This year, I commence the project of rewriting and re-releasing my first three books. Once I realized I would do more than fix dialogue tags, I considered this a great opportunity to change the otherwise fragmented reading order of my releases.
I’ll refer to the previous series chart, lovingly put together in MS Paint, to help you understand.
The original release order and chronology
The prequel trilogy was always meant to be something you could read on its own. I realized long ago that I didn’t intend to write a seven or eight part series that needed to be read in order when the first book was not that widely read. Likewise, some readers refuse to enter a series unless it has a definite ending in its chronology. Mine had one called The Masked Queen’s Lament, but with five books having been released after it, there could be confusion over release order versus series chronology, timeline, and other things.
Also, I found myself not promoting my initial trilogy because I wanted to lead with my best material, then invite people to look back if they were interested enough in the world presented. Along a ten year publishing journey, I like to believe I’ve improved at my craft. It felt dubious to say, “Just tough out the first books, and you’ll be rewarded later.” People may tough out the required reading in courses to advance their understanding or perhaps to pursue careers, yet my books are being offered as entertainment.
I would find it difficult to tough out a film on the vague promise of better sequels; critical acclaim for those sequels (and, marginally, the encouragement of a widespread fanbase) might coax me. I am neither well known nor critically acclaimed. I have the power to roll up my sleeves and do more work, and that’s what I’ll do.
One day, I decided to take my first trilogy off sale for an editing sweep, thinking I would just clean up the dialogue tags and accept the rest. I went as far as quietly fixing a few typographical errors in The Crown Princess’ Voyage and uploading the new version. There is much to be said about presentation, and much improvement you can make to a reader’s experience with the simplest corrections. Even then, I began to wonder. I looked to my first book.
From page one of The Gift-Knight’s Quest I kept encountering things I would have done different, which would better express the ideas I intended to present. It was more than just a word choice here and there, particularly since I had already brushed it up for the 2019 reformatting/re-release (it amazes me that I didn’t touch the errant dialogue tags back when I was content to make simple changes).
Now, the process is happening as it did with Their Village, Their Fortress. Ideas occur to me at random and inconvenient times, like when I’m about to shower. I’m compiling a Notes document, because I left too much to memory the first go-around.
To be fair, I don’t loathe my first books, and many people have enjoyed them. Every so often, I find something in them that makes me proud. Overall, as gamers might say: “It’s a skill issue.” The most dramatically different of these re-releases should be the first book. The further along I get, hopefully, the more intact the original releases should be. I’ll find out when I get there.
Three books still on the market (Prince Ewald the Brave, The Fate of Lenn, and The Redemption of Jarek) have already delivered a factual account of history resulting in the “gift-knight trilogy”, so what do the historical “flashback” sequences mean in The Gift-Knight’s Quest? I could already give a couple reasons why they would be incongruent with the prequels (though, for now, I will not), begging the question: what are they really and what purpose do they serve? There shouldn’t be as many of them if they aren’t meant to properly represent the burden of history on the shoulders of Derek and Chandra. They should occur frequently enough to serve their true purpose, which is less often than in the original text.
Instead, more time should be spent considering the present of the story, who the characters are, and what they do. Every idea that has come to me so far is like that. The reimagining of some scenes and the necessary addition of others.
Well, I won’t spoil everything. I just wanted to offer a taste of my work in progress.
The new reading order
Sharing once more, because the focus image appeared to cut off the simple chart legend. This was created in Canva, and the template was Blue and Green Modern Project Timeline Overview Graph by Aida.
Leave a Reply