We have arrived at the end of the first volume, of my first ever piece of writing that I have finished. I hope the ending proved satisfactory. There's a lot to say on the messy process behind plotting and writing the chapters, but that's boring! So instead, I'm going to skip all of that!
Let's talk about themes. Secare, is Latin for cut, sever, decide, and divide in half. Naturally, when you find a cool, old word like Secare, you want to use it. Of course, I did just that, assigning it an important role in the story. This is the theme for much of the story that happens:
When Syllis decides to leave the outer ring and hang out with Clyde, Korman and Aura: she decides and severs all ties with the outer ring aside from Jyrid. Just when Syllis begins to feel comfortable, the decision, to enter the fable is made for her. This irritates her, straining her relationships. When Aura accepts Korman's proposal to marry him, he is ripped away from her. This leaves her feeling like half a person. Her being is divided in half. When Syllis carves through her past self, she has to cut and sever the flesh. And once she uses the Golden Needle of a Fated Spirit, she cuts the Ether and decides to dedicate herself to bring destiny to its knees and shatter fate.
Along with this. I always refer to Syllis as a secare-nymph, half nymph. She is uncomfortable with her human side because of her father. So, of course when she is brought back, she has to give up her nymph lineage in exchange for being able to live again.
This is a prevalent theme within the story as a whole: identity. After transfiguring enough anathema and having their mind subjected to so much corruption, can they really be called people? The more anathema they transfigure, the less "person" they become. They lose parts of themselves they never thought about, that they would give everything to get back. Syllis and her deep blue eyes were the example for this fact.
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That's it for the themes of this volume. There's more of course, but I wouldn't want to bore you. Instead, let's talk about the future.
When will volume 2 begin? It's hard to say. There are many things that went wrong with volume 1, from the outlining to inferior writing because I was so new. With Volume 2, I aim to keep the quality as high as possible. First, the overall book needs to reach a higher quality. So the rewrite will come first, which will come by the end of November just about. Aside from that, I've never finished a book before, so I did not have an outline for volume 2 ready by the end of this book. That will take around a month. Both of these aspects along with the want for me to put my book on amazon so that I can hold it lead me to estimate the Volume 2 will begin somewhere around the end of January. Could be sooner, but not later than the end of January.
How many volumes? I don't know how many volumes I will write. I have rough ideas that I want to execute though? Tough question, no promises, maybe five?.
How many chapters will volume 2 be? Volume two is projected to be around 180 chapters right now, could be more, probably not less.
What's up with the rewrite? The rewrite will not only be rewording sections so that they flow better. It is better to treat it as an overhaul of the first entire section of the book until they enter the fable rift. It will add some secondary plot lines to flesh out the early parts and make them less monotonous and linear.
One last thing, if any of you are planning to write reviews, feel free of course, it is your right. I hope that you will allow me to complete the rewrite, and that you read it before writing any. Again though, I have no say on what you do, feel free.
I think that's about it. Once I get around to it, I hope that you all will join me for Shattering Fate, Volume 2: Spirit
Thank you to anyone that has read my story.