A New Book Two: Destiny’s Shroud
World building comes to us as a swirling mass of ideas and imagery, which eventually coalesces into some semblance of sanity. For my fellow writer’s out there, I think my choice of words at the end of my introductory sentence may elicit a chuckle or a slight nod of the head, ending with a smirk. Even superbly crafted outlines, character backgrounds, and well thought out storylines must remain malleable to proper course corrections as the worlds we build evolve. The value of implementing such adjustments will be based on the discipline of recognizing when it is feasible to do so.
Near the end of my December 2022 blog post, I spoke to a substantial shift in the sequence of events for the Sy’Arrian Legacy Series. I will not rehash those prior sentiments, but suffice to say, my decision to change the sequencing of newer books in the series was not made whimsically. I suspect more seasoned authors than I would concur with being very cautious and intentional when making changes on how a story will evolve once it has been mapped.
As a whole, the determination to go forward will depend on what stage of growth your story is in currently. Early is much better due to the ease of correcting existing lore to ensure consistency and accuracy. If you already have a series in the works, which has one or even several books published, weighing the need to implement changes comes down to a risk versus reward scenario. Fine-tuning a glossary of terms specific to your world is one thing, while changing a major storyline is often a recipe for disaster.
The Sy’Arrian Legacy series’ beginning, and end has always been fairly clear to me; what lies in-between can be haphazard with periods of stability, which do make sense once the proper pieces have been developed and put in place. I do not think this to be uniquely insightful because I am sure many, if not most, content creators have been in similar situations; it is how the creative process works its magic. As I have gotten older, one of the things I have learned is to not fight what is inherently a part of your inner self. Rather, let go and allow it to take you down the correct path.
What I just referenced is an element I have touched on periodically over the course of this blog’s longevity. When my mind began contemplating the concept of creating a new book two and moving The Fury of Ages to the book three slot, it came of no surprise to me. I have become remarkably astute in recognizing the signs of impending change to the content I develop, once my mind begins to explore possibilities, no matter their subtlety.
Even though content creation for The Fury of Ages remained fluid and steady in the early stages of 2022, at the back of my mind I knew the sequencing was off. This is where it becomes difficult to articulate how one knows when it is time to course correct. It is a feeling you have, which has been thrown into a sea of perpetual nuance. Over time I have developed enough self-awareness to wade through the subtlety in order to focus on where this feeling is coming from. Those involved in any type of artistic endeavor know precisely where I am coming from even if their approach to understanding it differs from my own.
I will do my best to not delve too far into the minutia of where my mind went during this process; however, there were two primary considerations in my deliberations. Although I prefer not to rank or categorize thought exercises designed to guide us to the best possible solution, the first consideration I will reference is one I could have interwoven throughout the course of the series without feeling the need to reshuffle its sequencing.
One of my struggles, which to this day baffles me as to why it was one in the first place, was how to handle the integration of my most pivotal character, Jarus Menai. I will not provide deep detail at this point to his significance due to his role in the series; some elements do need to be a surprise. What I realized is the aforementioned significance of Jarus as a story telling element was unnecessarily tying my brain in knots to allowing Jarus, the character, to develop organically just like all of my other characters. This is what happens when tunnel vision develops, and you focus too intently on a singular element.
Jarus’ importance is alluded to periodically as events in The Cradle of Destiny unfold, while reader’s are only privy to Jarus’ presence at the beginning and end of the book. It was not until I took a step back to re-examine how I presented Jarus to both readers and my other characters did I realize his evolution is going in the right direction. Elevating and putting his importance on too high of a pedestal created a perception of godhood, where no approach to refining his purpose was good enough.
In spite of what I just mentioned, reaffirming my approach to Jarus’ development is on track lead me to the second consideration, which did become the most important – the treatment of the Sy’Arrians. Here is where understanding the importance of proper sequencing in your story building is the most critical, especially when juggling a large universe with a myriad of individual races, cultures, and belief systems.
I suspect it is abundantly clear, the Sy’Arrians are the primary focus of, well, the Sy’Arrian Legacy Series. Yet, when viewing how I intended to unfold the series using the very same story telling elements I have spoken to ad nauseam in this blog, I realized there was no content designed to specifically focus on them until after book five. When you view most successfully created content, you typically want to highlight the main focus early in the story telling process. Waiting potentially until after book five was, in my mind, a putting the cart before the horse situation.
The above really hit home when I reviewed the ending to book one and made notes related to clean-up items needing to be addressed in book two, which at the time was The Fury of Ages. Once I was finished, it became clear I needed a book dedicated specifically to exploring some fairly large elements unveiled at the end of book one. For those of you who have not read book one to its completion, I would suggest ceasing your reading of this post due to potential spoilers in the next paragraph.
There were a number of small follow-up items at the end of book one, but two major items became prominent in my mind. First, is exploring the importance of Solitude, the major population center of the Sy’Arrian group who split from the main group when the Sy’Arrian’s first landed on Hyprus, which I refer to as the Sha’ran Separation of 2630 in Sy’Arrian history. The second is how to properly handle Alexis Striken given he has been captured and contained by the Sy’Arrians, especially when you consider who will lead the Telerin Government since he is now presumed dead.
As I close my first blog of 2023, rest assured I look forward to detailing more elements involved in the development of both the new book two and the series. This is the most confident and comfortable I have felt about this story since, well, ever. My intent is to bring in this confidence to deliver a story worthy of readership and, hopefully, fellowship.
Be safe, be well, and build a mind on a foundation of compassion and unconditional love. By doing so, you will influence others to do the same and help make the universe a much better place to live by helping change one mind at a time for the better.
Thank you for reading.
