The shortest mont of the year is over and so it’s another time to reflect on what I’ve managed to do when it comes to my writing.

It can be summed up quite shortly: my feedback-based editing moved forward a lot and the first such stage has reached its end. In retrospect, it ended better than I expected – most of the ‘larger’ issues were fixable by a relatively short rewrite – a sentence or a paragraph. Still, it was something I was glad to see: that writer’s bias is a thing and a sentence I consider clear due to knowing the story in and out might not be as clear to someone reading it the first time.

Even then, most of the unclear sentences, small inconsistencies, and clumsy sequences did not take me as much time to fix as I expected. Next, I’ll do another lone pass, which will mostly focus on finalizing some character names. I’ve also noticed that drafts of the to-be book one use a different name for the capital than the early drafts of the following books so I’ll need to decide which version to use and edit accordingly. Another thing I’ll give some attention is continuity towards the sequels – something I must do myself as the sequels won’t be ready even for a beta’s eyes for a year at least.

I’ve made some small clean-up to some static section of my weblog. I cleaned up the main page of the writing section and updated the guesstimate of when I presume the individual books might be out in the world + added their current (working) titles. (The new overview is here)

I’ve also considered using this update to show another sample – the last one I posted was on Christmas – but I’ve decided to wait with that for the mentioned consistency pass (even though the selected scenes should not be affected by it). I can’t promise it for March, but I might have something else: an early version of the blurb, or back cover description.

For generations, the blessed warriors and magi of the Order of Eternal Defenders had fought to defend their lands from the endless hordes of demons with unmatched expertise.
The legendary warrior Kraasian Darkwood lost friends and family to the demons. When Tyr’eshal, his twenty-year-old son, accepts the offer to wield an almost forgotten power, Kraasian realizes there might never be a better chance to defeat the demons forever.
The resurgence of an underestimated foe with their eyes set on Tyr’eshal and the challenges of waging a war with merely a dozen Eternal Defenders will test Kraasian and his hope. More so when the cost of victory might be higher than he anticipated.

Eternal Defenders #1 – current draft of the blurb

The first attempts were way too long (190-230 words) so with some feedback, I’ve squished it to some 120-ish. It’ll still be worked on but it’s a small hint I can share for now.

So, that’s it for this time. See you next time.