Welcome to Gaia! ::

Post 6: Morale is Low


I've managed to conquer one of the scenes in question, and thrown another one out entirely (although it may get reused in later chapters), and things have settled back down for the moment. I don't feel like I'm much closer to finishing the chapter, but neither do I feel stuck, precisely, and I know I've made progress. I'm trying a different direction for the last of the scenes I have to rewrite, which will (I hope) get finished soon and free me up to write the last scene from scratch.

Also I have found myself a new a reliable beta. This makes my universe happy. She brings fresh troops and a new banner to my side of the fray.

Overall, though, I keep feeling like I'm still doing something wrong, even though I've found a chapter configuration I can live with and still have something useful and important to say with the chapter itself. I think I'm just having trouble going over old ground. Maybe I should unnecessarily complicate everything by adding that one other subplot I was thinking of adding -- yeah, that's right, the one that makes me slap myself every time I consider it because of all the rewriting it would entail. Yeah, that one.

*SLAP*

Post 8: Forced March


During my long absence, Chapter 5 surrendered and was completed, and I'm attacking Chapter 6 with fervor. Chapters 9 and 12 were likewise completed, leaving me with only 6, 8, 11, and 19 as gaps in my rewritten chapters that otherwise extend all the way through 21. I'm hoping that the extensive rewriting for Chapter 6 isn't going to hand me my a**; either it's going to be easy to finish because I don't have to write any brand-new scenes, or it's going to be a b***h to finish because I'll have trouble tooling the old scenes until they're acceptable. Dealing with the old guard has always made things touchy, especially when less experienced chapters keep getting promoted to Complete over them. Dissent in the ranks seems inevitable.

Established a new, shorter-term goal of getting the rewrite finished solidly, all the way through 23, by November. This I think I can manage, if I really buckle down and try not to let my writer's block pwn me so hard. Of course, after that comes 24-28, for which I only have vague plot notes, but I'll scale that wall when I come to it. This just gives me more time to plan the siege.

Post 10: Aftermath


Finally, the rewrite is finished. No more to be done except run it past beta. I hop up and down with glee.

Now, of course, I'm working on Chapter 24, and I realize that I have no more idea of how to finish it than I did any of the rewritten chapters, but there's also a certain freedom in not being tied to an exact plotline any longer. I can take the story anywhere I feel like within the bounds of my fairly generous framework. I know the war isn't over, but now that this crucial battle's been won, I feel it calls for a round of drinks for the troops and a few nights of singing before we march back to the capitol for reassignment. Things get both harder and easier from this point on.

Post 12: Our Children's Children


Since last this chronicle was known, little has changed. Chapters 24 and 25 have come and gone, in years of bitter yet petty struggles, but Chapter 26 hems me in at the border, sending raiding parties every winter to despoil my progress. My loyal and faithful beta fell in combat some months past, and though a new lieutenant has been promoted to her position, it is too soon to know if she can be relied upon.

It is long since I knew where my plot was going. I tell myself there are only five chapters left, so it should be obvious what the story's climax should be—and yet, it is anything but obvious, and I fear there will be yet more generations of turmoil and violence.

I soldier on, unto the end.

Post 13: Historical Precedent


I've been going over my plot notes in preparation for sending them to my new beta, and I've realized that the groundwork for the climax is already solidly laid... it's just that there's more than one potential climax available to me. I have a lot of flexibility, actually, and I'm kind of wishing that weren't so, because that very flexibility is leaving me uncertain of my next move. I have a preferred idea, and have been writing towards that one, but in the back of my mind I know that it's not absolutely NECESSARY to use that finish, and thus I second-guess myself whenever things get difficult by wondering if maybe I'm taking the wrong approach.

Granted, I don't think so, because at least my former beta was really enthusiastic about this version and assured me that it caps the novel extremely well, but I also wonder what my new beta will think—that is, if she ever gets back to me. She's a few days MIA, and if she's a prisoner of war, I have no hostages to trade for her safe return.

So I spend my time poring over old maps, trying to decide which river once used for marking the border has changed its course the least, and hoping that the compromise I present will satisfy all parties so that we can finally stop skirmishing over a couple of measly leagues of farmland.

(Psychotic Maniacal Sanity—Thank you!)