When I began this chapter, I was thinking the midpoint of act two was a big event in a chapter later in the outline. As I worked, I was also studying, again, character change arc concepts. An epiphany struck: the character change arc I had designed for this story focused on symptoms instead of causes.
While the protagonist’s three character dimensions defined in the story design are correct, a reevaluation of the character change arc revealed the correct Lie the protagonist believes and the Truth he needs to accept and pointed to this chapter as being the midpoint of act two.
Now, the 53,000 words that are the first half of this draft of book 5 need to be edited to apply this new understanding. This epiphany also affects the series change arc and the change arcs in each book of the series. Therefore, the 440,000 words in the drafts of the first four books need to also be reworked.
The net effect: better stories, after a lot of editing.
“You are not the boss of me.”
I stared at the Dragon, pondering his unexpected words, and feeling his aggravation through our bond.
“No, I’m not your boss. We’re partners.”
“You do not treat me as a partner. You treat me as if you own me.”
“You’re my Dragon.”
“You are not the boss of me.”
Draft Book 5 Chapter 15 Pages and Word Cloud