“How Many Sections?”: A Reader Question Answered
So-o, way-aways back on Monday, I posted an update on WALL #4 revision progress, namely that I had completed the revision of the first section in Part 2 (of the manuscript of two distinct parts. I reported on completing Part 1, here.)
But as Gail’s question on the update highlighted, it’s also helpful to know how many sections Part 2 contains — so thank you, Gail, for prompting me to say. 🙂
I know, it looks like a LOT of sections… (That’s Gathering, by the way.)
I did have to do a quick review and headcount, though, just to be completely sure of the precise number, but the answer—ta da!—is six.
That’s six in total, dear readers, including Section 1, which I’ve just reported “done.” So that’s one down, five to go.
And although you may recall that I revised the final section first (because it needed major changes that I wanted to capture while they were fresh in my mind), it must stay on the list. That’s because it will still need consequential changes, whether tweaks or more substantive, to fit with the rest of the revision.
Sometimes, wrangling the narrative via hand is still required.
As I also indicated on Monday, the sections are of varying lengths, similar to the other books — although that can and does change, sometimes quite significantly, through the revision process. Also, length alone may not determine how long revision will take: it’s always far more about what’s happening with the narrative and the characters.
So as with so much else in life, the way through is to keep turning up and moving the work forward, one word, sentence, paragraph, page, chapter and section at a time. So as per my June 9 post, my next update will be when Section 2 is done. It’s currently titled The Gap by the way, and it comprises a section of the narrative that has been integral to the WALL story since I first started telling it to myself—long before I ever put pen to paper.
It’s a marathon, but there’s alchemy still, in the mix
Thanks Helen it’s always interesting to have a peep into the writing process
It was a good question, Gail, but one that didn’t occur to me — probably because thinking about the whole ‘elephant’ can be daunting, which is why my current focus is ‘eating it in bites’ by concentrating on one chapter at a time.:-)
Thanks Helen appreciate your hard work
I can promise you that I am working on this, so thank you!
I read “Heir of Night” some years ago, and happened across it again in my (local authority public) library and picked it up not realising that I had read it a long time ago.
About half way through I thought “I’ve seen this tale before” but after such a time I couldn’t remember much of what happened so enjoyed it to the end. Given the publication date and the pleasure of reading it I wondered what further volumes existed after it. Only to find that although there were more they were not in that (UK) county’s catalogue.
Fortunately, as a SciFi/Fantasy devotee I also had membership of another library system (for five adjacent counties) and they had the other two books in stock – or so I thought. I reserved them and eventually got the “Daughter of Blood” but held off on reading it until I could lay my hands on “Gathering the Lost” – sadly, there was only one copy extant and it was stored away in a “reserve” and not on the shelves of another libraries miles away. It eventually turned up and though complete it was in a rather sorry state with some loose pages! I devoured it and found that it was indeed new to me as was the third book which I finished a few hours ago.
I was sad to read what happened to “Myr” but I could see that it is a core part of the tale – even if it isn’t entirely clear yet how!
With that in mind I started to hunt for “The Chaos Gate” only to find that “Fantastic Fiction” – a go to site for many bibliophiles – https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/helen-lowe/ has swallowed the misleading information about the fictional publication date/title.
So now I have found your site and will keep my eyes open for future developments.
For anyone else eagerly awaiting them I am reminded to misquote George R. R. Martin who, after being quizzed about the (on-going, sadly) delays in the publishing of the final two volumes of “A Song Of Fire And Ice” series made a strong pronouncement. In essence “Helen is not your female wyrhound”!
A good story takes time and sometimes that is a long time. We know that it is being worked on and hopefully a successful conclusion will be reached.
Also, look on the bright side, readers of some other series have been waiting much longer – since 1997 for the conclusion to Melanie Rawn’s “Exiles Trilogy”. In fairness to Melanie she had some major “real life” stuff to deal with.
With that in mind, would Helen be able to briefly give an uninformed person like myself an idea as to the main hurdles that have delayed things – or perhaps point me to a blog post if something like that already exists here?
Thank you for your comment, Stephen.
Your quest to track down Daughter of Blood and The Gathering of the Lost sounds suitably epic, in the grand tradition of a McGuffin Hunt, so I’m glad it was not only rewarded but worth the effort.:D
Thank you, too, for your comments regarding time. I do feel that having embarked on a continuing story like WALL, I have a moral obligation to readers to finish it, which is one (but by no means the least) reason that I continue “turning up and moving the work forward, one word, sentence, paragraph, page, chapter and section at a time”, as per the post above.
And it is coming together — that’s the exciting part!
In terms of posting on the hurdles to the creative process, while I understand your reasons for asking, I greatly fear that doing so may constitute another four-part epic. So if there is ever an appropriate time to canvas it, that must come after the WALL series is done — especially as I wouldn’t like to risk the ire of the Muses by taking the back off the creative clock to examine its workings, before the process is complete.
Now you have discovered “…on Anything, Really” I do hope you will continue checking back in. The blog backlist may also repay a look in terms of reflections on creativity and process more generally. In addition to the categories About My Books and About What I’m Doing in the far-right-hand sidebar, About Writing contains a range of different reflections, which include a series of posts from ‘Inside the Writing Life’ (mostly from around 2020 – 2021) that you may find interesting.