Huzzah, The Myth-Keepers Draft 2 is complete! This semester-long project has been an absolute delight to work on in the beginning part of 2025. I mostly kept up with my goal of revising 10 chapters each month, though that fell off in April entering into finals. However, the flexibility of May post-finals week allowed me to get caught up, and I finally completed revisions on May 21^st.  

I’ve found that each writing project follows a different process for writing and revision, and The Myth-Keepers Draft 2 was no exception. In the past, I usually revise by reading through the whole project and taking notes, then going over each chapter only once with the necessary rewrites. This time, for The Myth-Keepers, I did make notes as I read through it, but then I reoutlined the book. I also went over each chapter at least twice. I wanted to take my time with the rewriting process to polish the story as much as I could. This strategy also helped me manage my fiction writing time and energy over the semester. When I had more time, I could spend it on the chapters that needed to be added or rewritten. When school had to take priority, I could still work for a few minutes over lunch or in the evenings on taking a second pass at each chapter, as rereading the material didn’t take as much energy or focus as writing new content. I’m also feeling more confident about the second draft because I spent more time with each chapter as I went through.  

My main goal for the draft 2 revisions was to strengthen the story and character arcs. The first draft was about exploring how to introduce the characters and the world, so the rough draft has a plot that feels more accidental than intentional. Draft 2 fixes this. Specifically, in the first draft, Matt (the main character) has only a loose connection to an off-the-books mission that serves as the book’s climax. In the second draft, Matt’s involvement in this secret mission makes way more sense and drives more of his own personal arc and decisions. Not only did this help Matt’s character development, but it also patched a few plot holes.

Other characters also got a boost from the revisions, including Aria, Matt’s Phoenix foster-sister. In the original draft, Aria’s just sort of… there. She plays an important role later on in the series, but in the process of writing the first two books, I realized her character came across as thrown in and meaningless at the beginning. That definitely needed to change, given her bigger moments planned for later on in the story. With the revisions, she now has a more central part of first book’s story and a more interesting personality on display.

The major side characters like Lichen, Taunica, Destine, and Zavin also benefitted from the story changes, too. While I think there’s room to refine their characterization more, they definitely moved in the right direction. Destine is technically a point-of-view character, though with Aria’s increased role, I’m considering removing Destine’s chapters, but I’m on the fence about that. Destine’s perspective does add to the overall story, but Aria’s chapters and the changes to Matt’s story both cut into the role that Destine plays. That’s one thing I’ll be looking for reader feedback on, as it’s hard for me to objectively know how Destine’s smaller story lands in Book 1 since I’m also considering the long-term progression of the series and her character arc.

Overall, the changes to The Myth-Keepers in Draft 2 added about 25,000 words, boosting the book from 62k up to 87k. That’s a great improvement! I imagine the book will stick around the 90k word mark from here on out.

In terms of what’s next, I’d like to get some reader feedback on The Myth-Keepers just to make sure I’m on the right track. I feel incredibly positive about the draft, but getting a perspective from outside my own head, intentions, and big picture view of the series is especially important to making sure I’m actually executing my vision. While I wait for feedback, this summer, I intend to jump into Book 2’s Draft 2 revisions. Some might advise me to wait until Book 1 is closer to a “final draft” stage, but I see value in moving forward with Book 2 revisions for a couple of reasons. First, I’m fairly certain the big elements of Book 1 that would affect major aspects of Book 2 are set in stone, and Book 1’s revisions created enough change that it makes sense to move forward with Book 2 revisions to keep up the consistency and continuity between them. Plus, my revision momentum is still strong, and I have some rewrites for Book 2 scenes in mind that I’m especially excited to dive into. Also, I’m of the opinion that nothing is wasted in the writing process. Writing Book 2 helped me think through Book 1’s issues, and similarly revising Book 2 may circle back to be productive for Book 1’s future revisions and editing. Even if I have to majorly revise one or both of the books again, that’s fine. I don’t have a timeline for anything at this point. I want to share this story, but I’m not in a rush to do so. It’s been almost twenty years with this story and these characters, and if I’ve learned anything from working on a story for that amount of time, it’s been to embrace patience with my writing.

I have a couple of smaller projects I’m also dabbling with. One is a novella about Taunica’s backstory prior to The Myth-Keepers. I started it over Spring Break when I needed a breather from “writing work” and as a character development exercise. I’m nearly done with a full draft and anticipate finishing it before the month is over. I may also write a Lichen novella prequel, too, as Taunica and Lichen are the only major characters whose backstories aren’t established in Book 1 but do feed into stories in future books. While I know both of their backstories very well, sometimes writing out past events in narrative form brings up new ideas or details or perspective that strengthens characterization in the actual novel. I’m not sure if the Taunica novella or the Lichen one (if that’s ever written) will ever be shared or not, but it’s been fun and useful to write regardless.

I’ll also add here that the Whitman Court series is on somewhat of an indefinite hiatus. I submitted it last year for publication consideration and received what I interpreted as a revise and resubmit recommendation with specific and detailed feedback. It was both encouraging and discouraging, as some of the feedback was helpful, and some of it felt like it might steer me away from my intended vision. Though, to be honest, I don’t feel as enthusiastic about the series as I once did, which is maybe the bigger reason for the pause. The Myth-Keepers is where I want my focus to be. I don’t know when, or if, I’ll return to Whitman Court—it’s a project that might just be a little too personal to be publishable, and I don’t think I have the passion right now to take it to that publishable level. That being said, the project tends to resurface at the most random points in my life, so who knows? I could be back at it in five years.

I’m also going to take a break from consistent blogging for the summer. It’s been a busy Spring semester, and the summer won’t be slowing down as I work full-time, celebrate some big events in my family, and want to use any free time I may have to focus on Myth-Keepers stuff. I had a blog series planned for the summer that I didn’t get around to writing this Spring, so stay tuned for that this Fall.

That’s all for now. Happy Summer!