expanding their empire over more lands that hopefully have their own supply of wintergems, (or the as yet undefined alternative that I've decided exists in a vastly different form waiting to be discovered).  Up until know, I'd treated the emperor as a distant figure that didn't actually take part in the tale, but with the new direction, I've introduced him to add dread and a higher-order threat to the protagonists.  This actually ties in with my intentions re: the aftermath of Sha'te Valley.

     You seen, I'd written some notes some time back about sha'te's aftermath, and indicated that the failure of the empires army in D'oril lead to a revolution/coup attempt as the shattered armies under Yam'to's lieutenants made their way back to Tallux.  Feeling badly used by the emperor, Beauty, as leader of the Demonguard, managed to find a loophole in his conditioning/curse that allowed his human half to override the restrictions placed on his demon half to disobey the emperor.  During the long retreat, He and the few survivors of the demonguard shielded the van of Yam'to's army from the pursuing K'tath and allies, and more than once, was left to fend for himself in order to allow some favorite of the emperor to escape.  Once they made it back to safety, He took it upon himself to depose the emperor, the ensuing generation of conflict ended with a new dynasty being founded, Prable the first.  Prable succeeded in part because he called upon the shadowlord for support, not just Seta.  (I suppose Shadowlord vs Seta is sort of sunni vs shiite)

     Prable the first would redefine the empire's strategy,while keeping the ultimate goal of obtaining freer access to D'orils wintergem supply, he would consolidate his hold on the rest of the empire.especially the eastern seaboard which suffered from few useable ports, too many pirates and raiders, and poor infrastructure (roads and such) that linked with the heart of the empire.  He would strengthen his navy as part of his efforts, regaining control of the eastern coastal regions, and begin a campaign across the ocean, in line with his intent to avoid the frozen overland approach to D'oril.  He took the long view, without actually putting any specific plan in motion towards D'oril, he set the stage for his son, trained in strategy as well as shadow theology.

     Anyway, with this background on the empires shadowlord connection, I've set the stage for a confrontation in Imperfect Hope, where the protagonists face their nemesis again, and learn much more about the empire's long term strategy, all in the shadow of the Inn of the Stumbling Friar. Yes, it still exists, 75 years after Sha'te Valley.  I wonder who the owner is these days...  ;-)

TTFN,
Jim

Decision time

    I've made more progress on Imperfect Hope this week than most weeks over the last few months, even with my indecision over the path I'm to take.  Basically, I'm looking at a natural break point in the story line that would allow me to split the novel into two, and possibly allow me to add the prequel to round out a trilogy.  It's not unheard of for a writer to hash out the middle of a story first, nor is it unusual for the story to take on much more than originally intended.  I've been looking ahead at the outline, and wondering if there is another possible breakpoint a couple of chapters ahead, and it doesn't look so.  On the other hand, the balance between this part and the finish would be a bit off, about 2/5ths in part 1, 3/5ths in part two.  I'm wondering how successful I'd be at cutting part two, but I've recently added some strong content ideas to part 1 that gives me hope.  Perhaps there's a lot more where that came from when I work on rewrite number one.

     So...  Decision time.  Imperfect hope stalled out very badly over the last few months, but I'm back on track, putting weekly word counts back up.  If I keep up this pace, I should be able to finish the next chapter in 2 or 3 weeks if I add content and make an ending for book 1.  What then...

     Listening to myself think (outside the random chaotic thoughts of "Hey, look at the squirrel" and such), I've made my decision.  Imperfect Hope, part 1, first draft, is nearing completion.  I"ve got two scenes I'm going to add in Chapters one and four to foreshadow my coming cliffhanger, and I'll rework the final three scenes in chapter 7 to make it much more suspenseful.  I'm not going to set myself a time limit, since I'm not sure how much actual change I"ll have to do to make it a viable finish for IH-1, but...  With any luck, August will begin the rewrite.

     Oh...  Did I mention how I intend to work on revisions.  Well, when I finish first draft later in July, I'm planning to print the whole thing out, double spacing, and then...  Bind it together and stuff it in a thinking drawer for two or three weeks.  While it's put away, I'm going to have fun, draw maps and make history for D'oril, revise and refine my overall time line, and generally step away from Imperfect Hope to refresh my thoughts.  Then...

     I'll reread the whole thing, start to finish.  No editorializing, no revising, just read.  Then, make notes to myself.  Then, out comes the pen for line by line commentary and I read it again.  Find discrepancies in character behavior or appearance, history, settings, so on.  Identify weak dialogue, description, or mood.  Don't correct, just comment, then put it aside, perhaps for a few days. When I'm ready, I'll start writing again, with a fresh file on the computer.  No preordained sentences or structure, just use the first draft print out at my side as a guideline.

     Why this way?  Because I know how I rewrite.  I can take a paragraph on the computer, revise it on the spot, and...  I'll improve the paragraph, but not affect the strategic sense of the novel because I'm focused on one paragraph.  That kind of revision is important, but that will be during the final couple of workovers.  Right now, I need to look at the big, Novel-Wide picture.  In addition, I'm putting in the break period to allow myself to be purely creative with background material that will help me when I rewrite.  I know there are novel wide flaws in the first draft, things that I need to fix across a couple of chapters and/or many scenes, and trying to fix it paragraph by paragraph will just reintroduce a whole new set of discrepancies.  My notes should hold me to my overall vision.

     I'm excited about finishing the first draft.  It's a milestone that seemed out of reach only a few months ago.  I'm excited about the rewrite.  Now to swallow that lump of fear that's gathered at the base of my throat...

TTFN,
Jim

What? A light at the end of this tunnel?

