Napoleon in Rags.

In rewriting the Napoleon chapters, I've made him a much stronger character.  There's a character-arc for him that wasn't there before, from before he has a name until...well, the ending of the book.  The problem has always been integrating these chapters with the rest of the book, but making the character stronger doesn't make that any harder.  In fact, it justifies having those chapters in there.

I've had some fun inserting a bunch of real Napoleon quotes -- some of which are used all the time without anyone knowing who said them.

I also, rightly or wrongly, went ahead and directly addressed the premise that Tuskers could be a danger to humanity.

As I mentioned before, I could have just left it vague, showed the results.  Instead, I explain how it happens, which weirdly enough might make it even harder to believe.  But once committed to explaining, I needed to make it as reasonable as I could.

I was up to the Tuskers III F version last night. (Which means I've had full versions of III A - E already.)  I was really tangled up and blue, trying to fit the "best" elements of each version.  So much so that version E had three completely newly written chapters.  But then I went back and tried to insert the best parts of A - D, and messed it up.

So I drank a little wine...and smushed them together as best I could, making snap decisions as a went along.  Under the "Do something even if it's wrong" method.  (I did keep the earlier versions...just in case.)

Today I'm going to look at the results, which may be a drunken mess but which I'm hoping will be a blueprint version to work from. 

I'm hoping I've got the right versions in the right places.  There may be a little chapter moving -- which is always a hard thing to do -- but I think I need to commit to a version and just work on making it better.

I have two small scenes I need to write to complete the story. I have a major plot change I have to address.

I should have all the story-elements in place by the end of today, and then I can concentrate on the writing. (Which was supposed to be this week, but which I decided to delay in order to work on the Napoleon chapters.) 

I like the story.  I feel like it's complete in itself...and carries on from the previous books...and also sets-up for the next book.

Which is what it is supposed to do.