Over the last few months, I’ve primarily been working on an expansion and significant revision of The Storm Dragon’s Heart, a YA novel I wrote back in 2005. (Has it been that long?!) My test readers called it “Johnny Quest in fantasy Asia.”
I’m very excited by the result, and I’m sure I’ll be telling you much more about it in the near future.
Many were the changes I made to the book:
- Expanded the narrative by 13,000 words.
- Added a new subplot and character!
- Changed the main character’s background and abilities.
- Altered how magic works to bring it in line with the newer material that I’ve written in the same world.
- Replaced Japanese and Chinese terms with English equivalents. The setting is a fantasy version of a number of East Asian cultures smashed together. It is not Japan with magic. This unexpectedly caused some problems for some previous readers.
- I drastically simplified the setting, thereby reducing the burden of exposition. Some complete alterations, but in many cases I simplified unnecessarily complex aspects and replaced their fantasy names with standard English equivalents. Fantasy aspects that did not contribute to the plot or characters or that did not add significant atmosphere were neutered.
- The original text had 500-word travelogues between longish chapters. These travelogues were interesting and helped with the burden of the more complex setting. They were now obsolete, and frankly, they really threw off the pacing. Even though I cut 16 of these, the book grew by 5,000 words.
- Shorter chapters of much more varied lengths. Stronger chapter hooks.
- And, of course, general improvements in the quality of the writing and in storytelling.
So what, you may ask, is in the works for this one? A podcast? I hope so. Sample chapters soon? Almost certainly. Otherwise, I can’t say for certain yet. But stay tuned.
