Need to rethink what I'm doing...

Here's the gist:

I've spent three weeks so far working on fleshing out Bluebird, my story on Gallus going in and through the Royal Guard Academy, and it's going fairly well, until this morning when something occurred to me: I'm writing a story about Gallus and the Royal Guard Academy, and yet I'm currently three chapters in and Gallus doesn't even set foot inside the academy itself. I've looked through my plan, and it looks like that won't even happen until four or five chapters in, and I'm currently aiming at less than 4,000 words per chapter, meaning at least 12,000 words before the academy gets properly established.

I know world-building isn't always the largest prerequisite in the world, but if I'm setting this story up as "Gallus goes to an academy to join the Royal Guard", I'm not sure how much people should be told about how he got in. I look at JackOfFewTrade's Set Sail, and in that story sets up why and how Gallus ends up going to Mount Aris in a single chapter.

Any advice would be great at this point, I don't want to put what I've currently worked on to waste, but I feel like I'm starting this idea wrong.

Comments

[TheAncientPolitzanian]

If you're concerned about the length, the first thing I reckon you ought ask yourself is "How much of the information that I've written is crucial to the plot, and how much of it is just worldbuilding for the sake of worldbuilding?"

Is the information you're providing quintessential to understanding Gallus, his motivations, and his immediate setting? If so, then is it conveyed in a manner that is engaging enough to tide your readers over until you get to the juicy parts?

Just some food for thought. Not sure how helpful it'll be, but it's something.

(DISCLAIMER: I'm a relative novice when it comes to long-form storytelling, so you might want to all of this with a grain of salt anyway.)

[Hammerhead]

5446937
Well, despite not having shown anything I've written down yet, I feel as though most of what I've written is important to understand Gallus and his motivations, I'm just unsure if it makes sense to show it this early when most of the story is set in a different place entirely. One suggestion I've heard elsewhere is to start the story with Gallus entering the academy, focus on his life there, the idea being that his motivations and struggles can come up later.