CARPE NOCTEM, jon snow

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀quick author's note

hey everyone!!
as some of you know, i started this story in august 2017, almost two years ago now. since then i've lost motivation, regained it, lost it again, and regained it. over the course of the last week my muse has returned, so i'm coming back to hopefully finish this book off and start the next. the original plan was to have book one cover seasons one to four, and book two cover series five to eight, which is looking pretty much the same at this point.

the main reason i'm making this announcement is that, over the last week, i've been heavily editing the previously published chapters. i didn't like the direction my story was going before, which is a major factor of why i lost motivation completely, but this time i planned a general outline of where i wanted to go and set about revising and editing my earlier works.

i like to think i've improved as a writer over the last two years, and whilst rereading this book i definitely found a lot of stuff that made me confused, like, 'why on earth did i write that?' and 'where did that plot end up going?' i also found some cringy stuff and paragraphs i find to be really obnoxious and pretentious, so to start with my editing was just technical, fine-trimming but keeping the original outline the same.

however, after the touch-up editing was done, i began reworking my chapters. this involved changing a lot of plot points, adding stuff in and taking stuff out for what i hope is a more organic story, with more believable characters whilst still being true to the original work. i've complied a brief list of the major changes to the story, so that readers who don't want to go back and read the whole book again aren't confused by events in the coming chapters, events which won't align with the universe or rules this book has previously set up.

major changes to the storyline

- before carsen is revealed to be a girl, her and jon's relationship isn't explicitly romantic. it's implied on jon's part and more heavily implied on carsen's part, but it's never explicitly stated that they were in love or had fallen for each other. the main reason for this is that i felt it was kind of out of character for jon to fall in love with someone so quickly, and that his feelings felt unearned due to a lack of build-up. i also wanted the relationship to feel more slow-burn.

- carsen and jon haven't kissed yet. for obvious reasons. people who don't have explicit romantic feelings for each other don't kiss in this universe.

- ygritte's relationship with jon is more defined. the main romance of ygritte is still with carsen, which i hopefully made clear, but she gets some nice moments with jon. there's some imagery and connotation of carsen, jon and ygritte all sort of having undefined feelings for each other like a weird kind of love triangle, but the only explicitly romantic relationship in that storyline is carsen and ygritte.

- doryan mortwarder doesn't exist. um, okay, so i never pictured completely erasing carsen's sort of main antagonist out of the story, but i found his character just wasn't working for me at all. i want to keep this mystery about carsen's past and who she is running from around a little longer, and having doryan mortwarder around felt very clunky and exposition-y, so yeah, i just completely took him out. carsen is still running away from someone, and i've dropped some hints as to who they might be in the re-edited chapters. this also means that the whole storyline of doryan killing carsen's father, taking over the summervale and keeping her mother and sister as hostages is completely scrapped, as doryan doesn't exist.

- carsen doesn't kill qhorin halfhalf on her own. she stabs him in the back but it is jon who kills him, true to the books and the show. originally, i changed this because i felt that if carsen didn't do something like kill the halfhand, mance rayder wouldn't bother keeping her around, as jon had the added interest of being ned stark's bastard, but i realised that killing the halfhand is such a huge defining moment for jon, really starting his theme of 'duty is the death of love' which is one of his main arcs, and that taking this kill from him really damaged his character. so, carsen only helps to kill the halfhand, but it is jon who deals the killing blow.

some other minor changes

- more serpent imagery/motifs in carsen's narrative

- rogon's reason for attempting to assault carsen is changed. the original felt clunky and unrealistic

- carsen wasn't shot with three arrows, she was shot with two and jon with one. it felt like the wounds were of so little consequence and it felt like i was injuring her just for the sake of shock value when nothing really came of it and she was fine anyway. the places she was shot changed too - she is shot in the calf and the shoulder, and jon in the leg, rather than in the chest which would have killed him.

- in a similar fashion, when carsen and another brother are attacked by wildlings, they actually fight because i noticed that the wildlings kind of just ?? let them go ?? and carsen gets stabbed in the shoulder rather than shot in the stomach, because that very clearly would have killed her or at least severely injured her. a stab wound to the shoulder is more likely to not be fatal or really impair her.

- carsen's freak out where she projectile vomits ice has more to do with prophecy and the general motif of asoiaf, of ice, fire, etc. there is also a few references to some known characters in that chapter.

obviously if you're a new reader you don't have to bother with these points, but this is for readers who read the original story before i edited it just a few days ago, so. okay! thank you all so much for reading, and have a lovely day <3