Working on new chapters

A while back I decided that the current project was far too long. I panicked towards the end, seeing the ridiculous length and far over-deadline state of it, and rushed to a conclusion, compressing a whole important facet of the story. I was not happy with that, and once I’d taken time to rest the brain a bit and think, the solution seemed obvious. One story, two volumes. Fortunately, it seemed to have a decent dividing point somewhat over halfway through. In fact, by taking out a single paragraph, the first two-thirds seem suddenly able to stand on their own, with, yes, a bit of an ominous “obviously to be continued” note. Right now I’m working on some new chapters to insert into what is, I hope, going to see the light of day as volume two. It’s kind of fun, going back and expanding the bits that should always have had more weight. A couple of characters who were very fully developed in my mind but who never seemed able to emerge from the background are able to take centre stage for a few scenes and bring some greatly over-compressed events to life.