Erynn’s first book, Ramshackled, was the first indie book I ever read. It has over 2 years since and I am honored to be a part of her writing journey. With the launch of the omnibus for the Yokai Calling series that I reviewed in its first edition, this guest post is a homage to the work that goes into writing and the drive to be a better writer. Erynn is going to tell us all about reworking a series, why she did it and how you can go about it if you want to rework your published works. You might remember her from Spirit of the Dragon, Third Edition cover reveal from a few weeks back.
On Reworking a Series
Why Rework a Book at All?
In my experience, rewriting a book is a difficult decision to make. One fuelled by lackluster sales, reviews, new ideas, having developed as a writer, or a combination of all of the above. I wrote Spirit of the Dragon and The Dragon’s Eye (book 1 and 2 in the Yokai Calling series) under different titles in 2019 back when I had a completely different vision of the series. I had intended to write only four short novellas (about 25k words each) with consistent characters and loosely connected stories that eventually fed into my greater world as well as my other series.
However, I made a lot of mistakes when I wrote the original stories. While I’ve written plenty of novels before, I didn’t have much experience writing novellas, so I broke all of the rules without really thinking about it. I had 2-3 POVs, multiple subplots, AND went outside my comfort zone trying to write something shorter than I usually do. (Hint: It didn’t work.)
Ultimately, I made the books too short for what they needed to be, and I’ve also just become a substantially better writer over time. Part of the reason book 1 and 2 suffered is because a lot of what’s “going on” was glossed over or cut out completely in favour of the immediate plot.
When I started my rewrite of Spirit of the Dragon and The Dragon’s eye in July 2021, I was told by multiple people not to bother, to just write the next series and leave it alone. I think abandoning a series in favour of another is a valid approach, but it wasn’t the right decision for me and my vision.
I could go into the reasons why, but ultimately, if you’re an author in a similar position, it comes down to what you want out of your work. While rewriting these books wasn’t the best financial decision for me, I think it was the best decision for me long-term to be happy with my author career. I wanted stories I could be proud of and my readers deserve the best I can offer!
What Does Reworking a Book Look Like?
Part 1 – Outline
After I made the decision to rework book 1 & 2 in this series, the next step was to plan exactly what I had to do. I pinpointed a few issues in the book that I wanted to fix: i.e. some stuff about the characters, plot, and worldbuilding, and laid out everything into a new outline, referencing the original book.
Planning a new outline was pretty simple. Basically, I took the original story and asked “where are the weaknesses?” and “how can I fix them?” and started moving around the pieces, expanding, and plugging holes where necessary until I came up with something like this:
 |
The image above is from an older version of the outline, before I ran into a couple of other problems that needed new scenes to address. I also change the layout of a book a lot as I write and the story evolves, so my outlines never perfectly match the published books.
Of course, not every author likes to outline their work. If you’re not one for outlining, don’t force the process. Personally, since I like to write complicated stories, having a guideline and a list of all the things I need to set up and accomplish makes writing the book a lot faster for me. I found having an outline for reworking a book in particular very important to my process, but that might not be the same for you.
One of the biggest changes in Spirit of the Dragon–besides it going from 50k to 93k in this new edition–is that there is now a third POV! In books 2-4 there are 3 POVs, and so I felt like this character in particular, Aihi, needed a proper place in book 1. I had to decide which scenes needed to be rewritten into her perspective instead. What new scenes to add, from her perspective, would better round out the story I wanted to tell. I previously excluded her to keep the book shorter, but doing so sacrificed the quality of the story. I corrected that in this edition and now, with her around, the world and story feels much fuller and fills a few gaps that were left in the old version.
That said, making tweaks to the plot wasn’t always so easy. Because this is book 1 in a 4 book series, I had to be careful about what I changed as every detail could have a cascading effect through the series. This meant that I didn’t have room to make any radical changes to *what* happens, only for *how* it happens. This is another reason I found outlining so helpful, and updating that outline as I went through various drafts in the story.
Part 2 – Re-Drafting
I typically go through 3-4 drafts of a book depending on how long and complicated it is. For these rewrites, I did 3. While you would think that having an outline and knowing how the series ends (it was already written!) would make sorting out the details for book 1 easier, that wasn’t necessarily the case. There were a few flaws in book 1 that needed some serious plothole doctors to fix. Thankfully I came up with the perfect solutions that served my story for the better in the end.
While doing this poses its unique challenges, it is a puzzle not so unlike crafting a story from square one. There are only so many squares to fill, and there are too many pieces, and you have to sort through them until the right ones fall into place.
While reworking the first draft is more like organizing a puzzle and figuring out where each piece goes, the second and third drafts are more like searching for the pieces that fit where they were put in the puzzle, but weren’t necessarily supposed to go in that position. In other words, these subsequent drafts serve to smooth out the overall picture formed by the puzzle, either by shifting them around into better positions or repainting the pieces that aren’t quite right to better fit the desired image.
There were times where I felt like the Spirit of the Dragon puzzle was missing several pieces (as if a dog had run off with a couple and chewed them up) and I had to fill in the blanks somehow. In this case, I am the dog, and the ‘mangled pieces’ were, effectively, the ‘mangled logic’ I used to justify some of the plot events in the previous version of the book.
Spotting moments like these, and other spots that don’t feel quite right are critical to my drafting process. Usually they are things that felt right when I was originally writing, or when I outlined the book, but don’t fit anymore after looking at the whole picture.
