Let’s dive right in. Editing is a grueling process, and I have long procrastinated touching volume IV of my main fantasy series. Firstly, it’s enormous, capping out at 402,000 words. I remember writing it, and I got to a point where I said, “I’m tired of writing this.” So, I cut it a handful of chapters short, wrote the epilogues, and called it a day. That was almost five years ago.

Secondly, I knew it’d require a lot of work. While my story is sound, the writing prose is solid in its meandering path. Meaning? I overwrote a lot, and sometimes I got carried away with sentence length. So, I’m diligently cutting where I can, and often, I’m rewriting whole chapters from scratch. That said, I’ve made headway, though I’m burning out. I have a feeling it’ll be some time before I go back through with a fine-tooth comb.

Where we’re at: I’ve completed 33 of the 61 chapters and 4 of the 9 epilogues. My word count has dropped from 402k to 371k. I’d very much like to get that to the 325k range, but I don’t think I’ll make it. I haven’t stumbled over too many passages that were atrocious or repetitive that I had to use a broad eraser. Surprisingly, there is less sex to cut out, and I’ve rewritten many of those passages to be more morsel bits than slogs.

That said, I’ve changed a significant character’s arc in the rewrite, more to match changes in the preceding book alterations. Plus, I didn’t like where it ended up. There are a few things that took me by surprise that I’d forgotten about, so I can’t wait for you to reach those points.

Overall series recap: Volume II is going to the editor next month; III is ready for a subsequent year release minus the editing phase; IV to hopefully be released by 2023. Volume V is 75% written on the first draft, but it’s a shorter book than all the others; VI is sitting at 40% completion. Still to be determined if I write seven or nine volumes. Maybe we’ll call it even in the middle of those two? 

That’s it for this round, short and sweet. I shall return…

If you enjoyed this content, check out my books, The Bearer of Secrets, Mark of the Profane, The Demon’s Fate, The Dark Portal, For Heathens of Heaven, and Flawed to the Core: Building Memorable Characters and Writing on Amazon. All works are available on Kindle Unlimited, eBook, and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon.