There and Back Again: My Progress of Editing Tess Short (Book One)

(You may want to read this blog post before continuing reading this one.) 

Hello everyone,

Since I recently finished writing Tess Short (Book one) which is the book's title for now, until I come up with a better title. I thought I should make a blog post about it so that I can keep track of my editing process...

World building within editing 

Since Tess Short (book one) was one of my first novels, first fantasy ones to be exact. I didn't know that much about world building or what religions fantasy worlds have and stuff like that.

When I looked back at it I realized I didn't know much about the way the world worked. (Other than it being a world that was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth.) So I decided I would focus a little on the bits of religion that were left out of it...
Like how a (religious) wedding for an elf would go, and how a (religious) wedding for a hobbit would go. And even how weird it would be if a hobbit did a wedding the elf way or even how weird it would be if an elf did a wedding the hobbit way.

The reason I bring this up, is because one of the controversies in Tess's world is why on earth would a hobbit and an elf get married? And are they really able to have children? (The answer is yes, since Tess was born, but it is still a hot topic in her world.)

I thought that I should focus slightly on the way of which Mr. Short and Princess Gletta got married, and how the elves and hobbits reacted to it. (But mostly the hobbits since they are the ones who show up in the prologue.) And why it is so outlandish to have happen in that world. And also how people react to it socially. Some of the questions I am turning around in my head because of this are... Are they treated like an lower class because of the marriage? How well are Tess (and her siblings) treated because of it? Is there any possibility that other elves and hobbits could have married before Gletta and Mr. Short? (If so, are theirs undocumented, and are Mr. Short's and Gletta's marriage the only case of a documented marriage between an elf and a hobbit?)

One thing I am also trying to do is make the world seem a little less like Middle Earth. Though I do want the readers now and then to think that is somewhat like it in ways. But I don't want them to be thinking "oh wow, that sounds exactly like how things work in Middle Earth." This is why through the editing I am going to be expanding both the religion, the magic system, and the world in the rewrite. I also slightly want to use magic more in the story than I did in the first draft.

And one somewhat magical element I have been trying to explore is why names have power. It is something that has shown up in the story that I didn't exactly know the answer to. But I hope to figure out the answer when I rewrite. It seems to be along the lines of why Hades's name (from Greek mythology) was not talked about among the ancient Greeks. In fear that he would take them to the underworld early. But other than that I am not exactly sure what the reason is for elves' names having power, yet.


Fixing the dialogue 


 One problem (which is also going to be fixed through rewriting) is having the character spout words like...

This I found to be a problem, since it sounded way to similar to the way we speak in our world. And not in the slightest old fashioned (as I intended it to feel.) I feel as if when I was writing the first draft I forgot that I didn't want the characters to sound like how a child or an adult from our world would talk. I also want to fix the dialogue and pacing in general. 

When looking back at this dialogue, it felt a little flat... 

And it just happened so quickly in the first draft. Out of nowhere Tess is asked to go on an adventure, and I didn't even give the readers enough time to get to know her before the adventure began. There were little weird things here and there like Tess not knowing her own age and somehow thinking one hundred years had past when so little had (I think it was because I didn't know Tess's age when I was first writing it, but, I found a way to fix it within the storyline now.)  

More character development 

Tess was a developed character, but everyone else in the story I felt as if I didn't take that much time to develop... 

One character I have been exploring is Gletta Short (formerly known as Princess Gletta.) Since she in the first draft was a (somewhat) peaceful character. And now since I know her it turns out that she is in on a daily lookout for monsters (since this is what she is used to doing.) Though she is calm sometimes especially when around her husband or children, but is much more used to being on the lookout at all times. Due to learning this information, I figured out what her day job was.
Which turned out to be a blacksmith, the particular kind of blacksmith that she is, is one that specializes in making weapons. Which is appropriate to her character since she is a fighter.

But yet, I can imagine despite all her active fighting and everything that she is used to doing, I can imagine her singing a lullaby that sounds like this to her children:

                                 Sleepsong by secret garden 

You can also listen to it here

(Though the term "angels" that is used in the song would be replaced with a spirit-like figure that is protective in the elven religion.)

Because of how useful this development was, I think I need to focus more on each member of Tess's group...

(an old drawing I found of each the members from left to right, Silena, Thistle, Tess, Robin, Inny) 

And figure out what their motivations are, since I haven't fully figured that out. 

I know what Tess's motivation is, but I don't know what everyone else's fully is. 

I also want to know why Robin wanted Tess to go on the adventure in the first place, why did he choose her? Also, did he think the adventure was going to turn out of the way that it did? These are questions right now, that I haven't figured out the answer to. But I assume I will once I start developing each of their characters. 

So I hoped you enjoyed the look at my editing process so far... 

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How does your editing usually go? What's your favorite thing to work on when editing? (Even if editing is far from enjoyable.) 

-Quinley