The Middle Book Experience

Completing my latest title, Queen of the Skour, Book 2 of the Bloodstone Dagger was such a struggle to finish. Heck, even this blog post is a struggle. Where do I even start with this thing?

First, I’d like to make it clear, that I couldn’t be happier with how Queen of the Skour (QOS) turned out in the end. My regrets with this title are firmly with how long it took me to complete, not with the end content. If quality wasn’t my concern, I wouldn’t have taken so long to complete it in the first place. I wish I could say the delay was due to one-off personal problems, overtime at my day job, or difficulties with my publishing team, but no. I only have my writing process to blame.

How None Becomes One. Let’s Get it Done.

When I started writing years ago, I had a six-part epic in mind. I set out to write it, telling everyone I knew and didn’t know about how I was going to be a famous fantasy author, just wait. This epic will rival A Song of Ice and Fire. You’ll see.

Aaaand no one was interested.

Well, not no one. There were plenty of people who at least pretended to be interested. But when it came to getting those people to read my first draft and tell me what they thought……

“Umm… I have to be somewhere for the rest of my life, otherwise I’d totally read your book. It sounds awesome, though. Byeee.”

The few that didn’t have an excuse, gave it their best but alas, no one could get past chapter seven. Only one man was brave enough to make it through to the end of not just the first epic tome, but the second one too. I (common-law) married that man. Seriously, how could I not?

He helped me realize that I had a world worth building and stories worth telling, but I had a ton more work to do. So, upon throwing myself into writing workshops and learning about story structure, I decide that shorter, stand alone novels were the way to go. I put away my already half a million-word manuscript in favour of one around the 150,000-word range. Still long for sure, but not by fantasy novel standards. That was when The Eye of Verishten was born. I wrote the entire book in less than a year, leaving more than enough time for editing and typesetting.

It only made sense that the next book, The Bloodstone Dagger, would be done just as fast. And it was… but barely.

One Becomes Two, So Much to Do.

My issues with this series started upon realizing that Jeth and Vidya’s story was way greater than one book. Then I had a brilliant idea. I could split it into two. A duology. No one does that. I will be one of the few. I renamed it The Immortal Serpent, Book 1 of the Bloodstone Dagger Duology. It went to market. Another year and a new book was born. Not too shabs.

I went into Book 2: Queen of the Skour with the same expectation of showing up at next year’s convention season with a complete two-part series.

Well, not so fast.

What do you mean not so fast?

I’ll tell you. It was November 2017 and you know what was going on then? Nanowrimo, the annual event that challenges writers to pound out 50K words in one month. I was still outlining QOS, and was frankly stuck, but if I didn’t start writing something right then, I wouldn’t complete the challenge and win that sweet, sweet prize (who the hell remembers what it was now?) I know! I’ll start writing what I’ve already outlined and the rest will come together like magic. I basically know where the story is going, what could go wrong?

Oh, I don’t know, you might waste two more years of your life not releasing a single thing, maybe that?

Part way through drafting the book, it became apparent that two parts was not going to cut it either. That pesky three act structure is too hard to shake. Jeth and Vidya took on lives of their own and rushing to the end of their arcs in one book would do those arcs no justice. Do you want Season 8 of Game of Thrones? Because that’s how you get Season 8 of Game of Thrones.

Sure, I sold a few with ‘duology’ on the cover by this time, but think of it as having a rare copy that will be worth millions someday, yes millions!  So, you’re welcome.

Two Becomes Three. How Things Should Be

The book that was supposed to include the epic climactic event that would end the series, was now the middle book in the series. That meant I had to make a new climactic event out of what was originally supposed to be the midpoint. Now, you’d think that wouldn’t take another two years, wouldn’t you? But never underestimate the soul-sucking effects of writer’s block.

