wherein Liz discusses Narnian timelines

[edenfalling]

The worst thing about creating a definitive timeline of Narnia (at least my version thereof, which explicitly disagrees with this timeline in a few key places) is that I now have to go edit The Corners of the World again. You see, the implicit dates in that story would have Jadis arriving in Calormen around the year 105, but all the rest of my world-building assumes that Lewis was telling the truth about a civil war in Archenland in the year 204 (though NOT that those rebels founded Calormen; that is just ridiculous). I'm also pretty sure I've explicitly stated that Idrath World-Conqueror attempted to invade Archenland (by way of colonizing Telmar) around the year 300 (thus forcing Lewis to make sense, dammit) -- yeah, Cor says in chapter 5 of The Courting Dance that Idrath died 'seven hundred years ago,' and "The Courting Dance" happens around 1020, give or take a year -- so Jadis can't reach Calormen until 275 at the earliest, and 280-285 is the most likely period.

Which means I lost 180 years -- just dropped them clean out of the story. Talk about a continuity glitch!

That is a side-effect of the way I wrote the fic, of course. I began writing it back in the summer of 2009, but I didn't really solidify my Narnian world-building until late 2011 (in direct consequence of writing Out of Season), so it's not surprising there are mismatches between my stories and my background files. But goddamn, it is annoying.

On the brighter side, this timeline has finally given me a place to put all the history of Archenland that I managed to keep out of "The Courting Dance" in the interest of writing a story rather than a textbook, which makes me unreasonably happy. I put hard work into that world-building, and now I will have it all collected in one place! I have also dragged in some dates I had only previously written down in this comment thread when talking about To Every Thing There Is a Season. And, of course, I'm working in all the hard dates from my two Calormene meta posts, because this is a WORLD timeline, not just a Narnian timeline. Or at least it makes gestures in that direction, and those gestures increase every time I edit it.

The best thing about creating a definitive timeline, you see, is how many new story possibilities it opens up. :-)

*returns to work*

ETA: Upon due consideration, I also need to tweak "The Courting Dance," mostly to fix generational issues in the royal house of Archenland. Oh well, tomorrow! (This has the pleasant side effect of letting me insert a regency council during the middle of the Long Winter. Man, I love regency councils. They are such a mess, but for a writer, political messes are fun. *evil grin*)

Comments

[eos_joy]

*feels your PAIN!*

...granted, it is a lot worse for you, but I'm a world-builder, lets-be-consistent-now-thanks kind of writer, so I too spend a whole lot of time outlining and time-lining and making sure all my info is logical and consistent - even if it's annoying and soul-sucking and time-killing. >.< So, I feel for you! <3

[edenfalling]

Lewis can be maddening, that is for sure! But I am perfectly capable of creating similar snarls in my own original fiction, when something I write in a first draft turns out to make no sense when I start trying to systematize the world, or when my nice, tidy files get overturned by characters who decide to do different things and operate under completely different social structures from what I had planned. For example, I'd done a LOT of world-building about the city-state of Estara, and the history of the Estarin Empire (its previous incarnation as the capital of a multi-continental empire), but when I finally got around to writing some 15-minute ficlets about two pivotal figures in the Empire's fall, I learned more about their time-and-place in two hours total than I had in ten years. So it goes.

Fortunately I like timelines for their own sake, so this is fun work. Still work, mind you! But then, writing is also work, so I figure as long as I'm having fun, it's all good. :-)

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

chin on hands

[edenfalling]

*types busily*

I will post it when I'm done... or at least done-ish, since this is not the sort of enterprise that one ever really finishes.