As of writing this I have just completed Chapter 17. The tying together of my original work and that of the new material was somewhat intricate but largely pain-free. Chapter 16 was shorter than some of the other chapters but finished at an appropriate moment. Therefore, the need for another chapter in order to bring about a conclusion to my year-long task was required. It is now complete. I will, of course, be celebrating this achievement tonight!
No rest for the wicked… tomorrow will see me embark upon a new area of my novel. There still remains several inconsistencies between the old and new material which need to be corrected and rearranged, however, I shall for now leave them and concentrate on a chapter that takes place later on in the story which I had previously left half-finished. That chapter has focuses largely upon the scribe, Neret, and will be a refreshing change from my previous work. Following that I shall turn my attentions towards the end of the story. I was always a little hurried for time in my original draft and there are some new ideas that I want to include. I therefore see perhaps another two to three additional chapters being added to the conclusion.
At that point my second draft shall be complete and I will be able to run through the entire manuscript checking for errors. The largest among these shall be continuity. Having written the story in segments as a result of the time that was available to me, there will be some glaring mistakes I am sure! Of course, I shall entrust some of this ‘exploration’ of the text to some of those that have followed my progress. The age old proverb that one cannot see the forest for all the trees is certainly true. Being so close to the story itself often camouflages the most obvious of mistakes.
Of some concern, however, was a recent idea I have had as an alternative introduction/underlying theme to my story! I wonder if perhaps I have made a fatal mistake in choosing the direction I have done? Surely not, but these concerns must plague all potential authors. I would hate to delete all seventeen chapters!!! Ha ha… of course, should my eventual manuscript fail to gain approval I might very well have to look into changing things. I hope not. Again, these are no doubt insubstantial fears.
Deciding to leave the comforts of my home I decided to venture out to a coffee shop today to finish up my chapter. Unfortunately, as is always the case here in Korea, the level of noise from people talking seemed to steadily increase from mild conversation to something like that found in a high-school cafeteria! The concept of polite conversation is entirely lost it seems. In the end, not wishing to be defeated in my endeavours, I resorted to listening to some noise of my own choosing and therefore listened to some Rammstein on my iPod. Even with some of the heaviest tracks, however, the German band was eventually forced to admit defeat when pitted against the incessant collective chatter of the Koreans. Tomorrow, I shall retreat to the bastion of my own home I think!
As a side note, I must apologise to those that have sought to download my short story from last summer entitled, “The Chalice“. It seems that a few people haven’t been able to find it despite the link in this blog’s side bar (yes, on the left of your screen). Following this link and the subsequent links to the actual file resulted in a message declaring that there was no file to be found. This was due to an error on the file server I was using. I have now rectified this problem and the file is available once again for you to download and read. Enjoy!
