WHAT HAPPENED?! My Dark Fantasy Novella Was Only Supposed To Be 84 Pages!

SARJ HERE!

I had updated my Substackers on the state of my dark fantasy novella a few weeks back when I completed the A to Z structuring of it and wrote a very rough draft that came in at 84 pages. I then went in and began to make some amendments here and there, adding a few things and subtracting a few others.

The novella is now at 130 pages(!!!) with another scene rewrite likely adding another 10-15 pages onto that. I’m thinking that once it goes to print, my dark fantasy novella will be around 150 pages!

I’m having so much fun writing it. Thankfully, the plot has been completed for a few weeks now; there’s a first, second and third act and conclusion already set in stone. Now, I’m just filling in gaps now. I want it to be as perfect as possible.

After I finish it, I’ll be letting my oldest son read it as I move onto the first draft of my next novella, a “romantasy” about a demoness in Hell getting visited by a mystery man who’s from “out of town”.

After my son finishes reading over the first draft and gives notes, I’ll be turning it over to an editor, the wonderful Kristen McTiernan, The No-Nonsense Editor from YouTube.

Once I conclude a final draft, I’ll be doing background stuff like securing copyrights, trademarks and getting an ISBN. Then it goes to Kickstarter for the first round of funding to get a Kickstarter-exclusive edition printed and into the hands of readers. The current draft, as it is, has several sexually-explicit scenes that I don’t know will make it into the eventual Amazon edition. We’ll see.

It’s so much fun writing a sword-slinging, swashbuckling tale about a mercenary in a fantasy world fighting pirates, cultists and more.

My goal is to have 3-4 novellas done by the end of the year before I offer my first full-length novel.

My kids are working on video content for our YouTube channel to promote our publishing endeavors going forward. Very excited to share with everyone once the novella is done!

SARJ OUT