That’s the new deadline.
Monday’s attempt to write blurbs for The Academy of the Accord books led me to realize how much I didn’t remember about some of the books, so I’ve been rereading them since then and I can’t believe how much I’d forgotten about them.
Some of the later ones are pretty confused and disjointed (mostly from having been written out of order and me changing my mind on a few things midway through). Now that I’ve had a fresh look at them I’m pretty sure that the series isn’t going to be ready to release starting next January. Not if I want to give the books the time and attention they need to be done right – and I do. I owe it to myself and the series.
While this does take some of the pressure off, I do still want to have completed at least the first round edits of all twelve books by the end of the year. I also want to have the concordance completed, or as completed as it can get.
I spent some time working on it yesterday, getting it set up, and I think I’ve got a handle on how to organize the information and fix plot holes and continuity problems.
So far there are three sections.
Section One is divided into 12 subsections, one for each book. Each subsection has the following pages:
Synopsis
People/Places/Things Introduced
Things to Check for Other Books (Questions from Other Books)
Things to Look Up in Other Books
Things to Verify within This Book
Comments from Beta Readers
Miscellaneous
Right now there is no real rhyme or reason to my notes about things that I need to look up in other books. With this set up I’ll have everything in one place and I can go through and write the answers in the concordance and refer back to it when editing. By putting the questions in the section for each book I should be able to just go through once and answer everything instead of being in and out of twelve files and trying to find the answers and the places that I had the question. I think I’ll write the answer in a different color, too, to help offset my illegible handwriting.
Section Two is People/Places/Things, and will be divided into a subcategory for each. Everyone/everything will be listed alphabetically, and I’ll note which book(s) they are in. For instance, Vinadi and Marsden are in all twelve books, Kordelm, Wellhym, Caristen, Torlew, and Yhonshel are in books 2 through 12, Koppaerna is in books 2 and 4, and so on. There will also be physical descriptions as well as a narrative that will help me keep track of who knows what. Places will also be described because if I have to look up the description of the dungeons under The Keep one more time… (Ditto the Tower of the Accord.) I have lots of graph paper so (if I can find it) I might even draw out their floor plans. I should do that for the school, too, both for the castle itself and the grounds.
Section Three is Miscellaneous. It’s going to have a map (or maps), the timeline that I’ve been begging myself to make for years, the school’s curriculum so I know when they learn specific spells, and whatever else doesn’t seem to fit anywhere else.
Hopefully all of the above will iron out the continuity issues I’m facing and keep things consistent throughout the series.
And keep me from asking myself the same questions with every read through.
(I’m still no closer to having blurbs.)
Novel Notes 