The last two months of writing have been… slow, to say the least. It’s been a tough section to try and get through in the book, mostly around trying to get three key plot threads tied up and organised so that the next section of the book can happen.
One thing I’ve found through this editing process is how flexible a first draft can be (although, let’s be honest, I’m now editing draft 2 text, but I still call it my “first draft” because it’s not yet got a cohesive “beginning, middle, end”. How people work out what is a “first” draft of not is probably worthy of another blog in itself.). I’ve found it really enjoyable to put together older drafts that didn’t quite work and create something that it a lot more cohesive to the overall story.
My writing style is very much that of a gardener, and one of the repercussions of that approach is a hell of a lot of editing. I’ve been editing this story since I finished the original 50k from Nanorimo 2018, going over and over the text to try and tease out the key storylines and plots points that I want to keep. I’ve got probably another books worth of material culled in a folder that I can use for future reference. All in all, it’s a bit of a chaotic, and quite frankly, painfully slow writing process.
Saying that, however, I’m still sticking with it. I know the story I am trying to tell has value, I just have to dig away at it until I can find the core set of words which I will keep into the next round of edits.
In the meanwhile, I’m steadily building a pinterest board for inspiration for my world – called akrion aesthetic, I’m currently working on building out the world geography and tattoo inspiration – the world of Selucia is set in a tropical-esque climate, with magic wielders using particular tattoos called Blessings to create magic tricks (and some casual terraforming).
For the next two months, I’m focussing on sorting out the key arcs in the centre of the story – one for our protagonist, Mae, and her adventures into the world of Assassins, and my other protagonist, Haare, following her investigations into the criminal underworld. I think I’ve got a rough path through this bit, and hoping that I can retain a lot more of the original text than I did in the first part of the book. There are a few key sequences in particular that I’m excited to re-visit – I love action sequences and there are a few fun ones in the centre of the story.
Alex.J.Cobalt is a fantasy writer from the UK. When she’s not working away at her fantasy novel series, she posts free flash fictions on her website, along with regular blogs about writing.
Photo by: Faisal Waheed on Unsplash
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Alex.J.Cobalt 