(WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS ADOLESCENT WHINING)

Four weeks into the new year, and 26K words later (yes, I know it’s supposed to be 40K), and I’m still writing this book. I feel like I’m stuck in one of those fun house rooms where the closer you get to the door, the farther away it appears. I know I’m near the end of this book, but writing it is literally like dragging one word out of me at a time. It’s starting to feel like it’s never going to get done! Gaa! (told you there’d be whining).

On a positive note (I guess), I’ve got nearly 98K words written in this book so far. I’m currently working on chapter 52, and I’d swear I’ve only got another 10K words to write. Of course, I thought the same thing 26K words ago. Meanwhile, I’ve been able to go back through parts of it and correct some of the errors I’ve made, as well as insert a little more needful backstory in convenient parts so that more of the ending makes sense and the whole thing remains internally consistent. By far, the hardest thing to do with stories that contain magic is making sure you consistently obey its rules. Believe it or not, some people care about this kind of stuff, and I don’t want to disappoint.

I received some positive feedback and some helpful criticism from the folks over at IndieAuthors.com regarding the cover art, which means I’ve gone back and done a little revision work on it to clean it up a bit and render it better than what I’ve had so far. It’ll work better as a paperback cover this way, so that’s encouraging. I’ll post the new cover once the book is released.

One thing I’ve been debating is whether or not to include a map. It’s not the most critical element, but in the fantasy stories I’ve read, I’ve always enjoyed looking at the maps to figure out where the characters are. Tolkien started the whole thing, and I might want to honor that tradition. If I do, I think I’ll have to hand-draw it first, and then scan it in. I toyed around early on with creating it digitally, but the process was just way too clumsy and time consuming, which is one of the reasons I’ve thought about leaving it out. Of course, if I do make one, I’m gonna have to figure out how to include the images in the e-book versions. Should be fun!

All right. Back to the grindstone.

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