Cue Dad's joking.
"Maybe you should just kill off all your characters."
Okay, I'm pretty sure that's not exactly what he said. I didn't start keeping commonplace notes until Stephen and Rosenwasser got me going on them in college, so even though I thought to write down a very rough end, alas, I didn't write down Dad's inspiring lack of sympathy for the agony of writer's block.
It was amazing how quickly the middle filled in, starting with this section. It's pretty obvious to me now that I'd hit my writing stride and was itching for a change of pace--this section is a series of chapters written from different characters' viewpoints. We get villains and victims, old faces and characters that I had oh-so-subtly (cough) referenced in "Willow."
It was great fun to write.
That said, when I say that I couldn't write Lavardia again because too much happens just because I need it to happen, this is the section I'm mostly pointing at. The vaguely-medieval fantasy equivalent of a World War is started in the wake of a small skirmish on an island that, I think, is not much bigger than Hawaii's Big Island (not that I ever looked it up, which you'd think would be an obvious thing to do).
Anyway, I thought for this section I'd give a little note or two for each chapter. You're welcome to skip to your favorites/the ones worth remembering (because I forgot about a couple of them).
Madoc
You would not believe how dull his original name was before I Googled a list of medieval names.
I loved starting out with a full 360 on "Willow", starting with an alternative perspective on the whole issue. That said, I could definitely do more with Madoc now. I kind of think it'd be cool to make this character a woman. (Obviously Domicallia's blatant misogyny would have to be rethought...or thought about at all, really.)
Trevar
The chief source of my, "you can't just say it's so to make it so" woes. That said, I actually liked this bit:
That evening the pesky butler and his 'news' were driven from Trevar's mind as he, his wife, daughter, and two sons attempted to make the Queen of Asya and her husband, sons and daughters feel welcome. It was not an easy task.
The two eldest children entertained themselves by sitting in a corner and whispering to each other, but the others--Trevar's two sons and the Queen's four young girls and one baby boy--were not so easy to amuse. The boys chased the girls around the banquet hall with butter knives, threatening to cut off their braids. The second youngest girl tripped and when Trevar's sons grabbed her, she gave them each a good kick in the shins. The boys howled in pain and one struck her across the face. There was a slice of silence while the two clans of children registered what had happened, and then they all yelled and (quite forgetting their manners) proceeded to pummel anyone they could reach.
Trevar was a nervous man on good days. Watching this happen while the Queen and her husband just ignored it and talked politics was more than he could bear. He kept shifting in his chair, his eyes darting from his children to his guests, trying to pay attention to more dull talk and his brawling children at the same time.
His wife was in no better condition. He could tell that she longed to stand up and end the chaos and send the boys to bed without supper. How on Earth could the Queen and her husband just keep talking in such calm voices?
One broken finger, three nosebleeds and countless bruises later, they sat down for dinner.
Perhaps I'll refurbish it sometime in the future. For one thing, it's hardly a demonstration of the equality that the genders are supposed to have in this world. But really, true equality might be too much even for my imagination.
Aly
One of the ones I forgot about. What was even the point of this ignorance-exposing chapter? (Other than to name two characters for a friend, Ally, and her crush on Rupert Grint. I didn't exactly tell Ally how it all ended.)
Anne
This character was originally a boy with an equally lame name. I now think that the character should have stayed that way, that he should have inherited the title from his mother, and that the chapter should have been told from Claire's perspective. She needs a better name, too. Another pretty lame chapter.
Birch
Okay, I actually like this chapter. You know, compared to everything else. I think it holds together the best, and it was another chance to look at a rotten character from "Willow" and see how they'd developed. So yeah, should the spirit move you, this one's actually posted on DeviantArt. (Weird fact: Birch and Willow actually look pretty similar in my head.)
Suzie
Another "???" chapter, though it's actually one I posted as a free sample on Lulu.com. I guess I was pretty proud of it at one point. It was fun to write from a kid's perspective. Now I'm just like, "Uncle Simon, dude, what are you doing telling your adopted daughter--who's, like, six--that she has a right to make choices about her future because she has no family? YOU'RE family!" Thank goodness for life, huh?
Korcal
Korcal suffered the most. She's freakin' awesome, so cool that I've never done her the disservice of rendering her death meaningless by magically raising her from the dead (though romping around in her past is another matter), but here she's out of ideas before anything even happens. Argh! Well, maybe someday I'll get around to writing her into another fairy tale retelling I've been percolating.
At the end of the chapter, all the travelers bond over the fact that they've met Willow. This is, in fact, the exact opposite of the effect that a proper Lord Overseer of Time should have--they should slip in and out unnoticed and unremarked upon. I guess I'll let it slide since he's still in his teens.
P.S. I would totally cast Laverne Cox as Korcal.
Jo
Jo does a 360 and starts being mopey and miserable instead of helpfully providing dumb battle ideas to people who have hundreds of years more political experience than he does. Another "???" chapter, though I do like his meeting with Birch and his last moments.
Jo and Lor became the victims of my heteronormative societal brainwashing in the original. At the time I wrote this, he was upset that he didn't have a girl because Lor's dead. Now, he's upset because he doesn't have either friend because Lor's dead and Willow's AWOL. Jo's technically about 8--even if his body grew up, he's still childish in some ways and not ready for actual crushes yet.
Rusty
I'm pretty proud that I thought of writing from Rusty's POV.
I'd originally named her for another friend before I realized that dragons came from Mars--which totally needs more elaboration. (For those who knew about my abandoned space dragons story, they were not related at all.) I actually called her Sizzle for a while, which is another great name for a dragon, but not one that I could use after I decided that my dragons didn't breathe fire. In case it's not clear, that myth comes from Jo.
Also, I love how Willow's little speech starts all stilted-sounding until Philip (what is with these awful names?) cuts him off. The language in the whole book is very torn between Harry Potter-casuality and Lord of the Rings-formality.
Alexandrite
I remember finishing Rusty's chapter and getting stuck. How was I supposed to make the next section work? I'd already used a bunch of POVs, I didn't want to repeat a character but I needed someone who'd be in the thick of battle. In hindsight, it's obvious I should have given Korcal's chapter to Ivy and put Korcal's POV here, especially considering that she ends the chapter.
Earth
Talk about big picture! I did like zooming out and making clear that Earth actually existed. The physicality of the space-things drove me up the wall, though. I ended up going with homonoid shapes, but it frustrated me so much that I was talking about hands and feet and hearts in imaginary space beings. I think I could do better with something like this now.
Finally, I'm 99% sure that my abundant use of commas these days is a direct result of not using them enough when writing this book. Clearly I was skimping on my quota earlier in life and I'm making up for it now!
