Writing Update | Vol. VI | Draft 2.3

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

As stated in the previous post, I thought something was missing, and I was right. I added a chapter to the novel. There was a very prominent gap between two events with no build up, so I needed to add a chapter for the set up. Though written in as a first draft, I won’t go back for the second draft until the end of the novel, that way I’ve got distance and perspective on it. Be that as it may, this character’s done for the time being, and I’ll be moving on to another.

The next character I’m jumping into is one that was introduced in Vol. III, and she hasn’t been touched on since then. It’s nice to bring her back into the fold, discover her fate since the events of III, and see where her story takes her. She is, by far, one of the more complex characters in books VI & VII, though she won’t seem so at first, and her storyline’s probably my favorite or second favorite in book VII. For clarity, some elements of the first draft have been done for Vol. VII, and she’s one of two.

That said, I jumped feet-first into the storyline and knocked it out fast. I find the chapters with her quite engrossing, and sometimes, I wish there was more. But I think, overall, it’s better if I don’t let my favorite characters take too much limelight. Had to learn that the hard way. I could probably write a whole novel just about her … there’s an idea. Once I finish the series, I promised myself I wouldn’t go back in and write prequels to main characters, and I stand by that. I could be persuaded … with the right story, but this character isn’t a main one, so that promise is off the table. All in all, there were five chapters and an epilogue with her. I did add to the story a touch, as reflected in the word count, just to make motivations and stakes more clear.

As I’ve progressed through the years of writing, I’ve found that I’m drawn to writing villains, or at the very least, morally gray, complex characters, and she’s a villain, in a sense. If drawn in lines of black and white, then yes, she sits on one side of that line, but in the spectrum to dark and light, she’s definitely gray, with a touch of villainy. The choices characters make—and people, too—is what defines them, and one moment, you despise her, and in the next, you sympathize, and that’s what makes a character/villain interesting.

In the movie world, we understood Thanos’s quest, what drove him. We may not agree with his methods, but he was understandable. In the gaming world, we understand the Reapers, what their end goal is, even if nebulous, but we don’t agree with them. But a villain whose motivations aren’t clear … well, sometimes it’s okay to have an evil bad guy for the sake of it, but most of the time, they’re flat. No one evil sees themselves as evil; no one wakes up and decides today’s the day I turn to villainy. But sometimes, a lot of the times, people are faced with hard choices, and in the fantasy world … well, the methods for dealing with those hard choices are more severe and a touch over-the-top. I think you’ll like her when you finally get to read her.

So, here’s the update thus far…

Prologue: 0 / 1Chapters: 12 / 58Epilogues: 2 / 7Total Words: 47,211 / 272,488Percentage Done: 17.32%1st Draft: 265,607

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