Decision time

Benfro book two is all ready to go off to my nice agent.

It's been ready for awhile, but I just can't stop myself from tinkering. And now I'm faced with something of a quandary.

When I first wrote this book, too many moons ago to mention, each chapter was headed up with a short 'excerpt' from a made up book from the world in which the whole story was set. So, for instance, the chapter where one main characters first experiences a dragon funeral begins as follows:

The knowledge and wisdom of a lifetime is stored in a dragon’s jewels. Every experience, thought, action; every loss and every regret is tied up in those elegant and mesmerising gems. And yet from the moment a dragon dies, those same memories begin to leach away, returning to the earth from which all power comes. To save those memories for eternity, to retain a remembrance of a greatness now passed, the jewels must be reckoned. And only the living flame can seal up a jewel against the ravages of time.

   In the most ancient days, when dragons were little more than base creatures hunting in packs through the forest; when meat was eaten raw and bloody; when pleasure was taken where it might be found, with no thought for consequences or responsibilities; when petty rivalries might lead to murder and none think it of any great import; in those days of pain and anger and ignorance the living flame was considered just another weapon to be used. A dragon might breathe fire simply for the warmth of it, or to defend against the attack, aggressive or amorous, of another.

   When the Tree gave wisdom to the first of our kind, he looked upon the antics of his brothers with disgust, considering them no better than the wolves that roamed the land in murderous packs. He saw the nature of the land, knew the power that ran through it, and determined to be better. He learned to create with herbs and oils what once had been belched from uncouth lips and this great knowledge has been passed down through generations of healers. With time, dragons have lost the ability to breathe fire, as they have lost the desire to kill one another for sport.

   And so it is that the most important duty of any healer comes after they have finally failed in their calling, as all must fail eventually. For no other may conjure the fire of reckoning.

Healer Trefnog’s The Apothecarium

And then it carries on as the story proper.

I pinched this idea from Robin Hobb, (though I know other writers in many genres do similar things), and it's very useful because it allows for great infodumps without the need for large tracts of exposition in the story. It also lets me write in several different styles for all the different 'books' quoted, and indulge my more verbose and archaic linguistic excesses.

However, when I decided to write what is now book one in the series, I simply couldn't be arsed coming up with the necessary thirty-six chapter headings. I think I've mentioned my innate laziness before, so make of that what you will. Instead, I deleted the ones I'd already written from the second book.

But I couldn't forget them. A lot of the world building that went into the story happens in these excerpts, and quite frankly I like a lot of them. They also make the whole thing look more professional, in my humble opinion. Add a glossary at the back and I could almost call myself Tad (and the glossary is easy - I've already got a database bursting with all the strange stuff I've made up and how it all interacts).

So the quandary is do I put the chapter headings back? It's a matter of moments for this book, but then I'll have to sit down and write those thirty-six entries for book one. Not to mention all the chapters to come in books three and four.

Decisions, decisions...