Lacuna - Post-mortem

As I write this, the final chapter of Lacuna sits ready to be published, the email to EQD waits only to be sent, and then that will be it. I hope you'll forgive me for wanting to collect my thoughts a bit after I've written so many words already. Just a forewarning, but if spoilers bother you, you might want to hold off on reading this. Ready then? Let's go.

What a long, strange trip it's been, eh?

From the very beginning, I managed to surprise myself with how Lacuna kept going. In my original concept, when I fired up Open Office and tried my hand at this "writing" thing, Lacuna was slated for a Prologue, an Epilogue, and three chapters in between, none of which would over 3.5k words. 3k ideally.

Silly, silly me.

Sand was originally a minor character, one whose purpose would be fulfilled by the end of the Prologue, never to be seen again.

That worked out well.

I've never written fiction before, not really. There have been stilted attempts at storytelling, fragments that never went anywhere, but they were essentially crib notes for an idea or an emotion at the time of their conception, nothing more.

I wanted to see if I could do it. Actually complete a story, start to finish, no hiatus. Bonus points if it managed to remain lucid and coherent. The jury's still out on that point.

Every chapter became an experiment to see what worked for me, and what didn't. I came up with a lot of negative things, such as my pacing, my open-ended narrative, my thousands upon thousands of loose story fragments that needed eventual resolution, my endless conversations over food and/or tea...

Well, we do learn from our mistakes. Or so I hope.

I do love my dialogue, though. Why tell the reader something when I can have my characters do so instead while expressing their own personalities in the process? I ran the risk of overdoing it, of blurring their individual selves with my narrator self, and I felt that more often than not, I lost control of their quirks and charms. They became a convenient vehicle for exposition.

The biggest mistake by far was introducing a faceless Big Bad. This distant menace--nameless, faceless, shapeless--never loomed large enough in my mind or the story to properly justify its presence in either location. I did have plans for one, don't get me wrong. I had plans up until they wouldn't make a lick of sense, which was approximately midway through chapter 14. It's just the way these things go. Hey, don't blame me, I'm just the storyteller.

Ember and the flower sisters, possibly my two favorite characters to write.

Ember for his over-dramatic genre-savviness, for his two-faced villainy, and, well, to be honest? His ability to wrap up about a thousand of those threads I mentioned earlier. Not all of them, not by far, but a lot. His dialogue in his home was some of the most fun I've had writing during the entire story.

The flower sisters, really three faces of one soul. Their origin story left a bit to be desired, and the inclusion of their coloration was ham-fisted at best, but I enjoy the way they speak, the way they act, the way they react.

And Sand. Poor Sand. The highest risk of Suedom and self-insertion, she suffered as much as I could make her to draw her away from those lines. Maybe it was enough. Maybe not. I don't know what happened to her after the end of the story, but I hope she made it through okay and learned to forgive herself, in time.

I thought about quitting this project a dozen times over. I'd like to say that sheer tenacity and strength of will saw me through, but I don't want to lie to you. My wife Heather had to suffer the worst of my doubts, but she was always there to listen to my crazy ideas, to my horrible plans, and never, ever told me that I should quit, or that maybe I should just take a break. She's no taskmaster, but I'd have never made it as far as I did without her.

And Gardez. The first friend I've made through this fandom. Without his thoughts, his humor, his reviews, and dear god his obsession with hot, hot unicorn x unicorn shipfests, I'd have burned out on the story long ago, and what would have emerged now would have been soulless, joyless dreck.

And last, but certainly not least, is Chris. A reviewer I contacted out of the blue after liking his blog. He had the tenacity to review my entire story, start to finish, despite its monstrous flaws when it was first published, helping me refine and learn as I go. I cannot imagine what enormous plotholes, what rampant emotional whiplash, what haphazard pacing would still remain if not for his diligent work, and for that, I salute him.

I thank them as I thank you all, dear readers.

Until next time,

-Drak

Comments

[Cold in Gardez]

Hey now.

There's nothing unhealthy about that obsession.

Glad to see Lacuna drawing to a close. I remember being impressed with its thoughtful story and unhurried pacing when I read the first few chapters.

The real challenge, of course, is to build on the success of writing a 100k+ story. Good luck with that!

[Drakmire]

18267

I never said it was unhealthy : )

I don't think I could do another sprawling adventure fic like this. I didn't write a proper post-mortem up there, not really, to explain what went right and what went wrong, but the length was certainly one of the issues. I'm verbose in writing, which I dislike immensely because I lose an understanding of where everything fits together.

The resounding success of TWT, of course, makes me long to try something more of that length, but I think I'll hold off. You know my next project, so we'll see how well that goes first before I bite off more than I can chew by writing in your shadow.