Just last night, I completed the most recent draft for Journey to Chaos book 5 - The Highest Power. This is the second rewrite of the fourth draft. So I am closer to publishing it now, but the journey is still far from over.
Why do I call this the "second rewrite" of the fourth draft? Wouldn't that be the sixth draft? Normally, that would be the case. The fourth draft is the one that I started after got feedback from beta readers. So I read it, and considered it and incorporated it into revisions. Then I got about 2/3 of the way through the book and the draft collapsed in on itself.
What I had been writing wasn't working. The plot wasn't working. The events themselves were fine but they were not interlinking with each other. I reached this point and it was like I had stumbled upon the edge of a cliff. There was nothing beyond this point. Fatal Error - you must restart. So you see, this was the first rewrite of the fourth draft because it was not a valid draft. It was not valid because I couldn't reach the end of it.
So I started over from the beginning, trying to address the cause of the fatal error. I did a little better, made things more cohesive. However, the problems continued. Instead of a large scale problem, this was a small scale problem. A problem of word craft that affected paragraphs and pages instead of chapters. I figured out the solution after muddling through about six chapters. So I applied that solution to the remaining chapters necessary to reach the ending.
What I need to do now is take a break from Journey to Chaos book 5 - The Highest Power. I need some distance to get perspective on this new draft. Then I will bring the 6 or so chapters that I mentioned in line with the rest of the story. That will bring the second rewrite of the fourth draft to true completion. Then I will start the fifth draft.
In the meantime, I will revise an anthology of short stories. These short stories focus on major characters from the Journey to Chaos series. It explores what their lives were like shortly before Eric entered them. There are five stories in total; Annala, Kallen, Basilard, Nolien and Tiza are the focus characters for these stories. I will most likely publish this before The Highest Power because it is so much shorter, and so the turn-around time for drafts and editing etc. is also shorter.
So The Highest Power will not be published this year. I don't really know when it will be published. I'm hoping it will be published next year. I will keep you posted.
UPDATE! That thing about "keeping you posted"? You can find it here --> News from my Journey to Chaos! (June 2021)
Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.
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