Elric Meets Indiana Jones

I’m moving more fully into what was once “book two” of the series I’m working on, but which will now be episodes 5-7 (or maybe 8 ) of the series I’m tentatively thinking of as “The Lords of Existence.”

The first four episodes are made of elements that were once the novel “Glamour of the God-Touched.” The next three, or four, are comprised of things I had once envisioned as the second novel in a trilogy. The more I get into them, though, the better I feel about breaking them up into smaller chunks. I think they breathe better in this fashion. They just kind of make better sense to me.

Perhaps because that’s how they were always really conceived. Silly thought, eh? But the truth is that I wrote the entire story with the idea of episodic movements, or waves (as I envisioned them–you can even see it in the plot-line flow charts I had created for them). I put them in book form because that’s what you did, you know? But this new world of publishing makes one look at things a bit differently.

And, honestly, as I’m reading through the episode 5 stuff I’m feeling really, really excited again. The first four parts are interesting, and I think a bit adventurous for a “traditional fantasy.” But episode 5 and beyond is where the storyline goes to totally new places. At one point my high-concept for the work was Elric meets Indiana Jones. But I don’t think that’s quite right. By episode 5 it’s more in line with Elric meets Indiana Jones and they take a detour through a multi-planar plot that George Smiley‘s been playing with. Perhaps I’m just getting too full of myself, but that’s how it feels, and that’s the thing that makes writing what it is, you know?

I mean, it’s supposed to be fun.

Right?

Regardless, I just added about 1500 words onto the front of episode 5 (needed to connect up to some of the changes I had made in the last episode). Things are moving. When 5-7 (or 8 ) are done, we’ll package them up and get them out there.

That means more things to work on, of course. Like cover art. Like back cover. Like marketing plans (not that it will particularly complex, but I figure I owe myself a little thought there). And, like looking at formatting and whatnot. And maybe a POD option, of course.

There’s always something to do, right?

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I’m also working to put some finishing touches on a talk I’m due to give at the Bartholomew County Writer’s Conference. It’s on something I’ve got a lot of experience on–rewriting. It turns out there’s a lot of thinking to do about this subject. More than I would have thought, really. Strange, eh?

I get thirty minutes.

We’ll see how much damage I can do in that time. In the meantime, I’m happy to have anyone’s thoughts on how they view rewriting. Feel free to throw me your reactions either here or in email at ron _at_ typosphere _dot_ com.