How Goes the Carving?

Ah, yes, the million-dollar question. That glorious ambition you set for yourself, Farjag? That write-every-night-till-it's-done thingy? That will-not-get-distracted-by-plot-bunnies idea? How's it going for you?

Quite well, actually. All things considered, very well.

Every night? Not exactly. But not distracted? Quite! Work is proceeding steadily forward!

I am currently on page 13, which may not seem like a lot, but it's the furthest I've at the deepest I've been working. If that makes no sense, don't worry. Maybe this will.

My furthest point of editing is page 28. And that was a fairly skimming editing to start with. It was only as I got further in the story that I realized how drastic some of the changes need to be.

For instance, the name of this land, Quartorlen, was one of the last names I created when drawing the map. It was the only place name at the time not formed of two actual words. (Flamehope, Thunderfell, etc.) I then went on to name the land of the shieldsfell similarly, calling it Dyrmlen. When I came up with the differing title system for the shieldsfell, I used the suffix -len as the basis. Patrollen, Magelen.

You see the problem yet? The land of the freeborn is named in the same vein as the names of the invaders.

Despair.... must rename single most used word in the book, must go back and retcon every single blog post, must wipe memories of all readers....

Light bulb! Quartorlen is named so because of the invaders. Think about it.

You and I come, as conquerors, to an island inhabited by a rustic, barbaric people, who divide land into so many tiny parts that it becomes impossible to tell where one begins and the next ends! One island should have one name! Additionally, if there no longer exists a homeland for the natives to fight for, they will not longer wish to fight! So, we shall name this place of provinces... Quartorlen, for when aligned with our compass, it can divided nearly into quarters along the cardinal points. There, problem solved!

Except for the fact that the folk of the four provinces, of Thunderfell, Flamehope, Deepdale and Whitefall, will never forget their own homelands. And the fact that Quartorlen combined is too big an empire to rule over as a united whole. The distances are too far, the landscapes too vast, and the shieldsfell army too small to effectively enforce their rule. And in the far reaches of the four provinces, freeborn wait.

The name of Quartorlen will live on far after the shieldsfell have been banished and many generations have come and gone. But it will be the name of the alliance of the four provinces, a reminder that they must never again refuse to come to the aid of another province, or they will all fall, one by one as they did in the Blood-Invasion.

That was a long for instance. :) But it shows the depth of what I need to do, and what I've already begun to do. Just in writing this, I realized as to why the Blood-Invasion was so successful in the first place. See that part one paragraph up about the provinces standing separately and not together? I hadn't even considered that before.

See, these blog posts aren't just for you readers, they're for me too. :) Long bits of mulling where I can run off my mouth and not get called boring for it.

Cause if you did think I was boring, you wouldn't finish the post and comment on it! Ha, ha I'm genius!

Have a wonderful day ya'll!

P.S. If anyone somehow manages to get the reference in the title, do let me know!