Posting the last book on our story thread killed the vibe for some people because, well...spoilers.
So...this project - who fucking knows? I don't. One thing I learned from the last book about my fiction process - and it's very different from my memoir process - is that I am incapable of forming the entire story in my head...at the beginning. My working without much notes or a decent outline isn't some rebellious process I've perfected - it's because I am incapable of outlining the story...at the beginning. I have to start writing, knowing where I want to go and the vague ideas will clarify, expand and intertwine on the page. The more that happens, the farther I get into the writing, the more the story begins to evolve in my head as well. So, by the time I finish the book, I could write a pretty good outline.
I don't know what the pace will be writing this - I never know until I'm a few chapters in. I'm still in the lazy, take a breather state of mind after the way I wrote the last book. I really can't tell you all how much it took out of me. Hey, I'd love to write another novel in two months if that's what happens, but I'm more than down with a gentler pace, as long as I stay at it. I will once I get a few more page into it, but I'm still purposely distracting myself from it - because I'm still tired. I'm thinking about the world of the book, in the broadest terms - the story, I'm not worried about that part of it. So whether I post the whole thing as I write or not, I will post updates, anecdotes, chapters and scattered bullshit.
I'm not committed to the cover, but I do like it. I don't know yet if I'll be able to secure the rights as I'm having trouble contacting the artist. For now, it's a placeholder and a prompt (I always keep the cover of my current project as wallpaper on my PC and phone, to remind me to work). At this point, it's concept art.
Damn. I just watched the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The show features a badass black female character named Reva. That's going to mean a name change for my character. Dammit.
All I can say is that writing this seems mind-bending...
I will have to read the final version in one reading once it's finished. I admit to now reading the chapters as cut-offs, completely forgetting a lot of the details you have mentioned earlier in the book. I'm missing a lot, which is logical because of the length of time between the chapters. And this is not a complaint.
Objective self-editing of your own work is a hard thing, but I've gotten better at it. I 've written a mistake into this story that is too big to ignore. A lesson I learned from this is when writing fantasy, don't create the map and write from it. Write the story and fill in the map as it progresses. The map is solely for my use - it won't be printed in the book - but I created most of the map before I began writing. I put New Texas and the Woven Shadows Enclave on the map based on early ideas I had that were abandoned. Still, I wrote to the map.
What I've done is create two semi-autonomous regions within the Midland Kingdom. There are several problems with this. The first issue is with the "why" of it. Why would the Gyro King who is determined to rule the entire continent allow two self-governing zones in his own realm? Two factions he could destroy easily, no less? He wouldn't is the only answer, even though I did impress myself with the gymnastics I put Quigley through explaining it all away to Huck.
New Texas is a region that will not figure at all in the story. It's mentioned, explained, and that's it. So New Texas has to be stricken from the manuscript. Any half-assed editor would say the same if they had as much insight as I do into the complete story.
The Woven Shadows Enclave is a religious sect that I had big plans for before I started writing. It's an idea that worked well in my early thinking, but doesn't pan-out in the story. There's still a role in the book for the Enclave, but I believe it has to be a much smaller sect, not some Vatican-like city state with its own militia. So all references to it have to be edited out or revised.
Most of what I've written about both Texas and the Enclave is in the same passages. One thing, though, is they set up a vignette about Ramon and Mexico, a memory Huck has, that I really like. That will have to find another place in the story or go away.
Now, I could make the whole five faction thing work, but it would turn this story into a dense, boring political drama and that's not what it is. It's an adventure.
Does any of this interest you? I doubt it, but this is as good a way as any to avoid doing the edits just now.