Given these times, I’ve made two major revisions in my Meige manuscript.
For one, I’ve toned down and condensed the first chapter. While the cultural differences are addressed in my other manuscripts, because it is not so much in Ari’s story, I don’t want to appear to do lipservice without addressing any of the issues. I’ve also condensed Ari’s chapter to cut out the Mertington knights and shifted the mood of the King’s guard and the Goldsworth. While these characters are mentioned with names in later chapters, I found the pacing needed to get Ari into the tent faster.
Secondly, I expanded on a character I intentionally kept in the shadows for Ari’s story: Walter. As one of two protagonists in meige’s sequel, I haven’t written new content, just brought more of his story into this first manuscript, therefore broadening the plot that was always there. He adds a much more layered perspective to the Mertington Family and solves a problem with the climax that I had with not including him. Namely, he provides a softening and somewhat redeeming perspective on my villian Maribelle which was always there, but struggled to find a place for.
With Walter, my word count goes to ~110,000, but this falls under the limit for the fantasy genre.
I’ve revised and polished my pitch and synopsis to include him. My previous synopsis always seemed too simplified, so I’m happy with the result.
I spent the last two weekends editing and polishing the drafts I already had of his chapters. I’m going to slice them into the manuscript document, and read them as a whole to check for repetition and discrepancies.
This I can do while lying down… lol… with an injured neck. I can’t actually sit at my computer right now, so finding agents and sending out new queries will come next week. Thus begins weekend two of hurt neck.
