Good Morning Adventurers,
How has everyone been? I’ve been enjoying the updates about the world cup while working on a bunch of projects around the house. Many of these projects are ones that I’ve been putting off, but needed to get done. Things like mulching the flowers around the house, moving wires around the house, and assembling the squat rack that still needs to be to back together. However, that did not hinder with the writing that I’ve been doing on top of all this. So this week, I’ll be giving y’all a bit of insight on Project: Dancing Knight.
- Word Count Update
- Rough Draft Preview – Chapter 1
Word Count Update
Total Word Count as of right now: Unknown
Why? How do I not know how many words are in my book? Am I not writing and have I been lying to you this whole time? Nope, I just don’t want to count out every single individual word that I have written down in my notebook. So far, I have just been putting the book to notebook paper, with the intention of just getting it out of my head first. Once it’s finished, I’ll rewrite it in Campfire(the writing program that I use) and begin working out the kinks and errors of the story. However, if I were to put it at a specific percentile on where I think the story is at, then I’d have to say that it is anywhere between 50% to 75% finished. There are still a few scenes that I am trying to work into the story while working towards the ending that will(hopefully) set up this series to be an anthology.
Rough Draft Preview – Chapter 1
So after some thinking and realizing that I haven’t shared really anything about Project: Dancing Night in a while, I thought it was only fair to share a little bit more than usual. So here is the rough draft of chapter one.
Chapter 1 — Grim
Kneeling over the deer carcass before me, my knife glides cleanly through its skin. Years of experience expressed in my silent task. Peeling the skin off, I drape it over a nearby tree branch and return back to the corpse. My eyes wander down to the canyon mouth below me as I carve off the meat.
“Great position for an ambush.” I mutter as I drop meat down into a smoke filled hole and place a cover back over it. Men dig shallow holes and poorly made trenches, covering them with brush and dirt. A warrior in gold lamellar armor leads the small force of no more than five hundred men. This apparent commander then points to the mouth of the canyon, shouting out commands. Several men direct a third of the troops to drop their tools and mount horses. They ride out of the canyon, turning left and disappearing beyond my site.
The remaining men leave their tools on the ground, abandoning their work, and arm themselves with spears and bows. Lines begin to take shape as they march further back into the canyon. “So you’re to play the bait—” Brush snaps behind me and instinct has me throwing down one of my precious ward stones to the ground. A barrier flares up around my small camp, concealing me as two scouts emerging from the forest.
Their armor was dyed blue and gold, and both were armed with two quivers of arrows, a short sword, and a bow. Both of them aimed directly where I would have been if they could see me. “What is it?” asked one of the scouts.
“Thought I saw smoke?” said the other scout. His eyes roam the glade, searching for anything. My hands find my great sword next to me, ready to throw off its sheath. Both scouts take a few more steps into the clearing when a third scout marches out of the treeline.
He briefly looks around before at the two scouts with bows drawn and aimed at nothing. “What you do’in?” he grunts.
“He thought he saw somethin,” said the second scout.
“Well, we’ve ain’t got time for hunt’tin out ‘somethings,’ we’ve got a trap to set.” He spits on the ground before marching back into the forest. The remaining scouts briefly look at each other before following. As they break back into the forest, more men march by, all of them carrying bows and quivers of arrows.
I look down at the slowly disintegrating stone, “What a waste.” My gaze shifts to the commander down below, “I was hoping that you’d send your archers to the other plateau.” The Great sword is replaced with my carving knife and I go back to carving up the carcass at my feet.
Silence returns to the area as the troops below settle into their position in the canyon. Men brace their spears in the ground while the commander marches up and down the front lines, repositioning spears that are too low or high. When horns blare on the steppes beyond the mouth, the commander picks up their spear and steps into the front line with their men.
Total Word Count: 525 Words
Ok, so first things first. Yes, I know it is short. However, when I began writing chapter two, I already realized that I need to extend this chapter by at least a few hundred words. However, since I planned this story out to be a novella, then the short chapters realistically workout in my favor. I also intend to be switching perspectives between Grim, who is the character in this chapter, and Zaya.
Hopefully, the opening lines are enough to interest a read to keep on reading. Setting up for a battle that will be observed but not(yet) partaken in. The funny thing about this is that I had already ready realized that this whole bit needs to be extended because I want the next chapter to put us into the actual combat. So part of the intended future changes to the scene is extending the observation of the battle that will be taking place here. I want to show more of the pre-battle taunting/flexing of strength from the enemy. This will also help me to(hopefully) showcase more of Grims observant nature before showcasing more of that reckless side of him.
I think the one most obvious piece of self critique that I can give myself so far is that I need to work on showing more of the inner mind. I have a lot of external action/thought, but not a lot going on inside. Maybe it’s how I set up the scene, but I think the scene is lacking that sense of urgency that most books tend to start off with. Counterpoint to that is the fact that in the next chapter(not shown) will be taking place in the midst of that battle Grim is watching take place. Then again, it could also be that doubt in the back of my mind that is making me second guess everything. Either way, I am satisfied with this rough draft because it has the foundation for something better.
A.G. Flowers 
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