Final Writing Update | Vol. VI | Draft 2.99
…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.
Well, a little over a month, and Vol. VI has a finished second draft. It was a beast to get through at times, but I still cling to my earlier assessments that it’s my favorite in the series. In a way, there are elements of each of my books where I’m like, “Oh, that’s my favorite part,” but on the whole, this book really resonates with me, primarily because I’m at the point where questions are finally being answered, and I’m happy to give them. That’s not to say there aren’t answers in the other books, because they’re there, but you won’t realize it until the series is complete. I’ll give you a hint: almost everything you need to know, the questions and answers, is in book 1, you just don’t know it yet. True, they’re masked quite well. Let me put it another way … Vol. I shows you the answers, but you don’t quite have the question formed. That’s all I’ll say about it.
Now, a little side tangent to articulate my next point. We’ll talk Marvel. Can you imagine what it’d be like if the first Marvel movie had been Avengers? No Thor—whom I greatly enjoy, Captain America, or Iron Man movies, just jump right in? You’d say, “this movie is crowded, who are these people?” There’d be no origin story, no introduction, just Nick Fury assembling them. We wouldn’t care if Agent Coulson died. Well, that’s how I approach the latter half of this series, but in a different way.
If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know that I love villains. You can’t have a decent hero without a great villain. Without a phenomenal villain, your hero isn’t that great. Well, that’s volumes VI – VII. They’re three Avengers movies back-to-back and stacked with villains and antagonists—some of them turn out to be protagonists, or at the very least, someone you root for. By rough count, I have ten of them running around, all thinking themselves as center of the world. By the time you reach this book, you’ll have been introduced to them all.
Well, let’s get into the final numbers and talk about ’em.
Prologue: 1 / 1Chapters: 58 / 58Epilogues: 7 / 7Total Words: 285,646 / 291,435Percentage Done: 100%1st Draft: 265,607I would like to point out the discrepancy in the numbers. The story, the chapters and epilogues, are the first number. That’s the final tally. The second, larger number, is including all my notes, ideas, and reminders that are attached to the document as a whole—this also includes dedications, epigraphs, about the author, back jacket blurb, etc. Just wanted to address the elephant in the room.
With this draft done and out of the way, what’s next? A break! I’m feeling the burnout. Since mid-December, I’ve worked on volumes IV–VII, and the fourth draft of the sequel to Red Creek. By a rough estimate, that’s about 600,000 words in three months. Once I take a break/ shift gears, I’m headed back to Maro’s world and finishing the 5th draft of Bloodbane. The first and fifth drafts are the most labor-intensive, the first is a word-vomit to get the story down, and the last is making it polished before it goes to the editor, which is a little over two months away. I’d rather have it ready to go than sit on my hands and wait to the last minute.
After Bloodbane, I’m either going to go into volume VII and finishing the first draft, or headed to The Demon’s Fate sequel and hitting the third draft there. As side note, I’ve noticed thoughts about Vol. VIII have been creeping into my head, and that’s a subtle sign to me to ‘get on with the show.’ The quicker I get to the first draft, the more time I’ll have to dissect it, figure out what works and what doesn’t, and find a suitable ending. It won’t be happy, it won’t be sad, but it will be poignant, bitter-sweet, and hopefully echo long after the book is put back on the shelf.
If you enjoyed this content and want more or to support the cause, follow me on Patreon! If you want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All are available in eBook and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon. I shall return…
