Last Thursday, in my About The Characters post, I mentioned how quickly the weeks roll around.

A statement that applies equally well to months because I read Atrayah’s comment on the same post (thank you, Atrayah) and realized that it’s been five (5!) months since I did a revision update. Mea culpa!

WALL #4 update time

As you’ve probably guessed, a main reason for that is because the muses and the story have been working me as hard as ever, and I’ve been so busy ‘beavering’ that the weeks and months have slipped by me. A slippage compounded because I prefer to have a milestone to tick off, as that better conveys a sense of progress.

At the time of last review, I was just departing the section of the manuscript (hereafter “ms”) I long-ago nicknamed “the zigzag”, for the next major sequence—which I had hopes would provide a much clearer run.

Yarp, there have been “moments of Grond.”

As that hasn’t proven to be the case, I can only report that I am “still beavering” away on the same section I was just embarking on then. I do feel positive, though, about how the end result of all this beavering is taking shape, even if I could always wish for it to be faster. (I’m quite sure you all do, too.)

Also, you may recall that some time back I talked about Characters Behaving Badly with particular reference to Thanir? In particular, I noted that his motivations were “challenging to unravel.”

Thanir first appeared in WALL #3

This opaqueness has continued to vex me, both in completing the go-to-whoa ms and the current revision. I believe, though, that I may have cracked it at last (amid the rest of the current beavering.)

Thanir being Thanir, he’ll probably give me a few more sleepless nights before the dust finally settles, but there’s a lot less opacity now than there was…

Narrative dragon slaying, WALL style, continues…

In terms of where to from here, my aim is to get to the end of the current section, at which point I’ll do another update.

I also want to say that I know the revision is taking a long time, but given the time it took to get a go-to-whoa ms, and also with factors like resolving the zigzag in the mix, that is perhaps not unexpected. As always, I can only reiterate my commitment to keeping going, “knocking the bastard off”*, and getting the completed story to you.

— Helen Lowe

* Adapted from a quote attributed to Sir Edmund Hillary when he and Tenzing Norgay 
completed the first successful ascent of Sagarmatha / Mt Everest: "Well, we knocked 
the bastard off."