Writer's Note: Valor, Part 1

Hey guys, this clearly isn't a story update. I wanted to put up some sort of short story, but I couldn't think of anything that I couldn't also just work into Valor at some point. I'm a lazy bastard like that.

However, that isn’t to say I haven’t been doing work. As I said in the comment below Chapter 4, I’m working on making sure I know where I’m going with Part 2. I have a rough outline of things, but I leave quite a bit of wiggle-room for the story to develop. Part 1 actually ended up being much longer than I expected, though for different reasons. I actually cut things I thought would make it end, or ditched “good ideas” at the last minute to not break the story’s flow.

I can say I’ve done some rather heavy editing in for Chapters 3 and 4. Enough so that I’d recommend reading Chapter 4 again if you already have. I was somewhat rushed to get it up on time, and reading back through it, it shows. Here’s the biggest example, and the biggest change.

In Chapter 3, Ildun acts rather grateful for William’s help. More than Elias, even. Yet, in the original version of Chapter 4, when William expressed remorse towards the dead orc, Ildun ended up mocking him and his religion.

I won’t lie; Ildun’s kind of a dick. Or at least, he’s supposed to be. But that seemed a bit too far, a bit too easy, and a bit too contradictory towards Ildun’s past interaction with William. Likewise, William then turned around and kind-of-not-really-maybe threatened Ildun. Which I felt was in-character, but if Step 1 was wrong, Step 2 couldn’t be right either.

So I changed it. Ildun still clearly wouldn’t heal an orc, and tries to express that, but he’s far more tactful about it. Likewise, rather than becoming angry at Ildun, William focuses that more internally, thinking about some of the racism and prejudice typically associated with his religion.

What can I say? I’ve expressed before this is very much a work-in-progress, and though I’ll try not to make too many huge changes, there tends to be a direct correlation between how tired and how inspired I am… which means I may FORGET entire character interactions, apparently.

Thanks for reading. No idea if we’ll be back in full-swing next week, but I’ll keep you informed!