Print Version Reflections on A Mage's Power

As of this writing, I am 147 pages into the print version error checking of A Mage's Power. This is out of 476, so I've got a ways to go left. I'm just looking for technical errors; anything that might have been missed in the proofing or stylistic things (Painting the Fourth Wall) that were removed.  I have to restrain myself from content errors.

A Mage's Power is the first novel I ever wrote in addition to being my first piece of original fiction. Naturally there are mistakes content-wise because of this. I did not have the experience to see that issue with pacing or this issue with character development etc. nor was I aware that I needed beta readers to provide prospective. Now, several years and two books later (three if you count Journey to Chaos book 4), I see things that I didn't earlier. For example,

During Eric's first mission, he tries to light a fire by clanging rocks together instead of using a fire spell that was in one of the early chapters of his spell book.  As it is now, the event is one more thing for him to berate himself for. There is plenty of that already; I over did that point. With time and distance, I see the merit of reviewers who found Eric annoying. Instead, I could have had him succeed at lighting the fire as a small confidence boost. It wouldn't have changed the plot but it would have made his character arc a little smoother.

 Instead I made up something later about how his staff didn't like fire magic because it was made from a drought plagued tree. This fact only comes up again twice and once as a joke. This means Eric can't use his staff for fire magic ever and while it serves the purpose of forcing him to work without "training wheels" sooner, this plot point is poorly developed.

I would like to make these changes but doing so would mean adding first draft quality material into the polished product. It would take a lot of time and potentially money if I had to order more professional proofing, formatting etc. I might not like the changes when they're done, which would put me back where I started.

Thank you for listening. Now I return to error-checking.

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A Mage's Power, and the rest of the Journey to Chaos series, is available for purchase at Amazon. Right now only ebooks are available but in time all of them will have print versions.

To learn more the Journey to Chaos series, visit its Tvtropes page.