Helljumper: Reconstruction

After many days, weeks, even months now, of not working on Helljumper, it's time to turn that around.

"But I thought Helljumper: Lunar Void was finished?" is probably what some of you might be saying. This is true. I did indeed complete the story. And at the time of its completion, I was extremely satisfied with it. But after taking a break from working on it while querying agents and publishers, I got some rather useful criticism and self realization.

The criticism was from a fellow friend and a customer at my old job (who is also a successful published author). The self realization came from working on a different, new novel for another planned trilogy I'm going to work on after I'm finished the Helljumper series. You see, I wrote the short version of Origins, the prequel to the Catalyst Legacy, which I used for a writing competition, and I had my unofficial editor (a friend of mine) read it through. And he, someone who is extremely picky about finding mistakes, got too enthralled in the story and ended up ignoring the mistakes and just wanted to read it. Needless to say, he really enjoyed it. I also showed it to a few other friends, and that published author whom I shall not name for privacy purposes. They all read it and loved it, all commenting that they were reading something which had the quality of something they'd expect to be already published.

Seriously! To have written something and then told that it was THAT good! It made my day each and every one of those days. And that's where the self realization came from. I compared my new story to Helljumper: Lunar Void. Lunar Void is awesome, it's my first true work of art. But in comparison to Origins? It lacks a significant amount of detail and quality storytelling. Yeah, I just said that about my own book that I spent almost 5 years working on. I'll admit it, though. Writers say that once the first book has been finished, that's the biggest milestone for any writer, because right after that your writing gets so much better and writing a second book is so much easier.

So this is where I begin Helljumper: Reconstruction. Tonight! I dine! In!...my living room. (...*cough*) Then I will start my fourth and final revision of Lunar Void. If people who thought that Lunar Void was awesome, well...you'll be in for a huge surprise.

The gears have already started turning. Let the writing begin.