"Book II": Starting Over is a Bitch, but a Shitty Book is a Bigger Bitch

The other day I mentioned that I was going to toss out what I had already written for the sequel to Dan the Destructor. I did.

As my hand-scribbled, barely legible note says, I needed to stop trying to wedge all of my ideas into this story. I needed to refocus on the core characters, specifically Fenrik and Dan. I needed to also focus on their primary objective, which is (minor spoiler alert) finding the scientist that’s frozen in a ship in a very dangerous, basilisk infested archipelago, far away.

Originally, this was just going to all happen in the epilogue for Dan the Destructor. However, as I was nearing the end of writing that book, I really wanted to make it the actual objective of the second book. It is Dan and Fenrik’s second adventure, and I felt like it should be as perilous, action-packed, and as fun as their first, and not just a minor side quest.

Also, the idea of having an archipelago ruled over by a tribe of basilisk riders in the midst of their own civil war seemed like it could be really cool and a lot of fun to play with.

There’s also another hero I wanted to introduce, who I’m trying to flesh out in my notes now. He’s someone Fenrik knows but doesn’t particularly enjoy the company of. The main reason for this, is that he messes with Fenrik’s confidence and causes him to second guess himself, as this guy always seems to be a step ahead or able to easily one-up the boisterous barbarian. In the end, however, he’s a good guy and a real hero, but he loves checking Fenrik’s ego and I thought that would also be something fun to play with.

I’m still trying to figure out what to do with Frank, Killer, Merith, Théorn, Palus, Vasilia, as well as King Bruxor, who I started to introduced in the shelved draft. I also need to figure out how the main villain group, introduced at the end of the first book, figure into this one, if at all.

In case you’re wondering, though, I’m still starting the book (and probably all of them) with my patented “Lethal Weapon sequel opening”.

Additionally, the plan for now is to have the second (of three planned) Foolpuddle/Xulgog short stories at the end.