Not having a strong outline put me in that dreaded pantsing position where I had to make things up as I went along in whichever way felt natural. This can yield great results for the greats like Stephan King, but for me, it resulted in a story with no real direction or structure. The book went over 180K words before I reached an ending I was satisfied with. Not wanting to put any more words down, I took it hastily to the beta reading phase (just a fancy way of saying, let my spouse read it) and… it didn’t go so well:

1.       Character problems - There were serious motivation issues with Jeth in the first act, given that his arc had changed and goals shifted, and I didn’t do enough rewriting to reflect that in the beginning. Sometimes these things only become clear when you have a complete story that a third party can read. So, I took some time to rewrite a bit and fixed Jeth’s arc. Good.

2.       Characters that don’t need to be there – The restructuring also made a few characters obsolete and several scenes no longer mattered. What do you do in that case? You have to write them out of existence. One was a male companion for Vidya, which didn’t jive well with her arc after all, so he had to go. The other character I kyboshed was Genkhai, the lovable Tezkhan chief. That one was harder, because I had such plans for him. But there was simply no room for him or the Tezkhan in this story, but definitely future stories, so don’t worry, if anyone cares whether that side character returns.

3.       Plot contrivances – Beta reading is helpful because it confirms where you get lazy as a writer but don’t want to admit it to yourself yet. Deep down you know where your characters should go and what they should do, but you are too lazy to do the research or go into the nitty gritty of that scene, so you think of something quick and dirty and go voila what a genius I am.

I had a whole scene where the characters are in the midst of planning their next heist, only for the point of that heist to conveniently present itself to the crew, saving them a trip. Isn’t that great? Gotta keep the word count down. Only the reader will go, what? That’s stupid. Don’t be lazy, just write it, Katie.  There’s also a point where Jeth is reunited with the thieving crew (not a spoiler because who didn’t think they’d make a reappearance?) Anyway, I had a heck of time trying to come up with a fresh and entertaining way for them to be reintroduced. I may have written it 4 times, twice on my own, again after beta, and yet again after developmental edits. I finally have it settled in a way that is refreshing and ties up a loose end at the same time. Hope you’ll all appreciate it.

Ok, fixed all that now onto editing? Nope. Beta reading phase also revealed that it was too long. No surprise there. At the end of the second act, when things really come to a head, it felt like that was where the book should have ended because the final act felt like the beginning of a new story in and of itself. The action takes a dive and we follow a newer character slowly into a surprise climax of sorts. For someone like me who knew what was going to happen, it was exciting. For someone who feels like the story is finished is sitting there wondering why it just keeps going on and on casually, only to arrive at a scene that nothing in the previous two acts were leading up to. I, myself, have stopped reading many books in the last act because of this and the last act is the absolutely last place that a reader should quit.

So, what’s the big deal? Cut out the last act for the next book and presto, Book 2 is complete.

Well… no. The end of the second act, although action-packed was still a terrible place to end the book. If any of you are familiar with three act story structures, the end of the second act is designed to be a massive failure for your main characters. The big disaster, as I like to call it. Now, as the middle book in a now three-part series, you expect things not to end particularly well for our characters (look at Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back). For QOS however, there were too many loose ends, too many characters left hanging, and literally zero arcs fulfilled. Each book in a series should be somewhat self-contained and come to some sort of resolution, even if it’s a negative one. You can’t expect a reader, a year from now (or three) to carry over that same level of tension from the previous book. Tension needs to come down at the end while leaving a trail of mystery and intrigue to keep them wanting more. QOS can’t end with a climax for one character while the others are twiddling their thumbs. That meant. I had to rewrite it… yet again!

By this time, it’s the summer of 2019, already coming up to the second comic expo season without a new title, but there was still time. If my sister and I went full boar like we did with the Immortal Serpent, we just might make it. Or would we?

1.       Still more plotting issues – in all my effort to fix Jeth’s arc, I didn’t realize that Vidya’s motivations were kind of crap too. Leave it to my editor to figure that out. Luckily, she has fewer chapters, so I only had to rewrite one and tweak some of her other ones.

2.       Point of view preferences – Many of the chapters in the last act were in a point of view, that in hindsight, were not as impactful. In addition, some climactic events were misplaced, killing tension in areas where it should have been getting higher. That meant I had to, you guessed it, write the climax again!

