Novel Update

The latest version of my novel is complete. I finished it over the weekend. My next steps are to go back and edit chapters one and two, since I overhauled those the most in this latest revision. In fact Chapter 1 was an entirely new chapter I wrote from scratch, with a new beginning to the novel. Chapter 2 used to be chapter one, but I moved it and re-wrote a good portion of it as well.

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback on my first chapter. Your suggestions are invaluable and will certainly help in my upcoming revisions. I hope to have chapter one posted to my site within the next month.

The biggest changes to this revision were the character perspectives. The first two drafts — which I subsequently trashed — had anywhere from five to seven character perspectives. I pared those down in the third revision, and even more in the latest revision. Now, my novel only has three character perspectives: the “island king” (the last surviving brother of the royal line), the “usurper king” (the antagonist), and the protagonist (a minor noble).

I chose a minor noble for my main character for a couple of reasons. One, because he resonates more closely with the common man, but two, he still has access, based on his status, to the dealings of the political undertakings of the higher nobility. He acts as a go-between for the social classes.

My main character’s family owns only one small estate — a not so profitable estate at that — and after the war ravages the region and leaves the estate in ruins, the protagonist must seek his destiny by relying on his lord’s support more than ever, and his duty is to protect his lord’s vast estates from the bands of enemy mercenaries that are laying waste to the countryside. By doing this, the protagonist hopes to regain favor from his lord so that he may one day return and restore his family estate, but his main motivation, his fate, is to find and kill the man who murdered his father and brothers. Honoring the blood price is his duty, his destiny, to his family. To fight against the “usurper king’s” armies, the main character needs an army of his own, and he builds his militia from a collection of other minor nobles like himself and commoners: blacksmiths, farmers, carpenters, etc. In this, the protagonist is tied more closely to the common man.

Cutting down the character perspectives also allowed me to trim the overall word count. Previously, the word count was around some 140,000 words. Now, it’s only 109,000. Other edits in my next revisions will include adding small details / enhancements for authenticity and accuracy.