While WAR OF MAGIC is still resting for another couple of weeks,
I’ve been working on both MAGE STORM (no cover yet) and BECOME.
BECOME is a first draft. Well, sort of. There was an earlier version of this story, so there area few things I can draw on. But the story has changed immensely from that first version, so most of it won’t apply. Even the main character has changed. (That first version was called DREAMER’S ROSE and was about Rose, who remains as an important character, but not the main character. It really always should have been about Gaian. Now it will be.) Besides, I wrote that first version several years ago and the writing . . . well, lets just say it needs a lot of work.
MAGE STORM is a rewrite of a story that was originally written for a younger audience. The stakes will be higher, more related to the consequences for this world as well as the individual risks. And it won’t stick to a single point of view, either. But the plot is essentially the same. It’s adding and tweaking the age of the main character, mostly. It’s also likely to be ready to publish sooner. And, while it is the first in a series (no name for the series yet, either), the series will be made up of independent stories (rather like a series all about the same detective solving different crimes, though these aren’t primarily mysteries). So, while the stories may work best in sequence, because they’ll build on the earlier ones, there won’t be anything remotely resembling a cliff hanger.
Revision–or rewrite–of one story and first draft of another actually work together fairly well. Better than trying to write to first drafts at the same time, certainly. And the advantage is that if i get stuck, or temporarily get tired of working on one, I can just switch to the other.
As long, of course, as I don’t start typing the wrong character’s name into either story.
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Meredith Mansfield, Author 