I’ve written before about the novel I was working on called Daughter of Glory. About a year ago, I was looking at updating it and considering how I might best present it. Just recently I was plotting out a story of two young sisters who are caught up in political and religious turmoil that separates them from their parents. I recognize the similarity of the two stories and was thinking I could merge them, bolt the story of the two sisters onto Daughter of Glory.
But that’s a bad idea for two reasons: 1) it will never fit perfectly and 2) even trying to do so is lazy.
“Sorceress” by nanami-yuki
Daughter of Glory was high fantasy with elves and dwarves and archmages throwing lightning around. I envisioned the two sisters’ story (let’s just call it Two Sisters) as low fantasy, with some magic but no other races. Cultures, oh my yes, but not elves, dwarves, fairies or orcs. The amount of re-working that would need to happen would be immense and would likely show.
And, really, why would I even want to? Yes, I had a huge amount already finished on Daughter of Glory, and that might give me a leg up (not necessarily would, but might), but that’s its own kind of trap. Have I not learned anything since I originally wrote those words? Am I not a different writer now than then? I believe the answer to both is yes. Using the words written by that other writer, that me from many years ago, is a cheat that could lead to a worse product. It might be easier, but easier is not better.
So in the end, I think I need to pursue Two Sisters and abandon Daughter of Glory. If I do want to return to Daughter of Glory, I need to use that which is written as a guideline, rather than a shortcut. Those words were written, and they served their purpose – practice. The development of that idea helped me to improve my writing. Its work is done.
But my work goes on.
You can read more about Daughter of Glory here.
Art for this article from nanami-yuki at deviantART.