Writing Update | Vol VI. | Draft 2.8

…And I’m back! This won’t be quite as short, so let’s dive right in.

For the latest round of edits, I turned to my assassin storyline, which starts in Vol. IV. Since this is such a robust segment of the book, perhaps overwritten, my goal’s to whittle. Since their storyline for Vol. VII is already written, I know that one has a much more robust storyline, almost 100K words. Once I get to that one, there’ll be lots to cuts. But back to Vol. VI … I once expressed the theme of relationships in an early blog, and this storyline is no exception. It really is surprising the subliminal messages in books, especially unplanned ones.

With my assassins, they’re continuing the quest they started at the tail end of book IV, searching for who’s responsible for the trafficking and slave trade in Ermaeyth and dispatching them. While a noble goal, an organization that spans the globe and moves people here or there must be a large and powerful entity. Unfortunately, they’re in over their heads, which culminates later. For now, they’ve got a new place to explore, a different culture to clash with, and antagonists to overcome.

With this round of editing, I faced a dilemma. Late in the book, there’s a semi-detailed sex scene between an assassin and the target. While this happens, the assassin is trying to figure out a way to kill her quarry. The scene unfolds, and you really get a sense of her panic, her uncertainty, and how she works out the best way to eleminate him. In the end, I decided to cut it, and give a more truncated version on the page while getting to the point. The elements are still there, the start of it, at least, but reworking it allows for the climatic moment (no pun intended) to come much sooner (pun also not intended). There’s a time and place for everything, and I often overwrite in my early drafts, but in this instance, I think less is more. Can’t say the same for Vol. VII though.

I’m the type of writer who enjoys the challenge of writing such scenes, and I’m the kind of reader who doesn’t mind reading sex, so long as it’s well-written and serves a broader purpose besides tits on the page. I believe in every scene, there’s a chance to show the reader the character, or a new aspect of them, and the same could be said for sex scenes. Are they necessary? No, not really, no more necessary than me telling you how she kills the dude. I guess you can imagine that part, but where’s the fun in that? It’s a story, and you want to get lost in the characters, lost in their lives, and for one brief moment, you want to escape the world and head out to another place. Well … that’s how I view reading and writing. Maybe you have a different opinion. So, when two people fight, or fall in love, or discover something new, I want to live it, too. In my book on writing, I said something similar, and I’ll paraphrase here: ‘These characters are people, who’ve lived, breathed, and died, they have a history, and in the story, we’re glimpsing mere moments of their lives.’ I want my glance, and the one I offer to readers, to be as robust as possible.

But I did say there were two assassins. The other one, her master, was first introduced in Vol. III: The Jackal of Shades. He’s a tortured soul with a deeper and darker history than what we first realize. With slow care, some elements are hinted at in this story, with more of the truth coming out in VII. There’s a reason he is the way he is, and he tries his damndest to make sure his apprentice has a better life than the one he had. This book is a massive, internal challenge for him. He has to fight two sides of himself, the professional in him, and the personal. Nothing about their lives is easy, and when you had elements of the heart and get entangled, things end up messy.

So, what’s next on the agenda? Well, I only have the main character left with a few other one-off chapters, so, I’ll be headed to Starriace’s storyline. There’s a lot of moving parts in this one, and she’s got twelve chapters, more than anyone, and since we’re hitting this part of the series, it’s high time. The second half of her story is a bit lean, almost just the bones, but there’ll be a lot of fleshing out on this go-round, so I expect the word count to climb again. Updates may be few and far between in the meantime, just depends on how much writing gets done.

Well, I’ve rambled long enough. Let’s get to the update:

Prologue: 1 / 1Chapters: 39 / 58Epilogues: 4 / 7Total Words: 200,080 / 279,772Percentage Done: 71.51%1st Draft: 265,607

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