State of the Realm 2012, Part One
The next two days will be spent on the State of the Realm report from last year. If you read the one from last week then you'll understand what it's all about. This one, thankfully, is much shorter and an easier read. So, here goes;
So, 2012 has ended without the world ending. Nemesis didn’t hurtle through our galaxy and collide with us. The sun didn’t go super-nuclear and microwave the planet. The planet’s magnetic field didn’t suddenly flip, hurling us into space. There were some hairy moments. For much of the year, since about late January really, there was a persistent concern, heightened relative to previous years, that Iran was on the verge of obtaining a nuclear weapon.
But this is not the State of the Union, or the State of the Earth, address. This is the State of the Realm. The State of the Realm, while influenced by the events of the greater world, is a beast unto itself that looks at the events within the Book of the Shadows’ various series. It is safe to say that not only is this the State of the Realm very strong, this is arguably one of the greatest years in the history of the Realm.
The definitive seminary event of the year came at the start of the year, in February. On February 8th, at a very early 3:35 in the morning, and after such a very long time, Book of the Shadows IV finally had its last word written into its pages. After all the delays, after all the other writing that was done, Book IV finally got wrapped up. With that done, just under 12 hours later, it was able to finish the initial chapter of Book V, thereby also completing that one as well. In that one day, I was able to cap off two books in the Book of the Shadows.
From there I was able to begin in-depth work on Book of the Shadows VI. Book VI, as you may know, was already about halfway done, but had stalled in part because I needed to know how I would play out Book V, which was on hold waiting for Book IV. On April 5th, at about a quarter to four in the afternoon, Book VI was also completed. Work on Book VII proceeded immediately
By the summer, however, things stalled a bit. Having made it more than halfway through Book VII, I hit a roadblock of sorts that needed to be negotiated. Unfortunately, I didn’t, and still don’t, know exactly how I want to negotiate that complication.
The complication is this; I have five chapters left before that book wraps. I have likely more than five chapters of material I need to write up to conclude that story arc before the next one begins. I don’t know that the overflow is enough to fill an entire additional book. That means that I may end up having to fill a new book with a slower pacing than I want. It would be near impossible to end the current arc in those five chapters. I basically am stuck in an unfortunate position where I may not be able to adequately balance the length and story the way I want.
Nevertheless, I am not particularly worried about it. In the first seven months of the year I was able to write and/or compile twenty one chapters in the main series, completing in part or in whole four books, including entirely writing Book VI. I am extremely pleased with that progress, so even if it takes a little while to figure out that mess I created for myself, I will always be encouraged by the fact that so much can get done in so little time once a few of the kinks are worked out.
So what did I do after hitting the Book VII roadblock? I did what I always do; start working on other story ideas.
This year has seen a great many small stories pop up, including the beginning of a few new sagas and the introduction of an entire new sub-series. Looking Glass was produced as a result of the BOTS chapter in which the Rosencraft journeyed to an alternate universe and encountered their doppelgangers, the Rosenckruez. I began, last year or the year before, exploring a more complex story about that world, sort of like BOTS redone from the perspective of that world. I never made a whole lot of progress on that in part because I didn’t find myself literary capable of properly writing that story. I didn’t have enough good ideas to fill chapters, so I didn’t get anywhere. I literally made them too powerful as a group. They are the type that would wipe out a planet to rid themselves of relatively small problems. Considering that, there were little ideas that could be fleshed out for a sustained story that would be anything of interest. Having them going around blowing planets to bits one after another would easily get boring.
However there was a little bit of something else to get me going in a slightly different direction. I had planned for a long time that at some point nearing the end of the Sephiroth Arc, the Rosencraft would meet a young woman who knows them, seems to be very much like Tea, claims to be a Soul Fragment of Tea, but whom Tea cannot fuse with. I originally didn’t have an explanation for why this was, and in the story planned to leave it a mystery, having that Soul Fragment, Ren Cromwell, show up occasionally between then and the end of the First Moon Saga’s first series. At any rate I began thinking about her situation, about who she was and what she did. I arrived at the idea that Ren would originate from another universe, similar but different from the Rosenckruez universe. Around that I built a scenario for what happened to her. Around that I began what is now known as the Cromwell Universe.
