The short answer is that I finished
Nanowrimo, but the story is not yet finished (not to mention rewrites and
editing). As I was writing, I saw where the flaws were in the worldbuilding and
parts of the magic system that needed clarification. So, at the moment, I’ve
gone back to worldbuilding.
Not
really worldbuilder’s disease
Over time I have posted some worldbuilding
and snippets of fiction set in Airtha. “A Dragon’s Freedom” also takes place in
the same world as my Nanowrimo novel (for now titled Tower of Threads). While working on the worldbuilding, I have had
to kill some of my darlings to make the world a coherent whole. But I am very
wary of falling into the trap of worldbuilding and not getting around to
writing the book. Fortunately for me, the people who know of these darlings are
very few, so it is not that I am suddenly changing a whole world which readers
have come to know. The part of the world shown in “A Dragon’s Freedom” was at
that time already much larger in my mind, but the first stories I wrote in this
world will never see the light of day.
Because they’re that bad.
I am not, however, erasing everything and
starting from scratch. The problem with spending so much time on my studies was
that the worldbuilding was stretched out over a long time. So parts must be
rewritten to bring it up to date with things I wrote later and which – in my
mind – have become canon. I have, however, changed some of the maps quite
drastically. I also want to explore the way in which the history I have at the
moment influenced another part of the world which I realized I need to include
in the Nanowrimo novel. I’ll be using what’s left of January to do this and
then I’ll move back to actually writing the story.
How
I worldbuild
When I refer to writing or rewriting the
worldbuilding, I am referring to the way in which I worldbuild – I write short
“articles” to explain what happened during a specific era, how the magic works
or to describe the peoples, cultures, and fauna and flora. I find this much
easier than simply making a list. While most of the later stuff is on a wiki I made, the earlier stuff is mostly still only in handwritten form. I do a lot of
pantsing in my writing, so this is also why I need to review some parts to make
sure that they really do fit in with the overall mythology. I do have a
detailed wiki with all the names though.
But…
you’re still planning on finishing it (and getting it published)?
Definitely. And I will post some more
worldbuilding posts in the future.
