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Long, long ago, when I was writing the proposal for the current group of books, I wrote a nice long chunk that I thought would be likely to stay in the book all the way to the end. I didn’t really think it would be chapter one, but in the book as then envisioned, it would have been close up in volume one.
As volume one did its rapid expansion last year, complete with the final burst of plot-bombs, this long chunk slid into book two. Surely it would be the first chapter of book two, I thought. As book two has done its own rapid expansion, that chunk slid toward the middle of the book, where it lodged in Book’s throat. Periodically, in the course of adding newstuff, I’d re-read it and think “Needs a little touching up now, but I’ll catch it in second draft.”
But now…it’s more and more obvious that it doesn’t fit what’s grown up around it. Book is not upset. Book thinks “Good, more room for what did happen. “ Book doesn’t care how many hours I spent writing it and polishing it. We–that is, Book and I–have been arguing about this for awhile now, and it’s clear that it really can’t be handled by tinkering with the wording. It’s not how I said it–it’s that I said it. Just having it there is part of what’s impeding something farther along in Book, and Book–like someone with a stone in their shoe or a speargrass seed in their sock–wants it gone.
I have reminded Book that I am Book’s Writer, with the clear implication that I have the Power, but though that works with characters (sometimes at least) it does not work with Book. Book laughs off any suggestion that my conscious mind (at least) has any authority whatsoever over the actual Story. That chunk, Book insists, isn’t right and doesn’t belong. (“And it’s boring,” says Book at this moment. It is not, I say, with authorly pride. “It is,” Book says. “Now go delete it–all the way, off the hard drive in draft, too–no keeping it around to get other opinions because you think they’ll agree withyou and you can argue with me again–and then we can get on with the REAL story.”
Book is a tyrant. Book is a bully.
But in my experience, Book is nearly always, just-about-without-exception, right.
Dammit.
At least you’re not being deprived of Elis of Pargun and her inimitable aunt or her extremely difficult father.
Comment by Cynthia K. Dalton — June 4, 2009 @ 1:07 pm
Maybe the chunk should go on the Paks site as an extra bonus feature so all your hard work can still be appreciated by an audience.
Comment by elizabeth — June 4, 2009 @ 1:14 pm
Book is annoyed at the very thought, but I’ll consider it. After I’ve got Book cantering on smoothly, that is…
Comment by RichardB — June 4, 2009 @ 1:40 pm
I hope you haven’t told Book about your backups. Um, you /do/ do backups, right?
Comment by elizabeth — June 4, 2009 @ 1:53 pm
Lots of backups, yes. And no, the offending chunk will not be deleted from backups. Book has no control over those (heh-heh-heh-heh…)
Comment by Eir de Scania — June 4, 2009 @ 2:39 pm
Book has learned of those *other* Fantasy series Out There and is not content with being a mere trilogy.
I agree with Cynthia; it would be great to have some of the things that didn’t make it into the Book on the website.
Comment by tuppence — June 4, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
Elis of Pargun? her Aunt?….
Do I hear Book and Author cackling as I fidget with anticipation???
Comment by Dave Ring — June 4, 2009 @ 3:45 pm
This is what I meant when I asked about the story turning out to be a different story than you thought it would be some years back.
Comment by elizabeth — June 4, 2009 @ 9:38 pm
Some of the things that aren’t in the book will appear, but not all of them.
Y’all know that Kieri is the new king of Lyonya–that’s in the Paks books. Well…a king with no wife brings princesses out of the woodwork, so to speak. Lots of people think it would be great to have a king as a son-in-law and some young women being queen might be a good thing. So past him trail not just princesses–various nobles’ daughters, granddaughters, nieces, grand-nieces…
But, as I’ve mentioned before, Kieri is not an easy catch.
And as I said, NO book ends up the way it started, or the way I thought it would, exactly. Book thinks something else is more important in that part of itself, and it’s probably right.
Comment by shadowsryder — June 5, 2009 @ 5:15 am
What a teaser! Now we can examine again every word and phrase The Writer has written. Drool, Pant, Pant. Anticipate! Easy, easy. Calm down.
Acquire Patience. Salivate!
Comment by elizabeth — June 5, 2009 @ 8:17 am
Are you implying that I would ever, ever tantalize my readers???
Yup. I’m a mean, bad person.
Comment by Kip Colegrove — June 5, 2009 @ 8:34 am
Elis of Pargun. Hmmm… In chapters 19 and 22 of Divided Allegiance an Elis is mentioned, who had to withdraw from Paladin training but who everyone obviously thought had some moxie. “Paks began to think she’d like to know Elis.” (About two-thirds of the way through chapter 19.)
Wouldn’t be any connection there, would there? Surely Elis is not a rare name. But I’ve always wondered (hoped, really) that we would hear more about the Elis from Divided Allegiance.
Comment by elizabeth — June 5, 2009 @ 8:44 am
Not at all the same Elis. Elis is a fairly common name, yes, in some parts of the north, and I think I remember that that Elis was from Harway (my copy of the Deed keeps wandering away from where I left it and turning up wherever Richard left it.) Harway is on the Honnorgat at the border of Tsaia and Lyonya, and Pargun is north of the river at that point. But that doesn’t imply a connection other than the familiarity of the name.
Comment by Kip Colegrove — June 5, 2009 @ 9:04 am
Yeah, about ten minutes after I posted my comment the phrase “Elis of Harway” drifted into my mind and I knew I had not remembered all the references to that character in the original story, where indeed Harway is a familiar border town.
Still, Elis of Harway falls into that category of characters mentioned in passing but with enough sparkle to them that I have to think, “That one has possibilities for future development.” Possibilities destined to be forever latent, perhaps, but real nonetheless. One of the things I look forward to in the new story/stories is finding out whether any of these brief sparkles will come into full light.
Comment by Darryl — June 5, 2009 @ 1:24 pm
I’m beginning to think that Book has as much fun helping Author author as helping Author tease Reader. March cannot come soon enough! And I’ve only recently discovered The Deed of Paksenarrion a few months back…25 pages remain unread in The Legacy of Gird! Absolutely brilliant fun, thank you so much Book and Author!
Comment by elizabeth — June 5, 2009 @ 2:49 pm
SO glad you’re enjoying the earlier book, and I hope you find these new ones as good.
Yes, the Book likes to run its own world. Today we’ve accomplished removing most of what Book wanted out, and also removing chunks that I now see shouldn’t be there, and then writing chunks that weren’t there and need to be. Unfortunately, this all makes it impossible to see what the real progress is, in terms of word length. At the moment, my brain is acting like a sponge…stuff flows in, some stuff flows out, the stuff that doesn’t flow out becomes structure.