Like in real life, character development often comes through fiery trails. I’m already quite fond of my ‘main’ characters, but if I want them to grow–and I want keep my readers engaged with them, then I need to turn up the heat on them. With that in mind, and knowing that I also need to keep sprinkling out more and more interesting little background tidbits, ones that build understanding while also creating even more intrigue, I decided it was time to give the readers a peek into Begone’s mysterious roots–if you’d already read chapter five you might be thinking, Very punny. More likely, once you do read it you’ll just groan. The other thing I want to do with this chapter is to make it clear that there is a much greater evil lurking in the shadows than just a heartless king. And with that it’s time to see how well I accomplished any of those goals…
What do I think…?
Let me start out by saying…probably not for the first time, and it certainly won’t be the last, that I hate letting anyone see the sloppy mess that first appears when I start typing. Still, sniveling aside, I think this has the makings of a very strong chapter. The interaction between Ohrder and Begone was good, the introduction of the magic tree, Begone’s now even more mysterious past, and the whole ‘Dearth’ thing are all attention grabbers, and hopefully with some polish will be a fun read. On the bad side, though it wasn’t a complete miss, I really want Begone’s being left at the stump to be a huge gut punch–not just to him, I want the readers to feel his pain too…that will take some major polishing. But even so, I’m not thinking any of the chapter falls into the complete rewrite mode, and I’ll take that.
Blessings always,
Mike
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