Nine Lines, Nine Tags

Day 35 (1:05) of rewriting my novel

Today was a "bridge the gaps" day.

Yesterday, I wrote about Vimir. The day before that, I wrote about Taguchif. In order to bridge those scenes with what I already had, I wrote for, like, 4 hours and about 2,100 words piecing it all together. Now, Part Three is like 12,000 words, and I'm probably just over 1/3 of the way there? I'm staring down the barrel of probably 40,000 words necessary for Part Three.

To be clear, in no way is Meiste meant to be consumed in four parts. Later, I plan to block off chunks as chapters. But not until after I've gotten all four parts to places where they can reasonably be split off into chapters.

Part of what I mean by that is this: Part One was really rushed, comparatively. My "alpha" reader pointed out that the pacing is really rushed in Part One, and that's been on my mind this whole time, but that was really so I could work up the motivation to get through Part Two.

Part One is even, comparatively, short compared to parts Two and Three: it stands at just 12,000 words. And mostly as an introduction to the other three parts. That was a critical flaw in choosing what has become, essentially, in media res to start a fantasy novel.

I plan on adding a scene at the end, once this is all said and done, where Izi, Vimir, and his boss are all at church. With that I can do several big things:

Lay out Zenestian religion. While the Constitution of Zeneste is inherently a religious document, Zenestian government has strayed so far from its original intents to suck power from its citizens that the religion has almost become a sort-of government worship. This was one of the big reasons my "alpha" reader was confused in the first chapter by everyone just accepting that "the Constitution said Izi is Emperor, so Izi is Emperor." It's a level of Orwellian brainwashing that is crazy deep.

Lay out what Izi's world even looks like. At this point in the story, he's just an eighteen-year-old worker in a rice farm taking a single evening of rest to go and worship with his community, including his best friend and most loyal ally.

Set up the windows scene in Part One. In Part One, Izi's astounded by the lack of designs in the Old Chapel of Zeneste, and when he finds the old windows in the attic, he hires somebody to come and replace the windows for him. Since the reader doesn't have context for this, it might make Lozerief's outburst even more confusing.

Foreshadow his mom being the Hero of Life. Like, the Hero of Life appears everywhere, and I don't wanna give away Izi's mom being the Hero of Life too early, but I can afford to drop more hints.

This, alone, would add probably 2,000-3,000 words.

In addition, she recommended changing the pacing so Izi has more like a month in the palace (instead of the 3 days that I wrote in originally.) I definitely could use this to illustrate what the Zenestian government is like: a bunch of corrupt politicians figuring out how they can get more power (Lozerief is an exception).

This has mostly become me ranting about novel plotting, and what I have to do later, but feel free to let me know your thoughts! I'm always open to hear other peoples' opinions (except when they necessitate the disenfranchisement of others.)

Congrats! 36,000 is not only a lot more words than many might give it credit for, but also (and especially since yours is just in notes) going to be a lot of good words.

Crazy to think that I’ve written over 36,000 words for my current book: The Daughter of Magic.

I feel two emotions:

1. excitement because it’s mostly notes

2. Dread because it’s mostly notes

REVERSE TROPE WRITING PROMPTS

Too many beds

Accidentally kidnapping a mafia boss

Really nice guy who hates only you

Academic rivals except it’s two teachers who compete to have the best class

Divorce of convenience

Too much communication

True hate’s kiss (only kissing your enemy can break a curse)

Dating your enemy’s sibling

Lovers to enemies

Hate at first sight

Love triangle where the two love interests get together instead

Fake amnesia

Soulmates who are fated to kill each other

Strangers to enemies

Instead of fake dating, everyone is convinced that you aren’t actually dating

Too hot to cuddle

Love interest CEO is a himbo/bimbo who runs their company into the ground

Nursing home au

Hello, this is a longshot saving life call, I am Imonje from Gaza. I am here to request for your support to help get my insulin, just an injection for today to save my life please I beg. I was diagnosed with Latent Autoimmune Diabetes and due to the current situation in Gaza I'm unable to get my insulin injection as a result I'm here begging for little financial support to help me purchase insulin for this week. My donation link is attached in the pinned post, I might have sent this ask to you earlier but kindly consider donating and sharing. This is the only option I have at the moment to save my life from going into a coma.

Go support Imonje!

remember everyone if you google [subject] wiki and the top result is from fandom, literally scroll down like, at all. if an independent wiki exists it will almost be the second result, and it will almost always be better than the fandom wiki. a shocking number of people seem to be unaware of this technique

Novel In Progress Update

Last week, I made a Poll asking if I should edit and release the first draft of my novel for public opinion or wait to finish the whole thing

The results are in, you fuckers have spoken, I will release the first chapter. Absolutely all criticism, feedback, or just general opinions are welcome. All will be acknowledged and appreciated

surely it creates suspense for the viewer, who, now enticed, simply *must* go read your story

besides just being a wise business decision, it must also feel like that one raccoon gif from a million years ago, right?

sometimes i feel like a bigshot mass media company when i purposely exclude important details from “the advertising” to help hide spoilers lol

There's something about Wen Ning kneeling to apologize for everything that went wrong, and Wei Wuxian kneeling down with him as if to say nothing is your fault that isn't also my fault. Either we'll stand together or we'll kneel together.

They are the secret third thing.