Update: Tasmakat

So, I could have titled this post Tasmakat: The light at the end of the tunnel.

I have to say, it worked really well to skip everything transitional and everything less clear to me and head straight for the scenes that have been clear in my head for the past year. Of course time was still limited, but I still wrote 20,000 words last week and, to my surprise, suddenly feel like I’m closing in on an actual finished draft. I mean, there’s a fair bit to do, I guess? But comparatively speaking, I’m practically at the end.

It may not surprise you to know that I leaped past (a) a transitional travel scene, (b) a scene where we have an important chat with someone, (c) the transition toward the huge confrontation of the climax, and (d) the actual climax of the book. I mean the action climax. The battle scenes, though I’m not sure how much actual battle is going to occur there.

What I actually hit was (a) the big revelation and the decision point; then a big leap forward and (b) the first part of the relationship climax of the plot, (c) the following scene, and (d) the beginning of the second part of the relationship climax of the plot.

Over the past ten years or whatever, it’s become very clear to me that I’m seldom interested in big battle scenes. They can be fun when I get to them and finally figure out what I’m doing in them, but I’m not that focused on them. I don’t know what I’m going to do with those scenes until I get there. Then I take the dogs for a long walk and think hard and hopefully come up with the basic plotline of the battle.

And I don’t care about villains, not true villains, except inasmuch as opposing villains leads to more important things happening. When I wrote Tuyo, the scenes where we met Lorellan were almost the last part I wrote. I got to that meeting, leaped forward and wrote the escape scene and a lot of the rest of the book, then went back and did that meeting and subsequent events. So, this part of Tasmakat worked like that. I have taken more notes about the transition toward the action climax and about the action climax itself, but skipping it for now let me make substantial progress because the scenes I wrote are so much more clear to me.

What do I still have to do?

–Finish off the important chat. That should not take long. I wrote rapid notes about the remaining part of the conversation.

–Write the transition scene(s) toward the action climax. I suspect that will grow. Ideas about how to move toward the action climax have occurred to me and I’ve taken notes about that, so I think this will be … maybe … about three scenes? Maybe four? And I’m not completely sure how many words this will take. I don’t really want to get to the climax too quickly now that we know what that’s about.

–Write the action climax. That may actually be pretty quick. For various reasons, I think this is likely to happen fast once we get there.

–Leap forward and write the second part of the relationship climax. I’m not sure how many words that will take, but I think maybe just one scene? Maybe two? Probably not more than three.

–Write the final transition toward the denouement and the denouement itself. Here’s where the transition is likely to involve either a magical journey or a statement of the general form, “Three months later, we arrived.”

I know a LOT about the denouement. I know EXACTLY where everyone is going to wind up. But I do want to show, rapidly but comprehensively, where EVERYONE winds up, including a lot of minor characters. This is the last book from Ryo’s pov, so I do not intend to leave a lot of loose ends.

That may lead to this —

Question: Will there be other books set in this world?

Answer: Probably!

I have a bit of a story from Tano’s first-person pov written. This story takes place immediately after the end of Tarashana. The odds are quite good that I’ll finish that. I know the next few scenes and I know the ending; it’s just the middle that’s blurry. Probably I can figure out some way to connect the beginning to the end. If it’s a novella, fine. If it’s a short novel, fine. (If it’s shorter than a novella, that’s fine too, but what are the odds?)

Either way, if it’s finished in time, I’ll certainly bring it out before Tasmakat, which I intend to set up as a preorder with a release date rather late in 2023. I don’t want to rush the revision and proofreading process, plus I want to give it time to accumulate preorders.

Anyway, assuming I finish that Tano story, that will most likely lead into a novel or trilogy of novels that are first person from Tano’s first-person pov. I have a very specific job for him. Well, for him and Raga, and probably Arayo, and quite possibly the young man who left the inTasiyo, the one with the little brother, if you remember him. I know a bit about him, enough that I’d like to show a bit more of him. Anyway, regardless of who exactly joins in this … call it a quest … I have the quest itself in mind. It’s an important quest, and after all, we already know that Tano is destined for an interesting life after the thing with the eagle.

And, considering that other ideas KEEP occurring to me, the odds are very good that if I write a novel or series in first person from Tano’s pov, that I’ll also write a handful of shorter works, third person, from various other points of view. In Tasmakat, Esau and Keraunani take on another side quest. We could see that. Suyet and Lalani could get a story of their own. A young woman might openly demand a place as an apprentice with Suelen. Or Suelen thought that of course it would be impossible for Ketharathi Lady Pasolaun to venture into the winter country in person, but perhaps it’s not as impossible as all that. I could go back in time and tell the story of how Talon Commander Talat came to join Lord Gaur’s company; I know in rough terms what that involved and it was pretty fraught.

So that’s what’s going on there! I do hope to wrap of Tasmakat this month, regardless of various hurdles.