I’m less than 30 chapters out from having edited all 134 chapters of Chronicles, but I had to stop. I was getting tired. My sleep schedule is so, off. I sleep in shifts, but, I am seeing that it really helps me write, for, when both myself and my wife are awake and, about, she can look at my writing as time I have available to help her.

Plus, I’m not as disciplined as I think I should be. So, I am largely responsible for her feeling this way, as, I do not have a set schedule, and, I may well be playing, surfing the net, working out, or any other such thing, as,

writing.

At night, there are none of these issues. And, I love the night.

So,

I stopped my editing because the dialogue was feeling stilted to me, and, I didn’t have the clarity / energy to really look at it.

Stepping back from it a bit, taking out the trash, getting some coffee, petting the cat, energy has returned, and, the first thing I saw was that the setting, and the characters were such that made for an awkward conversation.

Had the dialogue flowed, been smooth, been, as it was in the city of the Mammoth Hunters, it wouldn’t have conveyed the correct tone.

Here, in a tower in the Broken Cities long past history, between Warden and Raven, the conversation should be stilted, with Warden being smooth and somewhat flippant, very charming, confident, with, Raven being,

• Unimpressed
• Overly Formal
• Uncaring
• Unconcerned

The truth is that Raven, initially, does not desire Ward’s company, and does not generally have a traveling companion other than dog, except, on rare occasions, such as with the Hunters. But, the Hunters were very much like Raven, and, Ward is… Not. Not at all.

And,(!)

Raven does not believe he needs anything from Ward, and, Raven is like that. Cold. I don’t believe Raven understands the concept of either “Friend”, or, “Companion”.

What is dog to Raven if none of those things?

That is, actually, the core of the entire book.

What is dog indeed…

-Timberbee