I have reached the hard part

I am currently working on page 122 of 304. I have lost several pages as I realized that the changes I made to one of the scenes doesn’t work as well as the original version of it, but the change was big enough, and the circumstances changed enough that it is requiring that I delete several scenes, and rewrite or write from scratch several others.

I have almost 1k of a scene I am rewriting that I have not yet added to the draft so the page count doesn’t mean much this week except that I am making progress. As much as I want to say I’m nearly half-way through, I know that the last half is not comparable to the first half. I have gotten to the part that is going to go much slower, but I have worked on it all but maybe one day this week, so I am staying pretty on track.

From this weeks labors:

Aaron grinned as Pyre clawed at the ground, the link open and filling his chest with excitement and warmth. “Hey, remember that I still don’t know what I’m doing, alright?”

Pyre let out a puff of warm air and Aaron laughed as he got the distinct impression that the dragon would roll his eyes if he could.

“Alright, here goes nothing.” Aaron muttered to himself as he started to form stairs and climb.

Thanks for reading!

This week’s progress

I will probably do more today, but as of now I am on page 105/310. I seem to have hit a particularly strong portion of the narrative and it’s been mostly reading and rewording things rather than scrapping and rewriting scenes entirely.

I am definitely approaching a few weak points that I will likely have to wrestle with for a minute, but so far I have been happy with how my rewrites have turned out.

A little snippet from this week’s work:

“Let’s try again.”

Zuriel and Halvar both looked at her with surprise.

Feeling her face warm again she added. “I’ve spent some ten minutes watching you fall off your third step, you made it to eight that time.”

“You fell.”

“You caught me.”

Thanks for reading!

Okay, I may need some accountability

I have a terrible habit of world building new stories when I should be working on the book I am trying to get published.

So, to motivate myself to keep focused on my revisions/edits, I have decided that I should resume my weekly updates.

I am currently working on page 59/309, though I am writing out a new version of the current scene on another document (I couldn’t figure out how to fix the tone in the same document), so it might be a slightly off statement as I suspect I have made the scene longer than it is currently.

At any rate, that is where I am and here is a little snippet:

“Shh.” Halvar said, his eyes were still closed. “I don’t know how you can think that loud and talk at the same time.”

Thanks for reading friends.

Making Progress

Since this is my first time actually editing instead of scraping and rewriting, I do feel a little out of my depth, but it so exciting to be in a new stage of writing after so much work.

I have settled into doing a slow read through, making edits, notes and rewriting as I go. This is maybe not terribly efficient, but at least for the first half of the story, this feels like the best method as I have already done a basic rewrite of that part of the story. I am confident I have the events right, they just need a little fine tuning.

The later part of the story where I cut out a few POVs and plot lines may require a shift in process since it will need more extensive reworking to bring it back into alignment with the first part of the story.

Over all, I am having lots of fun and making progress. As of now I am working on page 44 of 308, but I know that last number will be shifting as I move forward.

A little Snippet:

“Feel better?”

Aaron opened his eyes and looked at Ray who leaned against the side of the doorway watching him expectantly. With his unnervingly blue eyes.

A chill ran down his spine, and he pushed off the door and started for the stairs. “Yep. Never better.” Just losing my mind.

He almost hoped he was losing his mind because the other option that was forming in the back of his mind was worse somehow.

Thanks for reading!

Brief Update

Hello there!

I have finished one read through of the draft and it largely holds up. I can see a lot of it needs to be cut. I needed to write it, because I needed to know, but it just feels cluttered as is, so I have cut a bunch and am doing a second read through to get a clearer idea of what I need to expand and fill in.

I am happy with the progress this story has made and I am having a blast figuring out how to edit a book.

I think I am going to do a little writing while I complete the second read through. Rewriting scenes and writing new scenes I see are needed.

Very exciting.

Just for fun, here’s a line I liked on the reread:

Aaron did his best to suppress a frown as he realized he was going to get another in depth lesson on swords without being allowed to weld one.

Thanks for reading!

It’s done!

I did it!

I almost can’t believe it.

117,664 words.

Just shy of 1 year of writing and book one of The Shadow of Vale exists as a full rough draft.

My plan is to let it rest for maybe a few days and then do a read through taking notes and seeing what works and what doesn’t. After that I will try to do some hard edits, see how much rewriting I will need to do. If it’s not too bad, and the edits aren’t super extensive (They probably will be, honestly), then I’ll start next steps for getting outside eyes on it.

Thank you so much for reading and coming along with me. Hopefully you’ll hear from me again soon. For now, here’s a “goodbye” snippet (This is not from the end of the book.):

“Maybe when all this is over you can see them again.”

Zuriel sighed, his head fell back into the pillows. “I’m not even sure that would be better. What would I tell them? I’m the savior of a magical realm and I will outlive all of you by a few centuries?”

Aila lifted herself from his side to see his face. “Maybe just goodbye. It might give you all peace.”

Zuriel reached out and gently ran his fingers through the hair by her face, a gesture he seemed to enjoy doing as much as she enjoyed him doing it. “Do you think it would?” He searched her eyes.

