Koen is ready

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! My wife and I are dressed in red from head to toe for luck. We had dumplings last night and plan on having hot pot for tonight’s dinner. It’s the year of the dragon, and what a year it is to try to publish a fantasy novel. Let me give you an update.

Finally, after a month-long segue, I can return to writing Destiny of the Day Star, book 4 of my Absolution of the Morning Star series. Koen’s rewrite and subsequent edit took longer and was more involved than I anticipated. But I’m finally there (I hope). Koen started with an average Autocrit score of 89.7 in the fantasy genre. Through great effort, I pushed it to 90.5. It doesn’t seem like much, but this jump was a ton of work. My lowest score is in pacing (87.1, which is still in the “best seller” territory). Apparently, my story is too fast-paced for the fantasy genre. I’m not really surprised. I went to great lengths to make Koen action-packed and cut anything I felt bogged down the story. What am I supposed to do now? Add unnecessary mud to slow things down? If I’m to accept defeat in an area, having a dark fantasy that is “snappy,” with 0.8% of my paragraphs being flagged as slow-paced, is fine by me.

On the content side, I added a new first chapter to provide some backstory and help the reader care more about my protagonist. Initially, I was trying to be mysterious by peppering little clues about Koen and his intentions over the first few chapters, but I realized via some helpful feedback that it may have fallen flat. In hindsight, waiting 50 pages before telling the reader why Koen is embarking on this journey was a bit too mysterious.

I cut an entire plot line encompassing three chapters, which seemed an unnecessary diversion in the story. I realized this when crafting my synopsis. The chapters added nothing to the narrative and seemed out of place. The work was not wasted. A good portion will fit nicely in a new book I’m planning, so I stored it away for the future. In re-reads, I don’t miss those 20k words at all, so it was the right choice and makes Koen a lighter book.

I also removed some of the lore that was bogging down the story. As mentioned above, it’s a tricky balance in fantasy, a genre that often struggles with pace. It’s what happens when you try to create a world with words. I strive to integrate backstory and history into dialogue as much as possible without becoming lecturey. Also, I’m a gardener and not an architect, to borrow some terminology from George R. R. Martin. Like him, I let the characters push my stories and don’t always know where I’ll end up as I write. Sometimes, details sneak in for potential plot lines that never make it to the page. My wife pointed out this particular issue where two alchemists get a little chatty about the complex governance of the Alchemists of Ignis through the Council of Elders and their interactions with a witch. At the time, I thought my characters would interact with this governing body, but they had different plans and managed to escape their predicament. So, the backstory became irrelevant.

Lastly, in my first draft, the reader never meets Princess Rachel of Thorne, Koen’s wife, and mother to Erikson Gray (the protagonist in my Absolution of the Morning Star series). But at the core of Koen is a love story. It is the driving motivation that pushes Koen along on his epic quest as he searches for a cure for her infertility. My original intention of leaving Rachel out of the story was because the novel is not a romance, where the love is on the surface. It is love through Koen’s duty, struggle, and sacrifice. But some might not see that burn behind Koen’s actions. It is a stereotypical masculine, often hidden love without the kisses and caresses. So, to help cement Koen’s bond with his wife, the reader now sees an interaction between Koen and Rachel, albeit brief, in the first chapter. It has the added bonus of illuminating that Koen’s original intentions grow out of his control, and his sense of duty to his wife is actually an avoidance of responsibility through the search for a miracle. It makes things far worse for all involved. But I won’t say anymore or risk a spoiler.

So, that’s where I am. It was a stressful and frustrating journey, but the final product benefited. I am now confident that Koen is as ready as I can get it. Its journey from the first draft to now was long, about five months, but it’s my best book. Is it good enough to surmount this final hurdle? Who knows? But Koen is a book I can stand behind, and that’s all that matters.

Cheers!