Morning Star Rising

20,079 / 150,000 (13.4%)

A bit of progress yesterday. I'm feeling cranky today because I've just gotten to the big catalyst and I'm at page 93 in my manuscript (53 according to my MM template--which, for those that are curious, is based on my copy of the Summers at Castle Auburn in mass market, for it looks rather typical, the font not too small or too big, and no crowded margins), well outside the 30-50 pages I mentioned earlier. But I'm inclined to think that I'm laying too much importance in that. This is epic fantasy after all, and it was pointed out by one commenter that for most epic fantasies, the catalyst comes around page 100 rather than within the first fifty pages. That's not to say that I couldn't cut back, though probably not enough to get it down to the first 50 pages of manuscript. Yep, I'm stressing unnecessarily and should probably get off this kick and just get this draft done.

So, here's today's excerpt:

 

As you're all aware, I've been bitching and moaning about the catalyst of my novel for weeks now, wondering whether or not I could actually get it in within the first 30 pages or not (the answer I came to was no), but I'd also starting to wonder what the heck my catalyst was. In the previous draft, it was quite obvious what it was, and that event took place about 120 pages into the manuscript. But since that draft, I've done a whole bunch of brainstorming on character motivations and made a decision of bringing a new character into play that was only talked about in the previous draft, and I gave him more hands-on involvement in the plot. And by doing so, I think I actually changed the catalyst to something else. The same things still happen, but there's a more sinister reason behind it this time around. But I'd been writing the new draft as if the catalyst hadn't changed (meaning that one character, despite knowing what was really going on, continued to act as if his motivations were the same as in the first draft when in fact he's supposed to be acting on someone else's behalf ,for a greater purpose that will become evident to the protag later in the book). And I think this was my big problem: I didn't adapt the narrative time-line to the new catalyst, which in fact means that I need to make chapter 2 chapter 1, and move chapter 1 to chapter 2, and watch my antagonist see his plans for seeing his son take the throne crushed by this new catalyst, and so spur him to more drastic measures. His disbelief in the catalyst just isn't sufficient this time around since there's no way now that he wouldn't believe it. Which means rewriting the first 2 chapters again and a bit of chapter 3, and in fact I think I can make the new catalyst happen within the first 30-35 pages. And it feels like a relief to have figured this out.