3.       Personal issues – The originally plan for QOS was to be ready for edits while my sister was still pregnant with her second child… back in 2018. Clearly, that didn’t happen. Now my editor had to juggle a mess of a draft with a new baby. Not easy. But that’s life. Because of this, I had to enlist my good friend and colleague, C.R. MacFarlane, author of the Red Fever Trilogy, to do line edits so that my sister could focus on other important aspects of the publishing process, including releasing her own project in which I am featured in as well (The Beginning and End of All Things).

So, another expo came and went, and I’m still trying to make all these changes. Then COVID hits and priorities get shifted, you all know what I’m talking about. I was one of the lucky ones who kept my job and could work from home, so I didn’t get a whole lot of extra free time. I just couldn’t bring myself to get pumped up for proofing and promoting this roller coaster of a book. Expos were cancelled, and I actually breathed a sigh of relief. I don’t know if I would have been able to show my face a third time with nothing new.

And Three Becomes Four, for the Love of God No More.

During COVID, I decided to focus on Part 3 of the series instead and not worry if Part 2 ever goes out. It was too depressing to think about otherwise. I’ve been able to outline most of Part 3, only to realize, I did it again

…. Book 3 will likely have to be split into two as well. I know. Why not just plan for five just to be safe? I’ll put this entire series to flame if I ever have to extend it past four (although I said the same thing if it goes past three…). It’s just there are so many loose ends to tie up and I’d rather have a longer series than a massive book with rushed character arcs and dead ends (see comment about Game of Thrones Season 8 above.) As I reached the midpoint in my outline, it felt like it could be a climactic event. At first, I was begging the universe not to make me split it. No, no, it still works as a midpoint. I can still write all this in one book. It’s fine, it’ll work.

So, I kept outlining and got to the point where I can separate it into scenes, then chapters. From beginning to middle, I estimated around 35 chapters. Whoo boy. If that’s half way, we’re looking at a 70-chapter tome. Ain’t nobody got time for that. The worst part is, since I have two books establishing the world and characters already published, I have to follow through on what I wrote, wherever it takes me. That leaves me with two options:

1.       Cut, cut, and cut some more and wrap this puppy up.

2.       Release two more books, but write them together so there is no way they can be extended over the course of 3 more years.

Cutting is always a good option, and if I can, I’m more inclined to do that, but I have such marvelous things in store, I can’t see that way working out (again, Game of Thrones). Option two, however, feels right. I have much of the story plotted out and each event is falling more or less seamlessly into place when it’s considered as two books instead of one. If I do go that route, I may sell them together as a couplet, like a little box set within a series. It’s too early to tell yet. But the more I think on it, the better I feel. Like a giant weight of a manuscripts has lifted off my chest. One way or another, I’m determined to finish this series by the end of 2021, if not early 2022.

Why am I telling you all this?

The purpose of my blogs is to document my experience as an indie author that other indie creators of all stripes can relate to. I also hope that up-and-coming writers can learn from my mistakes.

This series taught me just how crucial planning is, not just in a single novel but the series as a whole. The road map that I started with was not sufficient. If I could go back, I’d have planned out the entire series, scene by scene as soon as I realized one book wasn’t going to cut it, even if that meant it would take an extra year. Had Part 2 been fully outlined before starting Part 1, I may have been able to put it all into two after all, or more likely, I’d have not gone ahead and called it a duology.

I also learned how to better outline single books in the series as well. I tend to do a general outline for each book, followed by a scene-by-scene roadmap before starting (which I didn’t fully do on QOS due to my impatience). Then, I do beat-by-beat scripts as I draft each chapter. Going forward, I will try to write all the chapter scripts before starting the book to avoid the major plotting issues that were revealed during the editing process. I’ll let you know how that goes.

All in all, I’m happy with the book, and I think you’ll be happy with it too. Is it worth the three-year wait? That’s only for you readers to decide. All I can say is thank you for your patience and keep in mind a three-year wait is better than ten.

(Old but relevant meme)

Images from GIPHY