Revising The Warden of Everfeld: Memento has changed the way I think about stories.

During my discovery/first draft process, I mainly thought of world-building in terms of how it affected my direct story. Now, by sifting through nuggets of world-building info and ensuring that they fit in the right ways with my isolated WoEM story and the Úr’Dan story at large, I have had to reevaluate how I use and reveal that information.

Conflict Builds Context

I am still working through the middle section of my story, the pivotal sequence when the protagonists have to face the conflict head-on and make a clear choice: fight or flight.

However, in the midst of this mini climax, one of my protagonists encounters a character who was created at first because I thought they were cool. (I feel like that’s how most fantasy ideas are first spawned.)

But then I had to start asking myself why this random person looked and acted the way they did, and their role in the universe at large has grown exponentially, even if they are still minute in the immediate realm of WoEM.

It Always Comes Back to World Building!

This brings me to my point. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the wider mythological and historical context of my universe even as I am trying to focus on the immediate conflict my characters are facing.

How do the natural powers that be interact with and impact humans in this universe? I have about 7,000 words of a creation myth written, but I have not yet advanced that story (or series of stories, as I’m planning to release them) to the intersection of supernatural forces and humans.

So I do not quite know what that intersection looks like yet, but in developing tangential characters who represent that intersection, I need to ensure that what WoEM is accurate. It needs to be canon; this is all my canon, so technically I can change it at will.

But wouldn’t that just cheapen future stories, to change my own canon simply to suit my needs? That’s not how I want to operate.

So while I’m working on pushing into the second half of WoEM this weekend, I will also be outlining that mythology, uncovering how humans first interacted with the supernatural forces of the universe, and how it impacts my characters’ lives.

I wrote 7,500 words this week. Not bad, but I’d like to average more like 9-10,000. MLS Weech continues to be a huge supporter in my daily writing grind, and I am forever grateful.

Goal for 3/24: 13,000 words, 100,000 words total

Steve D