Growth Charts
With Book 6 now in beta, I finally have the head space to go back and re-read the entire From the Ashes of Victory series from beginning to end, and so far it has been quite the journey.
For as much as I wanted to keep the voice of the series consistent, I am very much not the same author who wrote Remember, November. I love that book and I am still proud of it (especially as a first novel), but it makes me genuinely uncomfortable to read again (not kidding, I was exhausted when I finished it). The entire time I was squirming in my skin, wanting to change every other word, slapping my forehead with all of the unforced errors... but most of my issues with it are stylistic.
The foundations are strong. The characters are there, the world, the magic, the relationships, everything that would become the Ashes series is in there. There are a thousand things I would change about it if I had to go back and re-write it knowing what I know now, (and I did tweak a few minor things like typos and some of the more convoluted grammar, that update will be going up soon), but I think it's important to sometimes re-visit where you started so you can better appreciate where you are.
Even the growth between books 1 and 2 is notable, Fires of Winter reads (to me) like a more mature, polished book, even though it came out only a few months after November. Maybe it was the addition of Katya to the cast that did it, I don't know.
Speaking of, what I am truly proud of beyond my own growth as an author is the growth and change of the characters. Going from the end of the series back to the beginning really put into perspective how much the characters have changed. That's always been the objective, of course, but it's not always easy to see when you're in the middle of it. I have had these characters in my head for over six years, the changes they've undergone have been slow and piecemeal, book by book. Taking that all away and just looking at the sharp contrast between books 1 and 6 is... illustrative, to say the least.
I am a character-first writer, they are always the first thing I come up with and they take precedence over the plot every time. Don't get me wrong, plot is important, but characters make you care about it and want to re-visit it. Just finding out what happens next is nice and all, but once that load is shot there's not much left. Story springs from the characters--character growth is the story. The story of From the Ashes of Victory isn't about the events like the Flying Circus or Versailles, is about found family, love, friendship and sisterhood; the power of working together to positive purpose, helping each other. The story is Victoria. Katya. Millie. Elise. Ivy, all of them. They are what it's about, and the story I set out to tell.
They were my motivation--to make sure their story got told, both because they deserved it and because I was the only one who could. There will never be another Victoria Ravenwood, nor another Katya Gurevich. My Millie Brown is the Millie Brown, but the Millie Brown who awakens in the opening scene of Book 1 is not the Millie Brown who [SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS] Book 6.
I don't know that I have it in me to ever write a series like this again, so to be able to look back over the sum total of what I've done and be happy with it is... I don't even know yet. It's not done. Nor is it perfect, but when I go back to where it was and arrive again at how it ends...
Well, I will leave the qualitative judgment up to you.
For me? I write about history for a reason. There is much to learn by looking back, and much to miss by failing to do so. The odometer can only tell you how far you've gone. You have to turn around and look to see how far you've come.
For as much as I wanted to keep the voice of the series consistent, I am very much not the same author who wrote Remember, November. I love that book and I am still proud of it (especially as a first novel), but it makes me genuinely uncomfortable to read again (not kidding, I was exhausted when I finished it). The entire time I was squirming in my skin, wanting to change every other word, slapping my forehead with all of the unforced errors... but most of my issues with it are stylistic.
The foundations are strong. The characters are there, the world, the magic, the relationships, everything that would become the Ashes series is in there. There are a thousand things I would change about it if I had to go back and re-write it knowing what I know now, (and I did tweak a few minor things like typos and some of the more convoluted grammar, that update will be going up soon), but I think it's important to sometimes re-visit where you started so you can better appreciate where you are.
Even the growth between books 1 and 2 is notable, Fires of Winter reads (to me) like a more mature, polished book, even though it came out only a few months after November. Maybe it was the addition of Katya to the cast that did it, I don't know.
Speaking of, what I am truly proud of beyond my own growth as an author is the growth and change of the characters. Going from the end of the series back to the beginning really put into perspective how much the characters have changed. That's always been the objective, of course, but it's not always easy to see when you're in the middle of it. I have had these characters in my head for over six years, the changes they've undergone have been slow and piecemeal, book by book. Taking that all away and just looking at the sharp contrast between books 1 and 6 is... illustrative, to say the least.
I am a character-first writer, they are always the first thing I come up with and they take precedence over the plot every time. Don't get me wrong, plot is important, but characters make you care about it and want to re-visit it. Just finding out what happens next is nice and all, but once that load is shot there's not much left. Story springs from the characters--character growth is the story. The story of From the Ashes of Victory isn't about the events like the Flying Circus or Versailles, is about found family, love, friendship and sisterhood; the power of working together to positive purpose, helping each other. The story is Victoria. Katya. Millie. Elise. Ivy, all of them. They are what it's about, and the story I set out to tell.
They were my motivation--to make sure their story got told, both because they deserved it and because I was the only one who could. There will never be another Victoria Ravenwood, nor another Katya Gurevich. My Millie Brown is the Millie Brown, but the Millie Brown who awakens in the opening scene of Book 1 is not the Millie Brown who [SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS] Book 6.
I don't know that I have it in me to ever write a series like this again, so to be able to look back over the sum total of what I've done and be happy with it is... I don't even know yet. It's not done. Nor is it perfect, but when I go back to where it was and arrive again at how it ends...
Well, I will leave the qualitative judgment up to you.
For me? I write about history for a reason. There is much to learn by looking back, and much to miss by failing to do so. The odometer can only tell you how far you've gone. You have to turn around and look to see how far you've come.
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