The Garden
By Paul A. Broyles, III
Copyrighted ©2002-2003 by Paul A. Broyles, III. "Star Wars" and all related names, terms, characters, and situations are the exclusive property of George Lucas and LucasFilm Limited. This is a work of fan fiction conceived as an homage for the "Star Wars" universe and is not intended as an infringement of any applicable copyrights. This work is not-for-profit, and no money may be made from this work. However, Thyar (the language), the Heptharo people, and all other related characters, locations, and ideas belong exclusively to me. Also, any other species, languages, characters, and locations not already established as part of the "Star Wars" universe are my property. Please consult me before using them. Though this notice is not specifically given at the start of each "Chapter" of this multi-part work, it applies to each chapter and to all related materials.
Note: While I've tried to keep it as innocuous as possible, this discussion may inadvertently contain some spoilers. I'd advise reading the story up to the last current chapter and then going back and reading this Introduction.
Introduction:
"The Garden" has been a long time in progress, now.
Back in the Spring of 2002, I was extremely excited by two developments in Star Wars. For one, I was very deeply into the book series entitled The New Jedi Order. This was Star Wars as we'd never seen it before; I ate it up. I adored it. And it inspired me enough for me to get back into fan fiction. For another, the release of Attack of the Clones loomed large. I had some general knowledge of where the story was going, and so I decided to put my rediscovered love for Star Wars in print and my excitement about the upcoming film to work. I conceived "The Garden."
I wrote the first chapter as a trial run, before I even had any clue where the story was going. All I really knew was that I wanted a grand, sweeping story that our heroes just happen to stumble into the middle of, and that I wanted it to lead naturally into Episode II. Really, this only put one constraint upon me. I had to create my own, entirely new scenario; I could not steal from established stories. This suited me just fine.
I wrote the first chapter all in one sitting, with nothing in mind other than to plunge the reader into the thick of things - whatever "things" ended up being. Even as I wrote that one chapter, an elaborate backstory seemed to spring up, complete with a new species and its own language. By the time I'd finished writing it, I had a pretty good idea of what had come before the story and a general idea of where it was headed. Chapters just poured out.
All too soon, however, real life interposed. I had school to worry about, a girlfriend to spend time with, and a SW fan film to produce. "The Garden" took the back burner. Occasionally, I'd get a chapter in here and there, but overall, I was stalled.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
I abhor outlines. I've always refused to make them for English classes, so the idea of my outlining for a personal project is ridiculous. I'd written out a lot of the religious myth behind the story textbook-style so that I could refer to it when needed (at Chapter 12, we've only just seen the tiniest hint of the myth that forms the story's backdrop), but other than that, I simply had where I was coming from and where I was going in my head. I maintain that this allows for a looser, more natural writing style, and I'm going to keep doing it this way. Still, it got me into trouble.
I'm not sure quite how the mistake happened. I do most of my writing in the wee hours of the morning, and it's possible that one night, I was just a little too tired to write and didn't realize it. But I got mixed up on my chronology and structure. Obviously, alternating chapters follow two separate stories. The idea has been from the beginning that the odd-numbered chapter and the even-numbered chapter that follows it are occurring at exactly the same time. And it some point, I missed this. So, in Chapter 11, Obi-Wan has a vision of something that has already happened.
It was several days before I realized this. As soon as I did, I flew into a panic. I had to assume that the new chapter had already been read. I couldn't recant now. But I couldn't even begin to decide what to do. The new vision didn't fit in any way with anything I ever hoped to have happen in the story. For a while, I toyed with the idea of having it be a vision of the past - Master Yoda tells Luke that these occur in The Empire Strikes Back. But on rereading what I had written, that didn't really work. The vision as I wrote it came off as a vision of something that was happening then and there, which is exactly what it was originally intended to be. No, there had to be some other solution. But I couldn't think what it might be. So, for months, I stopped writing.
I recently reformatted my computer, and while digging through the files I'd backed up, I came across the OpenOffice.org document that's got my complete working copy of "The Garden." I'd almost forgotten about it. It all came back to me in an instant, and I realized that I'd neglected my readers for way too long, and I just needed to sit down and write my way out of the corner I was in. To further my resolve, a few days after I began working on the story again, RecycledFunk left a comment (which I got in my e-mail) encouraging me to put up a new chapter. This was just the support I needed to make sure I got going again. (Thank you, RecycledFunk!)
The mythos behind the story remains the same. The backstory remains the same, as does the intended conclusion. But in order to correct my mistake, I've had to introduce a new, significant plot element that was not in my original story idea at all. Things will be following a different path. But now after a wait of several months, they will be following a path at last.
Thank you for your patience,
-Paul
