Glacial Writing

 A decade ago, I was possessed to write. I took a rather limited story I had developed in my youth and began to create an entire fantasy series out of it.

When I say possessed, I mean just that. It was like the story was totally complete and was using me to come into being. I would go out hiking and entire chapters would form in my head. I had to capture it in note form when I got back to make sure I remembered it all. I was writing furiously night after night. Between 2014 and 2016, I wrote four books totaling about 1,600 pages. 

During that period, I realized that I loved writing romantic, epic fantasy. I especially loved that my stories always turned out exactly the way I wanted them. Not like when I read other's fiction where I am always unhappy about how a character is developed or how a story line unfolds. 

When the last of the four books was finished, there was a let down. I had captured the complete cycle of the story. But I wanted to keep writing. I conjectured how I might create an extension of the core story. Between 2017 and 2019 I wrote a fifth book of 424 pages. It had a logical extension and I began to write the sixth installment. 

However, whereas the first four books came forth like an irrupting volcano, this sixth book has come forth with glacial, maybe even tectonic plate movement speed. For I am still working on it five years later! I think the fact that so much of my creative, emotional, and physical energy has been consumed by Theodora has had a lot to do with it. In my halcyon days, I would write 3 pages a night. Now, if I have the energy, I am lucky to get a page done a night and that is not every night. And there was a point where for the longest time I was totally stymied as to where to take the plot.

But, finally I am making progress and the pages are adding up and the story is unfolding toward its completion, at least for this book. One thing I am particularly happy about is the creation of a super villain in this book. Why is that important? I have had a pattern of making my villains conflicted souls who find themselves in situations where circumstances cause them to become bad. And then I spend many pages and books having them become redeemed. Which is fine. I like the way that all turns out. But it leaves you with a writing problem, no villain, no conflict. So I really wanted to create a bad guy who could not be redeemed. I am hoping I've got him now.