Speaking of world-building…

Credit to @theoeilertsen

The rewrites I’ve been doing have been taking a lot longer than I originally thought they’d take. The problem is that, as I cut more out, I need more to surround that space. My first book is still going to be focused, narrowed, trimmed down, but I’ve gotten caught up in what the would around my three protagonists (and the world outside of the book itself) is supposed to be.

I like where it’s going. There are new factions, new races, new kingdoms and rules, and a sense of things slowly coming together. It’s hard to walk the line between adding too much and cutting it all out again, because my brain is a pain in the butt to work with, but I feel like this project is tip-toeing in the direction of the final laps. (Jeez, how many times am I going to say that before it’s actually published, I wonder?)

With all that in mind, the world itself (the running name is Drahvon) has been pieced together. Humanity, the focus of my first books, are more or less isolated from the rest of the world because of their own actions. Who would want to work with a species that is constantly at war with itself, right? Magic exists in this world too, but only in specific contexts or ways. Humans have none, but the Fae do. Humans can’t use it, but the Elves can. There’s going to be references, discussions of the world outside of humanity’s reach, but it’ll be a bit more subdued due to the state of the north half of their territories (I.e. Verdusk, Myrreko, the zone, etc).

At least, that’s the running concept as of now. Time will tell how much of it is cut and how much is kept, but I’m almost at the point where I can send my book to ARCs for feedback. Phew. Almost there.