I’ve finished the rewrite. The story now clocks in just a shade under 104,000 words. And it’s a hell of a lot better than it was before this whole process started. For the first time in a while, I’m looking forward to editing it and getting it out the door, because now I think I have a story that’s worth publishing. Of course, I’m sure I’ll turn into a pessimist as soon as I go back for another round of edits, but that’s a long way off.<\/p>\n
For now, I’m just going to spend the weekend basking in the fact I’ve ‘finished’ another novel. But before I go, here’s the opening page.<\/p>\n
Chloddio\u2019s hammer crashed against the shield of his instructor, a muffled thud as the training weapon impacted solid metal. Chloddio followed with a sweeping strike, coming in high and from the right, aimed at the side of Cavrel\u2019s head. The instructor\u2019s shield rose as he ducked slightly, and the blow glanced away, momentum carrying the warhammer above his helmet. Chloddio threw his strength into reversing the strike, pulling it into a backhand aimed at Cavrel’s skull. A frown spread across the instructor\u2019s features as his weapon came across, the cloth-swathed head slamming into the haft of Chloddio\u2019s weapon, knocking it flying.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYou are a dead man Chloddio. Again. A sweeping side-arm blow with a warhammer? I could have stepped inside and gutted you. I just chose to knock it high and then disarm you. It\u2019s flashier, and it proves a point. Either way, you’re dead. You use great swinging strikes, building from your shoulder. I’m not a rock, and will not meekly stand still while you mine me. Those spikes\u201d Cavrel pointed at the top of Chloddio\u2019s weapon, lying on the dirt. \u201care not simply for decoration. Use them to thrust or backhand, a change of direction, anything aside from your continual hammering. Subtlety in combat will save your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCavrel paused, looking at the warhammer on the ground, then back at Chloddio. \u201cAnother thing: This is a battle, not a show. You flourish. You wave your weapon above your head as if that will inflict damage. It’s costing you here in the training ring, and it will cost you more when someone doesn’t fight fair and kicks you in the groin. At least you wear armour reasonably well. Means you\u2019ll last a few moments more in a fight, but only a few moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cGather your gear, put it back in the armoury and go home.\u201d Cavrel sighed. \u201cI\u2019ll get nothing further from you today. Remember to be here by sun-up tomorrow, we\u2019re working on squad tactics and marching.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYes sir. By sun-up.\u201d Picking up his hammer from the ground and shouldering his shield, Chloddio jogged to the armoury, handing the tools of his new trade to the weaponsmith who prepared them each morning. Two assistants helped Chloddio out of the heavy practice armour, thick padding overlaid with metal and stone layers, added weight to make real armour feel light and free.<\/p>\n
\tOne of them tapped the cuirass. \u201cYou should be more careful with this, you know. It’s getting more costly to repair it or replace it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMore costly? Why so?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWell, you hear there’s been a mine collapse or two? Seems that with those mines shut down, the price of ore and the ironstone we use to make the armour is going up. Quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tChloddio knew the mine collapses all too well. He had been the lead safety engineer at the first, tasked with examining the tunnels and caverns for collapse, and shoring them up when there was any danger. And he’d failed. A large fall had sealed the entire mine, and killed everyone in it, despite all that he could do. And only two weeks after that failing, another mine had shut down. Owned by a friend of Joestin Hogof, the man who had once employed Chloddio.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBut that’s only two mines. There’s dozens all around Tri-Hauwcerton.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYou say that, but it turns out most of those other mines don’t produce consistent enough quality for our blacksmiths to buy from them. There’s only six that the quartermaster approves, and two of those six are closed for months. I’m even hearing rumours one of them would be closed permanently, that the collapse fractured an underground river.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhich one is that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cCan’t tell you. Rumour doesn’t say.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe recruit shook his head. \u201cWell, its not me you should be worrying about. It’s all those veterans who take delight in knocking me on my ass.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYou’re the one with the shield sweetie. Use it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt’s not that easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cKid, I’ve been caring for this armour for twenty years. I know exactly how easy it is. And you just better start learning, otherwise you’ll be going out in armour that’s going to crumble. We’re using up all our repair budget keeping the real suits together. Practice armour’s at the bottom of our list.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOkay, okay, I’ll do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cFrom the looks of this, you need to do a lot better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cEnough already. I get ground down by Cavrel as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cCavrel, eh? He’ll get you into shape. Either that, or he’ll kill you trying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe can kill me as long as he doesn’t dent the armour, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYou got it, kid.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve finished the rewrite. The story now clocks in just a shade under 104,000 words. And it’s a hell of a lot better than it was before this whole process started. For the first time in a while, I’m looking forward to editing it and getting it out the door, because now I think I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[8,34],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-a1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":247,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=247","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":0},"title":"The State of the Land","date":"August 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Originally, this website was set up to help promote Tarranau and Chloddio, my upcoming novels in The Four Part Land. Since then, it has become much more than that, a forum for the Writer's Carnival, and for the flash fiction that I write weekly. The Four Part Land itself has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chloddio"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":576,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=576","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":1},"title":"Upon a Brackish Heath","date":"December 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"No, I am not dead, despite all appearances to the contrary. I am, I think, quite alive. However, I have been absent from this blog for almost the entirety of December. Some of that was for good reason, some laziness. However, with the coming of the new year, I'm back.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chloddio"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":615,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=615","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":2},"title":"Silence of the Writer","date":"March 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite the rather long silence on the blog recently, I'm not quite dead, nor have I stopped writing. I'm actually under 13,000 words from the end of Chloddio, which is the next novel in The Four Part Land. The novel in question currently stands around 95,000 words written, and has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chloddio"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":616,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=616","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":3},"title":"100,000 Down","date":"April 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Chloddio has passed over the 100,000 word mark, as of this morning. Or, I should say, passed it again. The first draft of the novel was 106,000 words long, but after a long round of edits, I cut it back to 68,000 and have been writing new material to better\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chloddio"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":635,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=635","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":4},"title":"NaNo Progress","date":"November 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A quick update for those on how NaNo is trundling along - fairly well, I'd say. I've managed to put together 11,000 words in 5 days (yesterday I had other matters to attend to), pushing the total length of the manuscript to about 128,000 words. A good length, but still\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tarranau"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":642,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=642","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":5},"title":"Rumours of My Demise…","date":"February 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, we all know how that particular saying ends. And like almost every time it is employed, it's true. I am not dead, and I have certainly not given up on writing. I just appear to have given up on blog posting for some time, although I can say the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chloddio"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}