Writing Update - Progress as of April 2022

I wish I could say that at the time of this writing (April 1st), I have completed my next three books, but that would be nothing more than an April Fool's joke. However, it is true that over the past two months, I have made significant progress in planning and structuring my next three stories.

Beginning college once again has somewhat made it harder to be able to sit down and put the ideas into words on paper, but on the bright side, I've found that I have more time to brainstorm and better chart the path for the stories, as well as decide on the direction I want them to go. There are some takeaways from this extended period of brainstorming, particularly one major thing that results in significant changes to my next project: The Aveline Heiress.

I've always had a tendency to fear my books would be too short, that my ideas and story wouldn't amount to the average word count for their genres (70,000-100,000). Yet my first book, The Gatekeeper: Book 1 in the Era of the Uprising exceeded the preferred maximum by 30,000 words, and after writing 85,000 words of The Aveline Heiress while still being far from the ending, I think I've realized I severely overestimated how hard it would be to hit the average word count. From there, it made me start to rethink my entire approach to writing The Aveline Heiress. One doesn't need to be bored with details, but after giving it lots of thought, I've decided to revision the story.

By revision, I do not mean that I am throwing out the story and starting it over. Overall, I'm very happy with it so far, I really believe I have quite the arsenal of characters and themes, but it does need to be trimmed down for its own benefit. I myself was taking writing it too seriously, it needs to be simpler and more casual. The Aveline Heiress, after all, is a

sci-fi/action story taking place in the real world, there is no need for me to treat it like an adult drama with slow pacing when in reality it should feel more like, say, a Disney movie.

I did attempt to trim the story without having to rewrite lots of it, but I quickly found it wasn't worth it. The 85,000 words are all geared towards being a part of a slow-paced, hyper-realistic story, there is unfortunately no reasonable way to cut out 30,oo0 words of it and make it feel like how I want it to. The only way I can achieve the flow and vibe I want is by starting from page one, except this time, with a better vision and more condensed ideas that don't take excessively long to flesh out. By the end of the book, I want it to be no more than 100,000 words in total. To do that, I'm simply taking the existing storyline and all of its planned scenes and streamlining it before I begin re-writing it. I feel like I can get from point A to B in the story a lot quicker without sacrificing elements that flesh it out more. Ideally, the same story will be told in two-thirds the time, and as a result each part will hopefully feel even more valuable in terms of developing the characters and themes.

Don't get me wrong: I had lots of self-doubt about The Aveline Heiress. There were times when planning this revision that I felt like quitting it temporarily and moving on to write Book 1 of The Eldritch Queen trilogy. Nevertheless, it's always the best to stick to the plan when writing, so I am by no means giving up on it anytime soon. The Aveline Heiress is my next book, it's just a matter of when it comes out. Hopefully in the next few months, because I can't wait to introduce everyone to Miss Genevieve Aveline. <3

Likewise, I cannot wait to finally get The Eldritch Queen trilogy started. I very much wish I could reveal the details about it, but that's got to wait. All I can say for now is that I've got a gut feeling it's going to be an absolute gem. If you are a fan of Dark Fantasy, I 100% think I've got a treat for you.

Of all my projects, The Eldritch Queen is the most complete next to TAH. All three books have their basic plots finished, books 2 and 3 are still undergoing structuring, and book 1 is entirely finished as far as pre-writing planning goes. When TAH is finished, writing book 1 of The Eldritch Queen is a go, and there should be no hiccups whatsoever. I'm really confident about it.

Over the past two months, a considerable amount of brainstorming time has also gone into The Seventh Seraph. My newest project to date has already far eclipsed the level of development of stories like Legend of the Okami. I'm getting reasonably close to being ready to write down the scene structure for Part 1 of the sci-fi/fantasy duology. If you liked the first book of Legacy of the Ascendants, you'll like The Seventh Seraph. It's similar in many ways, especially the way I contrast light and dark. The key difference, however, is the inclusion of many sci-fi elements in The Seventh Seraph. When done right, I like stories that merge both the supernatural and the technological.

That's about it for this round of writing updates. Lots of significant changes for The Aveline Heiress, but they are for the better and I'm excited to get started on it again. Can't make any promises as to when it'll be finished, but with a full, revised story and lots of groundwork already laid, things should go well. I'm super excited to finish it so I can get working on The Eldritch Queen.