Stronger than the Sword Update

I am almost done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (With the first draft)

Right now I’m in the middle of a dilemma. I wrote the scene where my MC completes his character arc, except that I added in a huge explosion *maniacal laughter* and now I’m torn with letting my characters escape relatively easily or having one final climactic scene. One of the problems is that a scene that I envisioned putting into this book, doesn’t fit unless I keep on going, but if I keep on going, I run the risk of losing readers, since they might think that the main climax is over. Right now I’m planning on putting that scene in, finishing book, look at how everything reads, and possibly cut it during the editing process.

Before this book is ready for any type of reading, I must edit, severely. Several scenes will have parts cut off. Whether I just don’t like it, or I changed the direction of the story (did that at least once).

In case you’re wondering, I haven’t hit my goal of 80,oo0 words. Right now I’m a little below 72,500, so the chance of me reaching my goal is slim, unless of course I decide to keep the above controversial scene I was talking about and I may be short even then, but I’m just going to let the story finish itself out, even if it’s well below my goal.

Once the rough draft is finished, it’s on to editing, Retreat, my Civil War sequel. So, it’s going to be a long time until Stronger than the Sword is ready for publication, and it will take even longer since I am thinking about pitching the book to a traditional publisher.

When I started this Stronger than the Sword, I categorized it as a futuristic, medieval dystopian. Now it seems more a fantasy book, set in a futuristic medieval culture, with the oppressive government characteristic of dystopias.

One dystopian cliche I want to crush is the depressive series ending. In all fairness, I really have only read one secular dystopian series (The Hunger Games), but the last book in that series was terribly disappointing!

Recently, Stronger than the Sword has been a long slog, but the end is finally drawing near!

Keep on writing for His glory, everyone! Have a great Monday!