Actually I would prefer short, one-question posts, rather than mega-threads. That way it's easier to search. (Plus we don't run into the problem with multi-page threads spoiling the linkability.)

As for Paul's second bout of blindness... No, I didn't plan that originally. That's my fault. I discovered I liked Paul better when he was blind. Also I am nervous about having these super-powerful elves romping among the men. That could throw off the balance of certain things, so... basically I am handicapping Paul, in the horse-race sense of the term.

I haven't solved for Osh yet though -- but I think Paul with his naivete could do more damage than Osh, who is very deep and rarely tells the whole truth. That is, I think elven secrets are safer with Osh.

This is all very deus ex machina of me, I know, not to mention insensitive to people with actual visual impairments. Maybe it's not as bad as "Hmm how about rape?" when looking to fix a story going off its rails, but it's still bad of me. I'm not proud of the evolution of Paul's character. He was so awesome back in his cave days, and somehow I ended up with this whiny religious zealot with a hair-trigger propensity for bloodletting. When Ris starts looking more sympathetic than Paul I definitely have a problem.

So Paul's second blinding was a not-very-well-thought-out tactic which has, of course, made Paul neither more sympathetic nor more badass, and has launched a whole slew of new problems which I must now deal with, all while not falling in the trap of "Sure he's blind but he has elven superpowers so it almost doesn't matter." Which I did no less recently than the last chapter with Paul.

The whole "Paul accidentally almost kills his sister" scenario was a bit over-the-top and contrived, I thought. Unfortunately I only came to this conclusion as I was in the middle of writing it, when I already had a lot invested in it in terms of my outline and even pictures already taken. (Though I did have to toss all the pictures of SORIN coming to save Rua instead of Madra. That might have been more interesting, though, looking back.)

Anyway, I don't think I would have blinded Paul if I had not already been in a desperate "can this storyline be saved??" mode. I don't think I would have done it as a storyline of its own. In isolation I would have seen how lame it was.

With Paul I am getting exactly what I deserve for treating a character carelessly. We'll see whether I can finally make a good story out of this latest twist in his life.

Thanks. Like I said, I now have to do the best I can with the Paul I have. I can't turn around and make him all level-headed and Cenwulf-like. So expect more crazy. Hopefully with actual character development this time!