One of the great struggles I have as a slow writer is keeping a sense of consistency in style and tone when there are month-long gaps between progress on a particular novel. You see, although I can claim I’ve been working on book four of The Redemption of Erâth for four years now (yes – the first chapter has a timestamp on my computer of January 3, 2020), the honest truth is I’ve probably put no more than fifty or so hours of work into it so far. I don’t write slowly, so much as I take very, very long pauses between bouts of inspiration. There have probably been moments where an entire year passed between one chapter and another.

Over these long time periods, of course, it leads to me forgetting what I was writing, where I wanted to go with the plot, and more importantly, how I wanted to write the content itself. For example, the language I use in The Redemption of Erâth is considerably more deliberate and possibly archaic, designed to invoke memories of high fantasy and epic tales. The language I use in my contemporary novels is more colloquial, simpler, and less flowery in its imagery. And when I find myself working on different works across the span of months and years, I sometimes forget “how” to write in a particular manner. It takes a while to get back into the prosaic style of a particular type of story, and I find that sometimes the story suffers because I can’t keep the tone consistent from one chapter to another.

Another difficulty I encounter is the overall style of writing across books. With my standalone novels this isn’t too much of an issue, because the book in and of itself can be edited to a certain level of consistently, and if the next book comes out stylistically different, well … they’re two different books.

But with The Redemption of Erâth, an ongoing series that is essentially one long story (each book tends to end on a kind of cliffhanger, long-awaiting the next book to pick up where the last left off), I have to try harder to keep to a style and tone that matches throughout. And herein lies the biggest challenge: The Redemption of Erâth was originally conceived as a bedtime story for my then-seven-year-old child. That was twelve years ago. They’re nineteen now (and regularly remind me that I still haven’t finished their childhood bedtime story), and the story that began as children’s literature (to an extent) now has to accommodate an audience that has since grown up. However, I also don’t want to turn a corner into graphic, adult content with sex and extreme violence (à la Game of Thrones), not only because it would ruin the ongoing feel of the novels, but if a younger reader picked up the first book, I wouldn’t want them to be shocked by the time they get to the fourth or fifth book.

To an extent, of course, The Redemption of Erâth has matured over time anyway; whilst the overall themes of loneliness and coping with depression and darkness persist from the very beginning, I’ve found that as I continue to write, characters’ actions and motivations tend to be less childish (even adult characters), and more grounded in reality. Even things that happen to characters, such as injuries or the death of loved ones, I find I treat with more respect for how those characters would truly feel and react. For example, in the second book one of the main characters suffers a broken leg. This injury remains with them for the rest of the stories, causing them a limp and difficulty walking long after the injury is healed.

And of course, over the past twelve years, my own abilities and style as a writer have grown and matured. What felt like subtle plot points in my late twenties now seem obvious and uninspired as I enter my forties, and what thought was clever use of language back then now comes off as a pastiche of older, greater writers (like Tolkien). I have a better understanding of plot, structure and character development than years ago, and can (perhaps) weave a story with more subtlety and delicacy than before.

Of course, I’m also stuck, to some degree, with the style and language I started off with all those years ago, simply for the sake of keeping a sense of consistency between novels. It would feel wrong to change up the language, dialects or style of the writing itself at this point, and a clash of that nature between books would likely turn readers off. So now, of course, the challenge lies in replicating the style and tone of the past, whilst still incorporating everything I’ve learned about writing in the interim.

It isn’t easy.

At the end of the day, however, I still am committed to completing the tale of The Redemption of Erâth, which is still three and half books away, and that means continuing in the manner that’s been set as a precedent. hopefully it doesn’t become to wearisome to the reader, and the ongoing story of Brandyé and Elven will continue to be interesting and engaging throughout their coming adventures.