As of this morning, I have finished the first draft of Book II, minus the epilogue, which will be one scene and rather short - kind of like a post-credits scene in a Marvel movie. Although, unlike the post-credit scenes of the last few years, mine will be really damn cool and actually have a point.
I’m also still mulling over the short story to tack on to the end of the book. I think I’m probably going to add one, as the main story of this pulp-sized novel comes in at 152 pages (not counting the unfinished epilogue). I aim to keep these books under 200 pages, so I think it’ll work out, even with the added epilogue, plot edits, and additions in the second draft.
This book was much more of a challenge than the first, as it all came from scratch while writing the first draft, as opposed to adapting a graphic novel script like I did with the first book.
Also, this has a lot more going on, more plot threads, and much more emphasis on characters that were just secondary in the first novel. There are also new characters that I wanted to bring in, which I have plans for in the future. World building and development can be a real bitch, but it is also a lot of fun.
For now, that’s pretty much it. I’ll have the epilogue done today, most likely. Then I’ll probably start round two of proofreading and editing over the weekend, as well as starting the short story, which is the second part of Foolpuddle’s origin.