caper_est | Chapter Equals Done (Reply)

After a somewhat blocky and tricky weekend in which my total wordcount on the main epic was a princely 16, I finished another chapter in 1170 over the past couple of days. It's pretty much the definition of 'crappy first draft', but it's done the job for now. In particular, it unexpectedly gets a potentially tedious explanation out of a later council scene and turns it into a nail-biting argument and bit of foreshadowing instead. The next chapter is the crappy version of the Wassail, the emotional heart of this arc and arguably of this story. After that in the book comes the big action-packed race to the climax, though the very next thing in this world is to rewrite the whole arc properly.

I have a suspicion that the finished version may be shorter. Part of the crap in my crappy first drafts is suddenly-occurring details written in for my own benefit so that I won't forget or misremember them.

When someone's real greatness is intimately linked to their being fiercely egalitarian for their place and time, how far can they carry their agenda by sheer personal talent and charisma without completely undermining the basis of it?