That could be as narrow as single words or go all the way up to whole chapters, but most often I find that these tweaks happen at the paragraph/sentence level at this stage of the editing, with chapter-level edits (such as plot events out of sequence) being made in the first or second drafts.
Part 3 – New cover design!
When I committed to rewriting these books, I also committed to rebranding them. Currently I have the new cover for Spirit of the Dragon already, which Kriti kindly featured on her blog last month. But I also have new covers for The Dragon’s Eye, A Dragon’s Sight, and Blood of Dragons in the works.
The first cover I had made when I decided to rework the books, though, was a cover for the omnibus edition of all 4 put together.
Earlier in the summer, I’d been scouring the internet in search of suitable artists to collaborate with on covers for my books and other art projects. There are so, so many wonderful artists out there and it was a very difficult deciding who to go with.
Unfortunately, many were way out of my price range, or they were booked up already, and even sometimes where I loved their art but I wasn’t sure if it would be a good fit for a cover.
I was looking for MONTHS trying to find someone who met my criteria. I wanted someone within my price range, but also had a detailed style that I thought would be suitable for both YA and adult titles so I can use the same artist for multiple series (although I will commission multiple artists for different series eventually). And, of course, who was currently taking on new clients.
I saw EL Geron’s art and immediately fell in love with his work! His attention to detail immediately drew me in, capturing a vividness that I thought was a perfect match for the stories I wanted to portray. As a bonus, he already had some experience designing book covers! I was so happy when I found him and he accepted my commision.
Overall, honestly I had a lot of fun working with him to design the cover. I already had a good idea of what I wanted, so the process was simple. I proposed an idea, he described what he was thinking of doing based on that idea, and we went to work.
He started with an initial sketch based on our ideas:
Which he developed based on my feedback…
Until we reached the final result! (You can see the full range of progress pics on EL Geron’s Artstation page)
A lot went into making this gorgeous cover possible, and since this is a cover that represents the whole series, I had to be particular about including elements that are relevant in each book.
The focal point of the Yokai Calling Series cover is this sinister-looking figure who is humanoid but with animalistic features. If you’ve read Spirit of the Dragon, you might recognize him as the main villain of the series: Lacotl. Lacotl is a dark sorcerer from the Yaotlan Isles far on the eastern side of the Shimensokan continent–think a distance like California to Nova Scotia.
Not only is he a dark sorcerer, but a kan’thir, which is a race of intelligent goat-men who have almost always been the enemies of the Dragon Goddess, Shirashi, and thus the people of Seiryuu where the Yokai Calling series primarily takes place.
This, of course, sets him up quite well to become the villain to the heroes of this series.
Not only is Lacotl devious, he’s a little bit insane. Kan’thir have a curious cultural practice of enchanting the skulls of their ancestors to retain a bit of their knowledge through the generations. When worn excessively, as in Lacotl’s case, the enchantments can erode their sanity.
But despite Lacotl’s murderous intent, dark schemes, and questionable allegiances… there is far more to him than meets the eye.
In Lacotl’s outstretched hands, he’s carrying a golden egg resembling what you might imagine as belonging to a dragon. I cannot say much about the egg or Lacotl’s goals without major spoilers for the series, but the significance of the egg and the two dragons clinging to it–a wyvern and an eastern dragon–are representative of many dynamics occurring throughout the series and the greater world that this story belongs in.
Especially in regards to the two greater deities which are, of course, the Dragon Goddess and the Wyvern God.
The next major elements are three female spirits hovering around Lacotl. When I made the decision to include these spirits, I didn’t have any particular characters in mind. I wanted these spirits to be representational for all of the women who die in this series, including significant characters–they are the spirits of those wronged by Lacotl and his heinousness.
A disproportionate amount of kidnapping victims in our world, about 75%, are women and girls. In Canada and the United States, there are human rights crisis and inquiries about Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women.
It is an unfortunate reality that women are more often than not the target of violence, and that is a reality reflected in the fantasy world I’m building. However, while I represent these facts in the Yokai Calling series, women in my world also have far more potential for power.
One of the two greater deities, Shirashi, extends favourable power to women in title and in raw ki (magic): the Warlock Empire was mostly matriarchal and ruled by a line of powerful empresses. The shōgun of Seiryuu commands the entire military, and her daughter, Princess Aihi, will one day continue the reign of empresses in Seiryuu.
And, women are more likely to receive Shirashi’s gift of ki than their male counterparts (approximately 75% compared to 50%, depending on bloodlines).
However, that very same power puts a target on their back for those who do not fear Shirashi’s wrath… and who value the raw power of their gifts more than the vessel.
The Yokai Calling Series is a completed series, with all 4 books available now either as individual titles or as the omnibus edition. They are available on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, and more! (and yes, there are paperbacks for this enormous 800-page tome!)
What is your experience with making one of your works better? It doesn’t have to be book!
For me, unlike Erynn’s series, the rework on my blog will never end. Depending on my mood and goals, I will always be updating it. Time teaches a lot and when you sit and analyze the things you want and don’t want, the hassles you want to do away with or the questions you don’t want to get anymore, there’s a driver for change. I redid my Work with Me page and my Book Review Index recently, after thinking about how much work was going in maintaining them and the kind of interactions I truly wanted. Tell me your experience with rework in the comments section below. 🙂
Thank you once again for joining us today! We hope you enjoyed this post by Erynn! Connect with Erynn on her website, Twitter and Instagram, and stay tuned for an indie author interview tomorrow as we celebrate the end of another series.
Banner Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
Be First to Comment