Welcome back to “Keeping Score (at Home)”
I haven’t built one of these in too long, but I feel like I’m back to making some progress. It’s been a stressful month on many fronts, but writing helps. It’s not just focusing on the story, or the characters, or even the craft. Rather, it’s not any one of those things; it’s all those things rolled together. Is it a distraction? Sometimes. Can I lose myself in the story even while I’m writing it? Often. Does anything useful come from it? Well, gentle readers, you’ll have to tell me that in due time.
Encyclopedia Aurorae
I’ve put together several sourcebook entries (pushing a couple of thousand words) that I’ll post at various times to -hopefully- pique your interest in the larger world of The Jagged Earth. For the first batch I’m focusing on material that directly relates to Orchids Ablaze or to the second book or both. The connections aren’t always obvious to readers because one of the stranger things I’ve discovered about writing is that the majority of all the background lore that I dearly love may never see the inside of a novel. It may never be seen at all! But it’s all part of what I need in order to create a believable story in an unbelievable world. Eventually it will all find a home, here at E3ink.com if nowhere else.
Status Update
The new prologue is at a point where I need more story to see what needs to be altered. Yes, that feels just as weird as that statement sounds, but that’s the way it works for me. I have the story outline in mind; but, as it progresses, I have to return to earlier passages, iron out the continuity wrinkles and drop in a few foreshadowing tidbits. Ideally about halfway (or later) through the story, an “A HA!” springs into your mind and you flip quickly backwards and say… “so THAT’S what that meant! That tricky devil…”. Preferably more than once, actually.
The total for the month novel-wise is pushing 3100 words (gross), not including the sourcebook material. How much of that will end up in the “net words” column I won’t know for a while, but rewiring the prologue actually saved the most of the first chapter and made it much more seamless. The prologue doesn’t have quite the explosive opening I was looking for, but it does introduce new readers and add a few things for those coming back for more. Don’t worry, though, the explosions start immediately afterwards.
DDW
