Let the babbling begin

In my last Maynia Babble post, I wrote a little list of what I had to do next:

• write one last chapter involving mages who live in the Sundered Isles, there's an important young girl up there who has stuff to do.
• write someone's death, which has already been written many moons ago but needs to be updated to fit the current narrative.
• write someone else's rise to power, once again something already in rough draft form that needs to be updated.
• then I have SIX MORE CHAPTERS to go. That are unwritten. That I cry over whenever I think about them. That are going to kill me. Haha!

I can now cross off write someone's death, which has already been written many moons ago but needs to be updated to fit the current narrative. 😁

It's not perfect and I will be going back to it once the whole thing is finished to add some emotional punch. I love writing internal monologue so much and I need to add a little more of that to it. But for the most part I can cross it off and keep going!

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Unfortunately, I began on this point next: write someone else's rise to power, once again something already in rough draft form that needs to be updated -- thinking that if I just re-do the very last rough-draft-written chapter I'd be free to start writing the ones that have yet to be written.

When I first thought of this chapter, many moooooons ago, it was supposed to be the ultimate chapter. The Gods come down from the heavens! The people rejoice! Lyria and Cael are happy! for perhaps the only chapter in the entire book. And that's where my issue lies.

Happiness.

I'm such a doomy gloomy person. I excel at writing sadness, despair, pathos, anger, and now that all the people are supposed to be happy for just one small moment in time, I'm just sitting here grimacing. It all feels fake. Cheesy. Wholly bizarre in a world of chaos.

I've actually re-written this 2800 word chapter three times now, changing things here and there, and I'm just not pleased with it. The Gods aren't fantastic enough. Lyria's euphoria doesn't feel euphoric. The High Magister isn't as enigmatic as I'd like.

So I'll be working on that some more today. (read: ALL day, obsessively, rewriting it another three times.)

I think I've managed to get it into a layout I like, I just need to make the words better. 😂 I'm happy-ish with the start of the chapter which involves Lyria's inner monologue and her nervousness, but that's easy; that's not happiness!! 😆

Lyria moistened her lips and watched as the hall filled with a never-ending stream of people. How could any more bodies possibly force their way through the door? The great hall was full to bursting — everyone wanted to be there: from nobles to ordinary citizens, soldiers to merchants, and even a smattering of robed mages fought to secure their own tiny space within the over-burdened area.

Additional candles on golden stands had been set about the platform before the vacant throne, extra chandeliers had been fitted to the high ceilings, and the chamber was brighter than daylight as the tiny flames flickered and reflected tenfold against the crystal fixtures.

The light, ever excessive, was a great bother and the slow beads of sweat that formed beneath her dress were impossible. It was the finest garment she had ever been privileged to wear — a crimson gown embellished with gilded blossoms that enhanced her figure like nothing else — but she’d sooner wear her linen blouse and roll around in the dirt.

Fidgeting, she willed herself to ignore the discomfort the smooth silk imparted. Rede and his captains stood to her left and the High Magister of the Sundered Isles stood to her right, accompanied by her apprentice. This was no time or place to scratch vigorously at a mere itch, no matter how much she yearned to rip off the blasted dress and rejoice in the freedom that would afford.

I'll get there! I know I will. There's stuff before that snippet; that's not how the chapter actually starts, haha.

But yes, that's my aim for today -- finish this ultimate chapter that just may end up being a little less ultimate than what happens in my imagination.

And tomorrow I hope to begin on the unwritten chapters! 😁 I think that means I need a new list to cross off:

• The little girl at the Sundered Isles needs to have her moment.
• A spirit will be taken advantage of which leads the way into the rest of the series and is really the whole point of the series.
• Someone is betrayed.
• The final moment, which I really don't know how to lead in to yet. I know what I want Lyria to do, I don't know how the heck to get her there.
• Heartbreak City. Tear Canyon. Sobbing Slums.
• The Final Chapter.
• A tiny epilogue.

Then it's done.
And I will stare in shock and awe that after nearly a decade Book One has at last been completed.

At least during this time I've written down plotpoints, chapters, and random thoughts for the upcoming series. So perhaps five years for the next book instead of ten. 😉

 

Can I finish this damned thing before the end of May/Maynia? 😉 Wish me luck!
(Not that I'm stopping if I don't finish then. I'll take mid-June too! This will be done.)

 

HAPPY MAYNIA! 🍻