Beginnings Are Hard

January 2024, it's time to settle back into the manuscript. I had hoped that having hired the editor back in October 2023, it would generate excitement into getting back into the writing.

It lead to more homework. I had to update my 3rd draft chapter outline, which is still not done. I mean it's mostly done, but I got stuck on a sudden change of direction that I'm not sure I want to deal with because that will lead to bigger issues in book 2 which has 1/2 the 2nd draft done.

Then I had to do character outlines. I mean I have character outlines that are basically incoherent at this point, because I was working through so many iterations of an idea and how this thing impacted the character's past and in the future. Because I need to be aware of these things.

As per usual for me, I went overboard, when all the editor needed was like two sentences. Once I figured that out, I was primed for the revisions.

By the end of January, I had wrapped chapter 1 and chapter 2 revisions.

I have this to say about the experience: Beginnings are hard.

I totally get why YA fantasy novels all start the same way now.

Because beginnings are hard.

I've just finished reviewing (not revising) chapter 3 and chapter 4 just this past week.

I have two major problems at this point, only one of which I'm working on correcting.

My first major issue is context.

I'm writing a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel with strong horror themes in a tech heavy society. I did it to myself. I know. Officially I advertise my work as Dark Fantasy with Lovecraftian undertones, which I feel does a decent job capturing the grey areas I want to explore while there's something outside of human control or understanding lurking in the depths. This is what I want to explore. These themes are what I want to write about.

I know this much about my context issues: I'm too close to the work. I just don't see it.

I'm told this is like the iceberg reference when it comes to what authors know about their own worlds, vs what they share with the reader. In the early drafts that my betas read, I overshared, in this version I cut back a lot on the info dumps.

I'm terrified to let the editor read the next two chapters… But I can't fix it if I just hide from the problem. Since I'm having to reread the chapters to get back up to speed to where I left off, I figured I'll try to pre-empt some context issues if I learned anything these past few months, and maybe figure out if I can fix any of the foreseeable problems ahead of time.

The second problem is that apparently 4 chapters in and some 100 pages (it's not 100 pages, my longest chapter is 25 pages single spaced - I think by the end of chapter 4 we're at 70 pages), and the plot hasn't come into focus.

At this point, I'm second guessing that I know what a plot is at all.

It turns out that I know nothing of scene structure and I was like 99% sure I had that shit figured out, which means all of the advice I was giving my peers was likely bad advice. That's a humbling experience. Now my advice is: I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about anymore. Which is probably Advanced level writing; when the writer has come far enough into their journey to realize that they know fuck all. The thought kind of makes me feel better.

You know if the worst of it is context issues, and not so much writing issues - then that's a good thing right?

I mean, I still have no idea how to solve that plot problem.

Maybe you can help me?

See the plot for Hunter's Gambit is that there is a demon beneath the Academy about to wake and wreak havoc.

By the end of chapter 3, I state explicitly that there is a demon at the Academy - they just don't know exactly where.

Chapter 1 - 10 pages, goes through the trouble of showing the devastation of a demonic incursion.

Chapter 2 - 22 pages, takes a step back and introduces Seth, our lead protagonist as he deals with an oddly aggressive therapist, whose behavior should be properly suspected by the reader. This chapter was designed to get the readers to sympathize with Seth on a human level, because his world problems are quickly going to be not normal people problems, which given some of the responses I've had from readers with regards to Astral, I thought this was a problem best sorted out sooner. Also the Astral problem has more to do with reader gender expectations than with the character itself. Had I written her as a male character the readers would have been fine with her attitude. Which is sad. But I need reader buy in sooner rather than later - so I chose to lead with Seth.

Chapter 3 - 45 pages, we go through Seth's experience in the Championship game and experience those events from his perspective. At this point, the reader should know that something fucked up is happening in the games, and if not in the games, at least in the last game of the season. The demon is in the games actively manipulating the games at the Academy, getting players sacrificed to it.

What else do I need to set up? Because after that is the investigation to figure out where exactly is the demon at the Academy, the infiltration of the games as told from Astral's POV, leading to the discovery of where demon is at, big boss fight, a difficult choice, and… well that's for me to know.

Like I said: beginnings are hard.