It would be optimistic of me to describe this as a regular feature. Let the optimism begin…
In our last episode, We discussed the need to reconcile expectations with reality. Tempering the tempest that was a harbinger of future expectations, and thus enter a state sublime.
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Wait, I think I was reading the wrong blog…
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… Right, I have a book to finish. Let me start by saying the obvious: I’m not done yet. But, not because I’m not done yet.
I’ve actually completed the edits in the book. And I’ve even thought of when it will be released. But that’s not what this blog is about.
(Note: the following contains a discussion of myself in the second person. The present me, when both are being spoken of, will be in ‘quotes’ or Italics).
Unfortunately, this blog is about me. ‘I’ thought about leaving out a blog about myself as my first post, because (to me) it seems pointless. I don’t read the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe because I like Edgar Allen Poe. I enjoyed it for its prose. And often, for ‘me,’ this is the issue with sharing more about ‘myself.’ With the recent changes regarding my book (not going to talk about that now), ‘I’ can see that my life does influence these decisions. But my present-day life experiences may not inform you as to why the story takes this course. In fact, as ‘I’ read the book myself, ‘I’ can honestly say I’m not whoever wrote this book anymore. ‘I’ wouldn’t have taken this approach, but I’m also not saying that it is itself a problem. I’m not a poet (or a person) like Poe. I wouldn’t even try. But that doesn’t mean his life didn’t inform his prose when he wrote.
‘I’ was left with a choice of how to proceed after these two books are published. ‘I’ decided to adjust my chosen trajectory (Ahem… we’re not going to talk about that yet!) But, yeah, we’re not going to talk about that.
Let’s discuss that young person who wrote this book instead. ‘I’ mentioned previously how ambition might have outstripped ability when he took this book up. Today ‘I’ can attest to that fact. I wasn’t prepared to write that book then because I’m sure I’m not ready to do so now. I’ve carefully reviewed the story, and what is clear is that as the series would advance (yes, there will be more books…, but we’re not talking about that now…), there would be a lot ‘I’ would need to flesh out I’m not presenting in the current book. Things that might be irrelevant in this novel, but critical to the advancement of the overall story. Simple matters like understanding how the Tyberian government works, or even the ‘meetings’ that Richard has referred to that he and his father participate, is not needed for the story at present. You just need to know they exist.
But as the book series continues, ‘I’ would need to resolve these interactions between various governments (including in the next book. Which we’re not going to talk about…), and figure out how this would happen. This kid had ideas about how this could happen, but since he was too busy developing the plot, he didn’t think through the bureaucracy that would be in place for the various entities.
He will be given some leeway. Government is not covered in-depth until the final year of required education when I attended school, and most things regarding government before this, when I started writing it, were typically at the state (some places would say provincial or within a prefecture) and local level. And, I started and stopped this book several times in this period. He was likely only (barely) familiar with the governance and democracy of the United States, and it should be clear this is only one governmental style in the approach commonly known as ‘democracy.’ There are many reasons to think a planet with a monarchy doesn’t have a democratic government, but there are still some reasons that show it can. I never resolved that, and it has already affected what comes next.
‘I’ basically found that my edits were answering the questions I wasn’t asking at 14. Rather than explain all of them in this book, I had left it to the reader to project how particular things function (and now, so have I). And while that may seem like a burden I’m passing off on the reader, ‘I’ will point out that the second book is presently around 130k words, and I’m shooting for ‘succinct’ right now. ‘I’ finally realized that the problem (and blame) didn’t entirely lie on him. These problems were also my fault.
My fault because ‘I’ didn’t finish what I started (till recently) and then chose to criticize the result of ‘my’ procrastination, blaming the younger me. Once ‘I’ got past blaming him, ‘I’ realized he didn’t do too bad, as writing goes, and he did tell the story. ‘I’ was just forced to realize that one book (split into two books and published separately) is not enough for this portion of the story. There is too much going on.
(This ends my discussion of myself in the second person)
Before I start writing the third (which will likely not be the ‘third’ by the time of its release), I will revisit this novel and give greater depth to the story behind this story. By the end of the next book, I hope you will know Richard Tyberius better than at the end of the first. By the end of the series based on this book (split in two, published separately), my hope is that you will know the universe that Richard occupies, and where the real dangers lie ahead for everyone in it.
It would help to discuss what brought about the need for this change. And I will, in my next blog. I’m planning to put it out a little sooner than last time, so stay tuned.
As a side note, some may have noticed that I had chapter 6 of my previous book listed as ‘someday’ being available to read. That day was sometime last month. Please enjoy.
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In written form 