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Transformation: Halfway Point


OK, so I lied. Not deliberately, but when I said I was about to start part 2 (Apocrypha) of the first draft of Transformation, it turned out I was wrong.


Ahead of committing the first words to Apocrypha, I decided to re-read what I'd written in the Interludes and the Prelude, which inexorably lead to the events of part 2. It was then that I realised that the ways the Interludes were split no longer worked – in particular the events of the third interlude, which you'd read after part 3 (Bardo), now occurred in completely the wrong place in the story given how I'm now going to end part 2.


So, I did a bit of reshuffling, and combined the three interludes (Conversion, Epiphany, Consecration) into two (Conversion, Consecration, collectively known as The Foundation of the Continuity Church), which left me with a gap needing a new interlude.


Luckily, the solution came to me quickly. If you remember, last time I mentioned I was considering having at least one chapter in part 4 (Pralaya) from a perspective other than Nevin or Katinka Farkas. Conveniently, I realised this would work perfectly, both thematically and chronologically, as the new Interlude. Even more conveniently, I realised the name of the missing Interlude, Epiphany, suited this new story even better. That leaves part 4 told from the perspective of the two main protagonists alone.


So, I've just gone ahead and written this interlude, from the perspective of Amy, a character I've grown to admire more and more as she told me what she wanted to do in the story, confounding my expectations. That puts the current word count at just over 38,000, which should make this past the halfway point for the first draft.


Just for completeness, this is the current structure of the novel, and whose perspective each part is from:


Prelude – Ordination (Katinka Farkas)

Part 1 – Proselytism (Nevin)

Interlude – Conversion (Katinka Farkas)

Part 2 – Apocrypha (Katinka Farkas)

Interlude – Consecration (Katinka Farkas)

Part 3 – Bardo (Nevin)

Interlude – Epiphany (Amy)

Part 4 – Pralaya (Nevin & Katinka Farkas)


And, for completeness, this is the approximate chronology of the sections:


Interlude – Conversion (Katinka Farkas)

Interlude – Consecration (Katinka Farkas)

Part 1 – Proselytism (Nevin)

Part 3 – Bardo (Nevin)

Interlude – Epiphany (Amy)

Prelude – Ordination (Katinka Farkas)

Part 2 – Apocrypha (Katinka Farkas)

Part 4 – Pralaya (Nevin & Katinka Farkas)


That's definitely a simplification in places, as some overlap a little, but it's pretty close. That just leaves me part 2 and part 4 to write. I'd better get on with it, then...honest...

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