Beginnings, Endings, and In-Betweenings

Well, I did it. I finally wrote the words THE END on a draft of a story and meant it. This is the first time in years that this has happened. I should celebrate. Unfortunately, I'm broke, so it'll have to be an imaginary celebration. And a small one, since I need most of my imagination free for the second draft.

So now I'm at a stage I'm almost never at in my writing: the second draft. I know of a few major flaws in the first draft, but seeing a problem and seeing a solution aren't always as synonymous as they would be in a perfect world. For my own peace of mind, I've determined that I need a better idea of the lay of the land. In other words, the story took off before I even knew the name of the world it's set in, let alone had a map, however crude, to orient myself. I also need to decide on the scope of the story; though the events have roots and impact far beyond the characters, I didn't want to fall back on the trek-across-the-known-world formula which dominates so many fantasy stories. The action starts and mostly stays in one city, and I wanted to keep it a relatively intimate portrait of the three main characters (intimate as in personal, not intimate as in orgy-fest - too much of that in a lot of fantasy, too, which I don't mind so long as it's not gratuitous.) As I wrote, though, I kept finding myself looking beyond the city walls to see what was going on out there and how it might impact their respective stories. Some of it seemed to work, but I don't want the story to become unmanageably large. I know there are pacing problems as well. Then there's the information/action ratio, which probably leans a bit too far to the former. I wanted to convey the history and ideas behind my major characters' races/species, especially as it does prove to be relevant to the story, but I probably need to do so in a way that doesn't eat pages at a time. And those are just the problems I know about.

Before I start the second draft, I need to at least have the world map in some semblance of order. I suck at drawing maps. I've spent hours staring at atlases and maps in other fantasy books, I've read about various terrains and where/why they tend to occur, and I still suck at it. I think I'm trying to impose too much logic on it; I can't just stick a forest or a swamp in the middle of the map without a rough idea why a forest or a swamp would occur there, and what needs to be around it to ensure that it would be there instead of further north or south. It's just a fantasy world, after all, but I like a little logic with my fantasy. I also need to finalize at least the major culture/nation names. I've mentioned a few in the first draft, invented mostly on the fly as I wrote, but with the map I need to come up with an idea of where these cultures live or lived and what significance, if any, they had in creating the world at the time the story is set. Then there are minor things that bug me - titles that need tweaking, myths/legends that need outlining, building and city layouts to rough out, timelines, magic rule refinement, and other general background things. All said, it could be a while before I'm ready to start on the second draft proper, but my hope is to do so before May. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Universe wants me to be making my living off my own creativity, so I really need to get the lead out and get this sucker patched and polished.

I intend to post the story - parts of it, at least - either here or somewhere else online eventually, and I'll want beta readers once Draft 2 is as good as it's gonna get. I probably should get some to help me with Draft 1, but the perfectionist in me doesn't want this thing to see daylight until I've done all I can do to make it presentable to the general public. Well, the fantasy-loving general public, at least. It's not worth the aggravation to present a fantasy story to the general general public. It's like fixing a prime rib dinner for a horse; no matter what you do to the meat, and no matter what you say to the horse, he'll never take a bite. Might as well give it to the carnivores and save everyone the aggravation.

Sorry for boring anyone who happens across this post (or this blog in general.) I wrote it primarily to organize my own thoughts while the conclusion to the first draft was still fresh in my brain...