So, 2012 has ended without the world ending. Nemesis didn’t hurtle through our galaxy and collide with us. The sun didn’t go super-nuclear and microwave the planet. The planet’s magnetic field didn’t suddenly flip, hurling us into space. There were some hairy moments. For much of the year, since about late January really, there was a persistent concern, heightened relative to previous years, that Iran was on the verge of obtaining a nuclear weapon.
But this is not the State of the Union, or the State of the Earth, address. This is the State of the Realm. The State of the Realm, while influenced by the events of the greater world, is a beast unto itself that looks at the events within the Book of the Shadows’ various series. It is safe to say that not only is this the State of the Realm very strong, this is arguably one of the greatest years in the history of the Realm.
The definitive seminary event of the year came at the start of the year, in February. On February 8th, at a very early 3:35 in the morning, and after such a very long time, Book of the Shadows IV finally had its last word written into its pages. After all the delays, after all the other writing that was done, Book IV finally got wrapped up. With that done, just under 12 hours later, it was able to finish the initial chapter of Book V, thereby also completing that one as well. In that one day, I was able to cap off two books in the Book of the Shadows.
From there I was able to begin in-depth work on Book of the Shadows VI. Book VI, as you may know, was already about halfway done, but had stalled in part because I needed to know how I would play out Book V, which was on hold waiting for Book IV. On April 5th, at about a quarter to four in the afternoon, Book VI was also completed. Work on Book VII proceeded immediately
By the summer, however, things stalled a bit. Having made it more than halfway through Book VII, I hit a roadblock of sorts that needed to be negotiated. Unfortunately, I didn’t, and still don’t, know exactly how I want to negotiate that complication.
The complication is this; I have five chapters left before that book wraps. I have likely more than five chapters of material I need to write up to conclude that story arc before the next one begins. I don’t know that the overflow is enough to fill an entire additional book. That means that I may end up having to fill a new book with a slower pacing than I want. It would be near impossible to end the current arc in those five chapters. I basically am stuck in an unfortunate position where I may not be able to adequately balance the length and story the way I want.
Nevertheless, I am not particularly worried about it. In the first seven months of the year I was able to write and/or compile twenty one chapters in the main series, completing in part or in whole four books, including entirely writing Book VI. I am extremely pleased with that progress, so even if it takes a little while to figure out that mess I created for myself, I will always be encouraged by the fact that so much can get done in so little time once a few of the kinks are worked out.
So what did I do after hitting the Book VII roadblock? I did what I always do; start working on other story ideas.
This year has seen a great many small stories pop up, including the beginning of a few new sagas and the introduction of an entire new sub-series. Looking Glass was produced as a result of the BOTS chapter in which the Rosencraft journeyed to an alternate universe and encountered their doppelgangers, the Rosenckruez. I began, last year or the year before, exploring a more complex story about that world, sort of like BOTS redone from the perspective of that world. I never made a whole lot of progress on that in part because I didn’t find myself literary capable of properly writing that story. I didn’t have enough good ideas to fill chapters, so I didn’t get anywhere. I literally made them too powerful as a group. They are the type that would wipe out a planet to rid themselves of relatively small problems. Considering that, there were little ideas that could be fleshed out for a sustained story that would be anything of interest. Having them going around blowing planets to bits one after another would easily get boring.
However there was a little bit of something else to get me going in a slightly different direction. I had planned for a long time that at some point nearing the end of the Sephiroth Arc, the Rosencraft would meet a young woman who knows them, seems to be very much like Tea, claims to be a Soul Fragment of Tea, but whom Tea cannot fuse with. I originally didn’t have an explanation for why this was, and in the story planned to leave it a mystery, having that Soul Fragment, Ren Cromwell, show up occasionally between then and the end of the First Moon Saga’s first series. At any rate I began thinking about her situation, about who she was and what she did. I arrived at the idea that Ren would originate from another universe, similar but different from the Rosenckruez universe. Around that I built a scenario for what happened to her. Around that I began what is now known as the Cromwell Universe.
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