Aila considered the question a moment. She’d lost so many and while she knew the fate of all those she loved, she had not been given the chance to say goodbye to any of them. Not even Kyra who had been so close. Her body had still been warm when they buried her.

“Yes.” Her voice came out weaker than she’d hoped. “Yes. I think it would help.”

He nodded and slipped his hand into her hair, pulling her close for a gentle kiss. It felt like a balm on the wounds the question had opened.

Zuriel pulled back, kissing her cheek and then her forehead before settling her back against his chest. “I think you’re right.”

In the last stretch.

This week was a bit rough. I was taken out for a few days by a migraine. But I do have the draft over 114k, nearly 115k and I am in the last sequence of events. Very soon I will be wrapping up this draft and I am so excited about it. It has been rough with these scenes stuck in my head and not being cognizant enough to sit and write them. Plus, looking at a screen isn’t the most comfortable thing with a migraine.

Maybe next week will be the announcement that it’s done….

Here’s a snippet as unspoilery as I can put:

“They’re coming.”

The voice sent Harkin scrambling to find a place to hide.

Blasted transporters. Harkin thought as he rounded back down the way he’d come. Not far into the hall was a storage closet and Harkin slipped inside.

“You think they’ll head to the throne room?”

“No. If they know anything, they’ll know Azazel never used it. They’ll be heading to the executive rooms.”

The voices were growing quiet as the men moved farther away. Harkin slipped out of the closet and carefully made his way to where he thought the men were going.

“Hold here. Vic, set it.”

Harkin slowly risked a glance around the corner as he approached. He bit off a curse as the group vanished as soon as his eyes lay on them. He drew back and wracked his brain for the best path through the air vents. They’d hidden themselves with some sort of illusion which put him at a disadvantage. They’d be able to see him, but he couldn’t find them. And the only reason to be setting up illusions was to let others close enough to strike.

“You will not be getting him that easily.” He muttered to himself before making his way as quickly and quietly as he could to the nearest accessible air vent.

Let’s Go!

I am so excited about getting this draft wrapped up.

I am a little stuck because I am getting into a long-ish battle sequence and the ending I have settled on has changed what book 2 is going to be and I am so excited about that part of the story as well and it’s pulling my mind a little ahead of where I am actually writing.

But, I am so excited to actually know where I am going with this.

I can’t wait to get into tearing it apart and fixing it. But I do have to finish it first. I am making good progress with that. The draft is now about 110,600 words.

Here’s a little snippet:

Aaron clenched and unclenched his fists as he stared at the empty whiteness where the bleed would soon open before him.

Deep breath in. Out.

He reached toward his sorcerer magic, holding each element near the surface.

They’d worked and planned and how he had to trust the men he worked with.

It’s time. Halvar’s voice filled his mind.

The air before them rippled as the bleed opened.

He took another deep breath, all the weariness and anxiety was lost in the surge of adrenaline.

“Go.”

Almost done

Hello!

Last week I missed my update for a few reasons, the chief of which was it was the weekend of my daughter’s birthday and we were celebrating.

But I also didn’t have much to update because I spent most of that week stuck in a particular scene in The Shadow of Vale and puttering around in my two contemporary romance stories while I tried to figure it out.

Well, I have figured it out. Yesterday I had one of those writing sessions where the characters were saying and doing things that were not in the outline and were actually brilliant arguments for why the order I had the events planned to occur in was wrong.

I have since paused to pray and figure it out and this morning I think I know how to finish this book and what the next book is going to look like (and it will probably be the last for this story).

I haven’t worked everything out entirely, but I am excited for how it is looking now. Granted, I am well aware that I say this all the time. What can I say? I’m a pretty happy, optimistic writer.

So with this clearer vision in my mind, I am hoping that by the one year mark (March 12th) I will be done with this draft and able to let it rest a bit before tearing it apart again (but not rewriting it, I think I am finally past that part of my process) and then editing.

I did have a secret goal of maybe aiming to publish by Oct of this year, but that feels a little too optimistic even for me. haha!

As of now, the draft is sitting just over 107k and with the events coming I think it will land around 140k, which was my first gut instinct of a word count goal.

Here is a little snippet:

“I can’t go to battle and face Samael. I can’t save Vale. I can’t make him pay for what he’s taken from me; from all of us. But I can do this. I can stand by you. I can love you.”

Progress

I managed to add 2k to the draft this past week despite not writing most days. It’s now over 104k, nearly 105k.

I honestly am not sure how close to the end I am as I haven’t quite decided which of the two possible stop points I will be going with. I either have one more major event to include, which would mean another 20k or so, or I’ve already written the last major event and have a few thousand to wrap up.

I am leaning toward closing it out after the next major event, but I’ll be sitting with it this week to see how I feel.

Here’s a snippet from this week’s work:

Lonan sighed and rubbed his forehead. “That’s not really how it works, it has to do with the link which he definitely doesn’t have with the entire city.” He shook his head. “But it doesn’t really matter why, if you think he will fight, mount and fight. It may be our only chance.”

Aaron looked to Cyrus.

“We could lose civilians.” He cautioned, though his tone sounded half-hearted.

“How close is he?” Halvar asked.

Aaron felt the link. “Close. I think he’s circling; waiting.”

“Go.” Cyrus said.