Author's Notes: The Emperor's Dream Chapter Nineteen

Hello and welcome to my author’s notes for chapter nineteen of The Emperor’s Dream! This is the part where I re-read the chapter and write up my honest thoughts about it. It’s a first draft, after all!

If you haven’t read chapter nineteen yet, you can read it here.

If you are quite far behind, you can read chapter one here. Remember, these are first drafts only, so the final published version might change a little or a lot, but hopefully you either enjoy or learn something from seeing the process.

Now on with this week’s author’s notes!

• I was really pumped to share this chapter. I feel like I got a lot of things right, and when I re-read it, I was just excited and in the story, the way it’s supposed to be. I like how the events progressed, as well as how the stakes got really ratcheted up there at the end.
• I’m not sure if Wanyi dismissing his entire staff for the day makes sense, but it does seem to fit. He recognizes that something’s up and is making sure no one in his charge is going to get hurt.
• The explanation of how Ramreunya is manipulating Wanyi with the letters feels a little complicated to me. Essentially, Ramreunya wrote letters to the other chiefs saying that he invited Wanyi to his camp. If Wanyi refuses, it would make Wanyi lose face. Also, if Wanyi refused, he would basically be doing what Tukharen has been doing to him the whole book, which would make Wanyi a hypocrite to boot.
• Theoretically, Wanyi didn’t need to bond with Tang to communicate with him. The Lan Kuanghi bond just enables deeper communication and using the beast’s attributes. A small detail, and he could still bond with Tang if he chose, but I’m not sure how knit-picky I want to be.
• I realize that the common Shanshian people’s reactions might need some additional explanation. The people who are cheering when Wanyi, escorted by Tohk guards, walks by are assuming that he has been arrested. They’re the ones basically saying, “good riddance.” The people who are saluting Wanyi are the ones who believe the counter-propaganda Wanyi and his team have been putting out, and have heard how he and Chengroh are the ones who are opposing the would-be invaders.
• Fun fact, “The Blue Owl flies for the Golden Tree!” was a direct callback to Knife of Dreams, the 11th book in The Wheel of Time. It’s the quote, “The Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai’don!” That line gives me chills every time, and I wanted to put an equivalent here. It’s a little on the nose, and might be too much for this situation, so I might still take it out, but first drafts are for indulging yourself, eh?
• I really breeze by the walk out to Ramreunya’s camp. I do think my tendency is to be light on description, especially for a fantasy book. My current excuse is that it’s because I’m writing a novella and I have to keep my word count down. Let me know if it feels like it’s negatively impacting your reading experience.
• That said, I really like the paragraph of description once Wanyi gets in to Ramreunya’s camp.
• I think the characterization of Ramreunya really works in their initial, philosophical conversation.

I think that’s all for this week, friend! What questions do you have? I’d also love to hear your feedback. Let me know your thoughts!

And again, if you haven’t read chapter nineteen yet, you can do so here. That’ll make this whole post make a lot more sense.

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Until next time!