It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these updates about my fantasy novel The Akrion Cycle (Book 1). The last six months have not got much to show in terms of words on a page, but there have been points of intensive creativity which have pushed the book forward.
One of the things I have been struggling with quite a bit is the pacing. The first quarter of the story has gone through numerous iterations in order to get a better pacing (and therefore setup) for the rest of the tale. It was a conundrum which has been a real struggle until I started reading again – an namely seeing the difference in pacing between The Licanius Trilogy by James Islington and The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb.
The Licanius Trilogy is incredibly fast paced, with characters moving between places and scenes with at a breakneck speed. It works for the story, because you’re constantly reading to work out what happens next – almost like an action movie.
The Farseer Trilogy on the other hand, is something that is much slower. It’s a character focussed book, which slowly layers up tension and intrigue at a deliciously slow pace. Robin Hobb is known for her characters, and so far I’ve learnt a lot from reading the Trilogy. Its shown me that a slow introduction is not always a bad thing, and actually laying the groundwork allows for a more significant and punch payoff when the pace does increase.
My pacing is somewhere between the two. The novel isn’t going to be a first person POV character study, but neither is it going to be (at least for this first book) extremely fast paced. I’d probably say it was around the pacing of Mistborn – there is going to be an intense “waterfall” esque payoff at the end, but there is a lot of groundwork that I need to lay in the book as well.
Realising this has meant that I’ve shifted a lot of my third POV’s character into Book 2 (which will end up being “her” book), and focussing more on introducing Mae’s political and hereditary world to the reader. I need an arc that justifies her story to an Assassins Guild, but also to give her an arc that will play out over all three books.
This month I’ve found a lot of truth in you write what you read. If you’re looking for book recommendations, then check out my book reviews as well or my Goodreads!
Edits and Upcycling
It’s been a while since I’ve written a novel update, mostly because it’s been a while since I’ve sat down and focussed some time on my novel. For me, beginnings of a story take a number (and I mean a number) of edits. They’re beastly to try and wrestle everything I need so that the…
Looking back on a year
When I sat down to write this blog, I was concerned I wouldn’t have anything to write about. The last few months have been filled with everything other than novel writing (including downloading new computer games, woops). As such, there hasn’t been much progress on my novel to speak of. However, when I look back…
Stuck in the Middle
I’ve got pages and page and pages of notes trying to work out the sequence in the middle of the story. It’s the bridging piece between the beginning setup and the key middle sequence and by gods does nothing I write work. (This is also a lesson in not trying to have too many POVs,…
Alex.J.Cobalt 