It's big, believe me

I've come to something of a decision. After much deliberation, I've decided to give up this life of wanton materialism and whoring to join a Tibetan monastery and embrace a culture of spirituality and devotion.

Okay, no, that's not the decision. But that'd be cool, too.

I'm splitting the story in two.

I should have done it ages ago but when I planned the thing out (insofar as I planned it, I mean), I put these two ideas together and have been reluctant to tear them apart. They seemed to belong together, and I thought that if the two storylines met in the third act, I could pull it off. I thought I could make it work. I can't. What I've noticed (all too belatedly, I'll admit), is that these are two completely different stories. The only things they have in common, besides the spunky hero, is that they're in the same genre, and frankly, that's not enough. Even if it was, even if they weren't so different, putting them together inflates the story to an insane degree; there was no way it would work as one novel, which is what I want Out of Tadara to remain. And even if I didn't, even if I thought serialization was okay (I seriously considered, for a short while, slitting the story into six considerably shorter novels, but have since gotten over it), the SEY storyline is by fall a smaller story. It would, in these six novels, have remained the ghostly storyline, showing up only to remind you it wasn't completely over, yet. Unfinished business, and all.

ELKN tracks a a journey that spans a continent by foot; SEY hardly ever leaves the (albeit immense) city; ELKN deals in discovery, both inner and outer, and although SEY is set in a city that can be reasonably explored to a great measure, it's not that story. It's not a tourist's guide to Deo Nazaar. The characters (most of them, at least) know who and where they are (literally and figuratively), and they know on which side of the main conflict they'll fall.

However, even if I were willing to overlook all that, all the differences between the two, the greatest reason for the split is simply this: Out of Tadara is a story about the struggle of a small group (points for originality, I think) in getting out of Tadara. It has to be a monumental, nigh impossible task, or it wouldn't be interesting, and taking a reader out of there in the second chapter (when SEY is introduced) would diminish the weight of the mission.

So, SEY's chucked. I'm turning it into its own (albeit shorter) novel, and frankly, I'm looking forward to it; now I don't have to harangue myself over when and how the two stories will converge. Honestly, getting ELKN to Deo Nazaar was such a Deus Ex Machina, I'm surprised I didn't do this sooner.

Also, given that I don't really like single-focus stories (I like jumping around, a bit, not always staying with the same group), I'll have to come up with something to fill the gap. For both stories.

Well, it's a work in progress.


-- Cris