For the last four years, I have participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Every November, several hundred thousand people take up the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Every novel I’ve put out has had its first draft written this way.

This year, I’m going to be drafting my fourth novel, Arena of Night. This time, Blake is assigned to protect an ambassador from Satala, a country far to the south in the jungles. Satalans are draconian, formed from the corrupted eggs of dragons during the Dragon Wars. They were an occupying force in Myos during the War. Even though the wars ended over a hundred years ago, hatred runs deep between the two groups.

When  an attempt is made on the ambassador’s life, Blake must navigate among hate groups, a conspiracy within the government, and mutual distrust to find the assassin before the hope of a treaty between the two countries is lost.

I’m working through my process, which takes a lot of preparation, but is worth it. I’m currently making full character charts for all of the characters. I have the main cast (Blake, Devik, Annika, and Shenay), the Satalan delegation, and some of the other characters done. I’m working on the suspects, who the assassin is, and other suspects. I’ll do a synopsis after that. Once that’s done, I should be able to work on my scene list.

The scene list is a blow by blow summary of everything that happens in the story. These are generally arranged as Scenes, where actions take place, and Sequels, where reactions happen. Once I have this completed, I’ll be ready to draft.

Once I get this first draft done, I’m going to go back and finish my first draft of Corruption of Blood, which is Book 3 in the series. I usually don’t work on two books at the same time, but this year has flown past me. If all goes well, I might be able to release two books in 2018!

On top of everything else, I’ve published a short story, called the Invisible, which can be found wherever e-books are sold. It’s only $0.99 for a limited time, so get it while it’s on sale!

Next week I’m going back to discussing world building, specifically dealing with the Mystic World and how this subculture affects the primary culture in the setting.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you’d like for me to discuss in the future in the comments below. See you next Sunday!