So, my brother took my original Mysterious Warriors book and told me that it needed to be four books, and I listened to him. He was completely right, and I finished the first of the quartet. But then I had the next book to write.
Broken was originally 44 pages and 9,416 words of the original draft. How was I supposed to expand this into a full-length novel? At first it seemed rather impossible, since that section of the book had been the hardest for me to write when I wrote the original Mysterious Warriors. I didn't know how to expand it into something people would want to read and something which would be different from the first book: Unity.
Then I started expanding story lines I had added into Unity. For example, Rose and Xantos Bronston were not characters in my original Mysterious Warriors. I had a lot of fun developing Xantos in Broken, and he is now someone who will be a supporting character in the second and fourth Mysterious Warriors books, someone I didn't know anything about in the original book. The court girls were also expanded. Gwen was the only original girl at court: Deanna, Kristen, Adeline, and Viola, the last of whom is introduced in Broken, were not in the original book. Expanding Gwen's character and her story was something I really focused on, as well as Ian and Pearl's story. I had fun trying to balance Rachel's story line and expand it in a way I never did originally.
I knew Broken would be the hardest book of the four for me to write, and now I am proud to say that from 44 pages and 9,416 words, Mysterious Warriors: Broken in it's final draft is 326 pages and 76,135 words!
Broken was originally 44 pages and 9,416 words of the original draft. How was I supposed to expand this into a full-length novel? At first it seemed rather impossible, since that section of the book had been the hardest for me to write when I wrote the original Mysterious Warriors. I didn't know how to expand it into something people would want to read and something which would be different from the first book: Unity.
Then I started expanding story lines I had added into Unity. For example, Rose and Xantos Bronston were not characters in my original Mysterious Warriors. I had a lot of fun developing Xantos in Broken, and he is now someone who will be a supporting character in the second and fourth Mysterious Warriors books, someone I didn't know anything about in the original book. The court girls were also expanded. Gwen was the only original girl at court: Deanna, Kristen, Adeline, and Viola, the last of whom is introduced in Broken, were not in the original book. Expanding Gwen's character and her story was something I really focused on, as well as Ian and Pearl's story. I had fun trying to balance Rachel's story line and expand it in a way I never did originally.
I knew Broken would be the hardest book of the four for me to write, and now I am proud to say that from 44 pages and 9,416 words, Mysterious Warriors: Broken in it's final draft is 326 pages and 76,135 words!