Weekly Update – September 26, 2023

A little bit of shop talk this week…

On Sunday, I significantly rewrote the current incomplete first draft of the eighth Strongarm & Lightfoot book, something I rarely do. I normally write very tight first drafts. Revisions for me typically involve a lot of ironing out the wrinkles, so to speak. I fix continuity errors, beef up the characterizations, trim a LOT of fat in the prose (I tend to overwrite in my first drafts), punch any thematic content, etc. I might delete entire paragraphs of text for the sake of streamlining, but rarely do I overhaul things to a major degree.

This time was one of the exceptions.

Quick background: I began writing my #fantasy series, The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot, as a response to the rise of #grimdark fantasy in the wake of Game of Thrones’ success on HBO. It seemed that everything coming out was now super dark. Stories were full, I dare say bloated, with horrible deaths, rape and torture, downbeat endings, humorless characters…it was too heavy for my liking. I wanted fun fantasy back — stories with drama and stakes, yes, but stories that were entertaining and not dreary death marches.

In writing the current book, I had a moment that was intended to be dramatic and shocking, a catalytic event that propelled the rest of the story, but I had an epiphany moment last week and realized I’d gone too far. I’d gone grimdark-level dramatic. I needed to walk it back, or I was seriously betraying the overall tone of the series, and more importantly, my promise to myself and readers to give them stories that were, in the end, optimistic if not necessarily upbeat. I never wanted things to come off as mean-spirited or nihilistic.

But there it was, a moment that was harsh, brutal, even cruel.

It needed to go.

The challenge was to remove that moment and adjust a sizable chunk of the story that followed to keep the continuity straight. That involved a LOT of rewriting. But that’s okay. I’d much rather endure the headache of major rewrites now than the heartache of knowing I hadn’t given readers the story they expected and deserved.

Authors have an implicit pact with readers to do right by them. What’s “right” varies wildly depending on the circumstances, of course, but the pact nevertheless exists. My pact with this series is to never cross certain lines, tonally speaking. I break that pact at my peril and risk losing those dedicated folks who’ve stuck with the series so far.

So I said, let’s not do that.

The fixes have been made, and I’ve opened up the rest of the story for possibilities that didn’t exist under my original choice. That, and my gut, tell me I made the right call.

BTW, this essay originally appeared as a thread on Bluesky. You should join us there.

WRITING PROJECTS

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Draconian Measures: Second draft complete.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – untitled book eight: First draft underway

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

Connecticut Renaissance Faire – Sunday, September 17, Lebanon Lions Club County Fairgrounds, Lebanon, CT. Books will be available at significant discounts.

MISC.

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