King's Warrior Read-Along: Chapter 13
Good evening! So, so, so sorry for the lateness of this post! We’ve had family in town all week, and I got a little bit behind.
More than any other portion of this book, this was the chapter that was most difficult for me. It was also the only thing I wrote all summer that my family outright hated. I remember well the evening we read the original version of this section of the story. You see, it used to be very different. I wrote Kamarie as the warrior princess who, upon being attacked by common bandits, drew her sword and fought brilliantly, defeating and killing her opponents.
You might be able to understand how difficult it was to take when I got my first real criticism after this chapter.
However, as nice as general approval and praise is, criticism is also an excellent tool for a writer - if you’re willing to accept it and use it to improve your writing.
I stayed up until 4am that night, rewriting this entire ten pages - and I’ll admit it, most of the writing was done with tears in my eyes. I did not want to lose the next day of writing, you see, but I couldn’t leave it the way it was, not when it had generated such a negative reaction in my audience. Thus, the new, far more realistic scene was born. I did not add the names and conversation until the final draft, but I truly believe that this version is far better that that initial one.
It’s not my favorite chapter, but it definitely has a few of my favorite lines:
“Courage is not found in lacking fear, courage is found in not allowing your fear to rule you.” I love the conversation between Oraeyn and Brant about fear and courage.
“He was under her royal protection, and there was nobody else standing between him and the enemy.” Our princess has truly grown up during her journey, hasn’t she? No more dreams of facing down bandits or Dark Warriors and convincing them to come to her aid, no longer does she envision herself as the warrior princess, capable of defeating any enemy she might face. Kamarie is brutally honest with herself in this moment, about her skill, her chances of survival, and the lack of hope that anyone will come to save her. But none of this makes her flinch from her self-appointed duty to keep her word to protect Yole.
“... they traveled wrapped in private pain, isolated from all the rest and unable to share their shattered hearts.” I added this line fairly late in the editing. When I originally wrote this story, I did not really know what it was like to live through loss. This line came after having two miscarriages, and so it is a line that is fairly dear to my heart.
Q&A
Jack wants to know: How hard was it to remember every little detail about Brant? Everything from Second Son to King’s Warrior. Did you have to keep a ton of notes to remember who he met, where he had been, and all the people who played important roles in his life? How many years did it take to work everything out for the two books?
It was incredibly difficult. As I was writing Second Son, I always had a copy of King’s Warrior on hand to reference things back and forth. When I went back and re-wrote/edited King’s Warrior, I had Second Son right there to reference. I created a fairly extensive time-line for easier reference as well.
I wrote the first draft of King’s Warrior (then called “The Dragon’s Eye”) during the summer of 2001. I wrote Second Son (then called “Dawn of the Dragon’s Eye”) during the summer of 2002. In January of 2005, I self-published the edited original version of the book, and in 2008 I published the edited original version of book 2. I wrote and finished Yorien’s Hand in the summers of ’03/’04, and then started on book #4, which I did not finish until Christmas of ’06.
In January 2009, I entered the ABNA contest and began to realize a few things. 1) My first book was nowhere near the writing quality of my fourth book, 2) “The Dragon’s Eye” has got to be one of the most-used titles in fantasy fiction, 3) there were definite plot holes in the original version that needed to be fixed in order for all four books to work together, and 4) I had self-published, and only a handful of people had read my books... so I could go change them.
Thus began the enormous re-write and edit and re-titling of my first book. This also began my far more serious excursion into the realm of “being an author.” I learned a lot from my first forays into self-publishing, and I wouldn’t trade those lessons. I do wish I had waited to hit the “publish” button until I really knew what I was doing... but, if you’re interested in reading those first drafts, you can still find copies of The Dragon’s Eye lying around here and there. :)
Discussion Questions:
1. For those of you who aren't so sure about Kamarie... did this chapter change your opinion of her? For those who are re-reading this book, when did you start to warm up to her?
2. If you are a writer, have you ever received criticism about your work that, despite hurting, really helped you make your story better?
3. For those who are reading for the first time, any guesses as to why the Dark Warriors seem to be so terrified of Brant? (If you've read the book before, but can remember your initial guesses and write them without giving away spoilers, feel free to chime in as well!)