When I wrote the books, I had an internal chronology in mind, beginning in 1999. Sometime later (before publishing the first book) I shifted this forward by a few years. Then, when revising the fourth book, shifted it back. Gods, has this created problems!
The first problem came with overhauling a whole backstory about the development of the Magicians’ Guild, which is important in the fourth book. I’d just about got to the end of revising that, and was ready to send it to the first editor, when I realised I had to check a number of references, throughout the book, to ensure the dating was right. And dating is important. For example: the dates I was first working to are consistent with real time. If the first three books are set in 1999, then the days of the week in each book are accurate, as well as astronomical events (OK, so I fudge very slightly in book three, but hey – it’s fiction!)
So now I find myself in a situation where the third book has come back from the first editor and needs to be overhauled in the light of his comments, before I send it to the second editor. At the same time I really need to overhaul the fourth book to ensure the backstory and dating is right (to say nothing of the dating of one of the crucial plotlines, which is an entirely different problem!) before I send it to the first editor.
Just as well that I hope to have the week prior to Easter off work – I think I’ll need it, to sort all this stuff out. It isn’t just a matter of revising one or two sections; I have to go through a book and ensure all is in keeping. And there’s a knock-on to one or two words in both the first and second books that will call for revisions there, plus two of the memos in the ‘background’ to the novels.
Gods, trying to be consistent across a whole series can be soooo difficult.
