"Final Version, Dammit!"

Assembling my book -- that's literally what I'm doing to Faerylander.  I'm going through all the multiple versions and picking out the best versions of each chapter, scene, sometimes even down to paragraphs and sentences.

I can do this because I currently have -- let me check -- Jesus! -- 14 versions of the book on my computer.  Obviously, these weren't all started from scratch, but it still shows the kind of obsessive compulsiveness that drove me away from writing the last time.

The difference -- and it makes ALL the difference -- is the new technology.  Imagine if I had typed that many versions -- or even half that many versions.  Shudder.

Anyway, I should have the book assembled in this writing session. (I call the days I write between work as session).   And I hope to then read through and polish it in the next writing session.

Then -- set it aside, and come back to it in a few months for -- hopefully, and apparently I've thought this 14 times before -- the last and final version.

I dared to title this version, "Final Version, Dammit!"


All right, spent a third very intensive day trying the meld the longer versions with the shorter versions.  The first 65% slotted together pretty well.  However, the last third is a real problem.  It seems like if the longer version works, the short version doesn't and vice verse.  But there are quite definite improvements to the shorter version, so I've got to figure out a way.

I think this version will be roughly 30% longer than the last version.

I worked yet again on the problem chapter -- the important chapter introducing the themes, characters and plot.  Right now, it's my second chapter -- it has been at various times the first, the second and the third chapter.

But I think the current version is probably the best so far -- it flows and still gets the information across.

The irony of all this is that because this book was such a problem, it will probably be a better book.  That is, it has forced me to write it so many times that it has started to gain some real heft.  It's a far denser book than any of my vampire books.

That's both good and bad, I think.  I don't think there is anything wrong with a fast read.  But this book is starting to contain so much information, that I'm starting to feel it's a worthy book just because of that.

I could've stood behind the last two versions, but this one is better still, I think.  Especially if I spend more time polishing the writing now that I have a solid framework in place.

I've written 30 Cobb's Bestiary entries so far, and they've been fun, and I think they add a lot of painless information -- that is, the reader can take them or leave them.  (I'll probably have 50 entries by the end of the book, which I'll include as an extra.)

So this is becoming more and more a real book to me.  One I'll finally be happy to publish.