15: Ignorance Is Bliss
10/19/2011
Finally finished Chapter One: Alena. With a word count of 5,561 it is only half as long as the prologue. It really isn’t long enough when there’s only 16 chapters in the book. But I guess I can flesh it out later.
Two things surprised me though: 1) I haven’t worked on the chapter in five months! My last scene dated 5/12, I hadn’t realized it’s been so long. And 2) the quality of my earlier writing was terrible. What I just wrote is far from perfect, but it’s miles ahead of what I wrote back in May. I’m not sure if this is due to the books on writing fiction I’ve been studying, or the actual fiction I’ve been reading lately. Maybe I’ve just been in a more inspired mood. Whatever the reason, these last two scenes I rewrote are a lot better than their original drafts. The original versions read like a child’s homework assignment for a creative writing class.
Well, that’s what rewriting is for I suppose. Hopefully this will continue so I can push out more chapters. I’ve been wasting way too much time on other stuff. The other stuff may be important eventually, but right now I think it’s crucial that I just push out the first draft for this first book ASAP. I got to get it down as a foundation. Otherwise, the whole enterprise is just a daydream in my head, sketches and vignettes lost among my notes and letters to family. I HAVE TO WRITE THE STORY NOW!
Present-Day Reflection
6/9/2026
I know how he feels, the guy who wrote that journal entry 15 years and 4 months ago. Luckily, I’ll never be in that headspace again, but I remember it. I’ll always have new writing that needs to be done that I’m ignoring as I work on other things. But having the first book done these days places me in a vastly different position than I was in back then. Back when it was still mostly “a daydream in my head.”
The characters are real now, and the first part of their story is completely fleshed out and written in stone. There will be no more major rewrites or reimagining of the saga’s introduction. For better or worse, their foundation is established.
Chapter One: Alena, which I had just finished back then, was a big step, but it would be completely reworked down the road. Diallo and Alena were still 2-dimensional, Alena in particular still being a goody-two-shoes paragon of virtue with no human stain. Diallo and Guma’s opening chapter wasn’t even conceived yet. Nor was the introduction of the jola, which would push Alena to Chapter 3 instead of 1. None of the other three primary characters: Tamal, Dougga, or Bakar made their entrance back then until I got to the night of the Twa Yal-Jukun when Siona did Diallo’s reading.
The entire structure back then was vastly different and simplified, where the Twa Yal-Jukun was merely one chapter instead of Part II – today consisting of 18 chapters and a fable.
If I knew then what I know now, I’d probably be overwhelmed by the amount of work remaining ahead of me just to finish all four parts of the first book. Ignorance is bliss, they say. This leaves me wondering though about how lucky I may be right now, not knowing what lies ahead of me with the remaining books to be completed.
