I think, speaking only for myself, there's the knowledge that while I want my first "book" to be as good as I can make it, sooner or later I'm going to put it down and do something else. It was only ever supposed to be a scratchpad for a few things I wanted to work on (not having done anything long, trying to find a voice, feeling out how a novel 'works' etc).
Anything I've learned will probably rear its head in whatever I do after. For what it's worth, IvoryPeak is probably going to end up less than half the size of massive bloat that is Chains. Fantasy books do get something of a free pass in terms of unnecessary gumpth though.
Anything I've learned will probably rear its head in whatever I do after. For what it's worth, IvoryPeak is probably going to end up less than half the size of massive bloat that is Chains. Fantasy books do get something of a free pass in terms of unnecessary gumpth though.
