Fantasy Novel Update #5

In my last Opost of this series, I said I had finished chapter 3. Well, I have, and I've decided to take a break until I come back from my holiday (yes, I'm away again!) So that's a fortnight without writing. But all is not lost. I haven't stopped writing entirely. Allow me to explain.

So far, the only people to have read any of my new book have been my parents. They are of course very supportive, but neither of them are big readers of fantasy. So I thought it was time to get an expert's opinion. My mum has a friend (who I know quite well anyway) who doesn't write, but certainly does READ a lot of fantasy. I thought it would be a good idea to see what he thought of it. I haven't asked him yet, but I'm phoning him tomorrow. I hope he says yes, but he is a busy man.

Now, in order for him to get a more rounded idea of what I'm trying to get at with my book, I thought he should have a brief history of my world. I've written a version before, a couple of months back near the very beginning of my creative process. I'd had my map drawn, and I had started working on language, and had some ideas for plot concepts. To feel like I was getting somewhere, I wrote a history of my world from the perspective of one of the planned characters in the narrative. And so I return to it now.

That was done just with paper and pencil, and for fun really, with a few personal references to the character. Because I wanted this to be a little more serious, I removed them and wrote more academically, but also fleshing out parts that were only rough in the original. I put more detail about places and the meanings of their names, which I knew but needed to be added for the reader to understand. I explained a bit about the races so that my friend will see what I'm talking about. I also plan to give him a map to look at when he reads it.

Talking about maps, I'm working on that as well. I had just had one with borders and main seas and landmasses. Im redrawing the maps, to have one for a template with JUST borders, and another which shows geographical features and more architectural features. It's all quite fun, and I look forward to seeing my friend's reaction. It's obviously only a first draft, so it's rough and craggy, but he'll see some good in it, I hope.

Well, that's all for now. If I get to 100 or better in the ranks, I'll tell you more precise details, but until then you'll have to settle with vague stuff like this! Bye. :)