What I've Been Doing Lately

I mentioned I've been working on some things. While "real" writing hasn't been happening, something else has but I can't decide what you call it. I wrote but not on the main story. Instead, I worked on background information. I rarely do this but this story has so much going on and there is such rich history that I need some clarity and I need to hone it down into relevant bites. I don't need the whole history but I do need to understand it.

So, that's what I've been doing. I share it below just so you can understand what I'm talking about as well.

The first thing I worked on last week was the setting. The Realm of the Sacred Territories is a country ruled by a monarchy with 6 nation/states under one king. So, it's a bit complicated. There are connections, as there always are in these kinds of countries. Everyone in the ruling houses is related to everyone else. I don't need to know all of them but I do need to understand the way they're connected both politically and geographically. Things are happening here and it is all connected.

Next, I turned my attention to the religious order, The Order of the Holy One, that plays a huge role in the story. My main character is a member of this order and because of this, I have to understand the way it works and why. I began the story thinking I could gloss over it, but the farther I got into the story, the more I realized it is very much a part of my character and as such, is a character as well.

I've spent the last two weeks, when I did any writing at all, working on these two items. There are probably more changes and clarifications to come but I think now I need to stop and work on the story more. I've elected to work on two stories because this one bogs down quite often. There are two main characters - two POVs. Trying to weave them together is tedious and I haven't found a method that worked well. I'm at the point that I think I have to write two distinct stories and then arrange them in a sensible order. I don't know if that is possible either. We'll see.

You can view the two documents here. They won't tell you the story but they will give you a sense of the country and the some of the history that influences the events in the story. As always, comments are welcomed.