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

In the world of rewrites, the progress is slow in the past week or so, but I’m still plugging along. I’m eight chapters in out of thirty, so close to 1/3 of the way through. I’ve focused on Amice first, the female partner to Maro, the main protagonist. Though Amice hovers between the cusp of secondary character and co-lead, she is a vital part of the story, and she needed her own distinct voice when standing side by side with Maro.

Now that her chapters are finished, I’m going to switch over to secondary characters Glyn and Dokana. While their chapters have nothing to do with the main arc, together they paint a more robust picture of the entire story instead of the one dimensional outside-looking-in narration. With them, I want to paint a more sinister and bleak outlook, jaded by the realities of war, and what it means to be prisoners for the losing side.

I’ve given a lot of thought on what the focuses of the rewrites would be. Since I’ve chosen voice as the second draft, I developed a roadmap on what my driving points will be. The numbers below indicate which draft version.

1. Get the story down
2. Focus on voice and narration, broad internal thoughts, develop tone for each character
3. The senses and details: visuals, smells, what do the buildings look like—bring the world to life with weather and sounds.
4. Detail focus: does the story flow, plot details, reverse outline—form an outline based upon the details of each chapter for quick reference. Soft edit on word choice.
5. Final—Line Edit: My hard edit, going line by line, word by word. This stage is to get it as polished as possible to send to the editor.

So, that’s my game plan for the foreseeable future. We’ll see if I stick to it or make changes as needed.

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.