     Progress on Imperfect Hope continues, over the last week, I finished another scene, and ground through about half of the next.  Meanwhile, I went back and looked at the big picture, from storyline to outline to see how things are going.  I've realized two things, that I'm nearing the half way point of my original storyline, and that I'm also nearing a natural break point.  If I were to split Imperfect Hope into a duology, or add the "origins" prequel to make it a trilogy as I've been considering, the next three scenes would close out the middle of the three books (or the first of two).  As a result, I'm eyeing the next three scenes with the possibility of considering it "the end" of my first draft of my first novel.

     Okay, that's bigger than I thought, I could finish my first draft in a couple of weeks!  Originally, my story estimate was about 90k words, right now, to finish my original outline it will take about 150k words, even without adding the prequel.  If I end up with the chapter I"m working on, I'll be back to about 85-95k words, depending on how wordy I get with the next couple of scenes.  As I said, this chapter seems to make a natural break point, though I'd have to add some foreshadowing to draw the tale to a satisfying ending and draw interest in the next book. 

     I am not sure if closing out is the correct thing to do yet, I've a couple of concerns about the viability of the storyline as standalone if I end with essentially a cliffhanger.  The initial plot is unfinished, the heroes have not resolved any of their initial problems, though they have uncovered a major plot by the empire.  They barely survived, and recovery for them is still in the air (at least as far as the current chapter is concerned), let alone stopping the empires spy.  If I end with this next chapter, I am fairly certain I could make the ending make sense, and with the proper foreshadowing, build strong momentum for part 2 (3?).  I probably would have to add a scene or two to close out empire activities (from their point of view), perhaps set the beginnings of the next stage of their plot in motion before closing out with our heroes splitting up in D'oril.  I'm intrigued by the possibility.

     However.  Am I being too stereotypical?  Perhaps, some good duologies and trilogies end with foreshadowing, unfinished business, and cliffhangers.  I suspect that many more bad ones try to do the same thing and fail miserably.  Am I "giving up" too easily, tired by the long drag through chapter 7, and dreading the next 8 chapters as too much to chew?  Is my inner critic (hah, he's not capitalized, that must mean something...) subtly trying to take over.  I'm going to mull these, and other questions, over the next few days while I finish chapter.scene 8.2.  I have made my own comparison to my d'oril minigame efforts leading up to Sha'te.  In the IFGS games, I allowed for minor PC victories in each minigame, but left the PC's with many more questions and worries each time, building toward Sha'te, where the conclusion (as far as the PC's were concerned) settled affairs in the north for a time.

     In the meantime, I'm going to finish chapter 8, scene 2 as is, then hopefully be able to look at 8.3 and see what kind of changes I'd need to make if I go for the finish early.  I suspect it will require some considerable changes in format, but nothing plot changing.  8.4 would have to be a change of viewpoint, back to the empire's minions to close out their actions for IH-1, set up the plot for IH-2 and such.  8.5 would then close out IH-1, back in D"oril, where I'd have to add some content, possibly in the form of a vision from Elorna, or prophecy news from the Sen, or perhaps just a reasoned realization from our heroes as to what's happening.  Another possibility would be to add another scene, taking place at southport, which is the next major action point of the empires plan.  At any rate, dark clouds on the horizon promise black times for the confederacy, but are our heroes ready to take their place on the stage of fate?  Or are they just plain tired...

     Stay tuned while I argue with myself while walking around the FAA air traffic control center, there may be yelling involved.  Hope the neighbors don't call the Longmont PD to resolve a domestic dispute...   ;-)    

Progress in writing

     As  I look back at the last few months, one thing has leapt out at me regarding my writing.  I've been stuck on the same chapter of Imperfect Hope.  In fact, I've been stuck on one scene in particular.  Well, for what it's worth, I managed to close it out and start in on the next chapter.  Interestingly, the words seemed to leap out of me when I started in on the new stuff. 

     That tells me a few things.  One, I suspect the scene I was working on most grindingly will most likely get changed drastically when I go from draft to first rewrite.  If I couldn't find the enthusiasm to finish it, chances are a reader will bog down as well.  I opened up a window for inner critic to peek at it, and got some observations.  The scene lacks drama and passion.  It actually plays like a bad soap opera for much of it, the segments where Cerryn and Randir, recovering from the causeway fight, lay around the militia post meeting well wishers and...  Ewwww.  No wonder it bored me.  I'm going to leave it in for now while I forge ahead, but I suspect I'll have a much more interesting take on it when I go back for rewrite.  Something with a bit more urgency.

     ANyway, Cerryn finally decided to take action, and chose to drag Randir's sorry butt back to D'oril so the healers there can figure out what's wrong with him.  Little do they know that Min, that dastardly empire spy, has set into motion a plan to eliminate anyone who might be able to identify him, namely Randir, who is slipping in and out of a shadow coma because of Min's efforts to break the stalemate at the causeway.  Randir, meanwhile, keeps forgetting to tell Cerryn that one of the visitors they had while he was semi conscious was the assassin who nearly killed her.  Does this confuse you yet?  Actually, it's setting into motion the core of the next few chapters, when Cerryn vows revenge on the assassin and goes after him alone, not realizing the peril she's in (and that Randir tried to warn her of).  Ahh, the joy of a plot outline.....

     A side note, with the writing logjam broken, I've thrown some ideas down on paper about Sha'te Valley, the short story.  I don't want to break the momentum on IH yet, but when I need a break, I think I'll rough out a short story idea.  It'll help me consolidate my thoughts on time lines in D'oril, anyway...

     Our backyard owl's been visiting at night intermittantly.  One of these nights when I hear him, I may just pull out the binoc's and see if I can spot him.  Until then,

Clear skies,
Jim