Dragon's tear

Hey everyone — just a little update.

It’s been four months since my last post, which… yeah. Sorry about that. 😂

A couple of things have happened since then.

First, I had to take some time away from pretty much everything because I had surgery. It was technically classed as a major operation, although thankfully it never felt particularly dramatic. I’m absolutely fine, but I decided to actually listen to the advice I was given (that’s a first) and spend some time resting and recovering properly.

The second thing is Book 3.

Back in May, I started writing it and managed to get four chapters finished. While I was writing, I was also rereading Book 1 to double-check a few continuity details, as Book 3 continues directly from where The Outcast ends.

And then I made the mistake of actually paying attention to what I was reading.

I thought it was shite.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a trained writer. I’ve basically been learning as I go, and by the time I finished Book 2, I’d improved a lot compared with when I originally wrote Book 1. Going back to The Outcast made that painfully obvious, and suddenly there were things everywhere that I wanted to fix.

Soooo… I’ve spent the last two months re-editing the entire book.

And it has been hellish.

Tedious, slow, frustrating, mind-numbingly boring (pretty much every word you can think of.) I don’t think I’ve ever procrastinated so much in my life. Some days, the thought of editing was enough to put me off entirely, and I’d manage barely three pages before calling it quits.

But anyway…

It’s done!

The updated version has now been uploaded, with more than 2,500 changes made throughout the book.

Importantly, the story itself hasn’t changed. Most of the edits were focused on improving the writing, removing lines where I unnecessarily explained how a character was feeling instead of letting the dialogue and situation speak for themselves, tightening descriptions, changing or removing small actions, and generally making everything flow more naturally.

Basically, it reads a lot better now, and I’m finally happy to leave it alone.

Hopefully forever.

Now I can finally get back to writing Book 3, and at the moment I’m expecting it to release sometime during the first half of next year.

Thanks for reading, and sorry again for disappearing for four months to those of you who actually check in on these posts.

I’ve just realised it’s exactly four months to the day since my last one.
Shit.😂

Take care,

~TJ