January Wrap Up
The last two months have been exciting, not just in establishing my business, but in transforming the Frankenstein’s monster that was Chronicles of The Wheel: Book One into a solid draft that I am, even now, allowing other people to read.
As I write this, I’m down to the last three and a half chapters before this revision pass is complete. What I’ve learned is I never want to take on a manuscript in this state again. The first several chapters were done, for all purposes, and ready for line edit. The next section was written in proper narrative, with a lot of granular details needing to be fixed. Finally, the last half of the book wasn’t even proper narrative, just walls of highly conceptual stream-of-consciousness text. It was like undertaking three different types of editing at once!
If I hadn’t been sending those chapters off to my early alpha readers as I finished them, I’m not certain I’d have been able to push through this pass as quickly or efficiently as I have. Having that mechanism for accountability was like a supporting wall at my back, and I’m grateful to everyone who helped me push through.
Now all that’s left is to keep my promise and get them the rest of the manuscript by February, which I’m well on my way to doing.
I’ve talked before about hitting a low point after ripping out whole sections out of my WIP before retiring from writing all together. This was that manuscript. This book, which has become the cornerstone for Chronicles of The Wheel, was almost the last stone I ever tried to lift (metaphorically). To see it coming to fruition and receive consistent praise from early readers and critique groups alike is a deeply gratifying.
I started this book in a desperate bid to find the definitive beginning for Chronicles of The Wheel. The series has had many first novels over the years, and none of them have ever felt right. Likewise, my main protagonist, Divar, has a long and ever-changing history with a few consistent threads spanning his various incarnations. Those threads became defining aspects of his character, but they always got lost in the expansive epic that is the Chronicles.
Now I have a clean slate; a wealth of characters, history, and lore with which to build out and populate the world; and a strong foundation. Better yet, I’ve succeeded in nailing Divar to that foundation. Who he is. Where he comes from. Why he does what he does. It’s all there.
What’s one of your writing war stories? What lessons did you learn from it?
