Project Succession's story no longer makes sense, I love that I can now see that after editing it a bit!

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While I am editing this second draft, I noticed how the story doesn’t make sense with the direction I wanted to take it, along with the plot not being what I wanted.

So, the whole Succession Trial, which is a game to select a person as a new monarch if they summon a god. The greatest problem is that Aeris summons Saint Mal’gel by accident, thus learning about her royal heritage which forces her to play the game.

Now, I am only on the first book, maybe things will make sense in the second and third. I am just not convinced that it will because the whole Succession Trial and summoning a god seems forced to me, personally. It is also causing plot holes and the story to go all over the place.

Yes, I get that I am on the second draft, yet I want to tackle all of this confusion and shit before the third draft starts.

Even the Thornwood Dynasty breaking up into three main branches makes little sense, because the reason behind it is something that doesn’t tie into the story.

Though I like that this is making me realize what I NEED to do with the story. I was on the fence about if I should somehow have Saint Mal’gel and the Succession Trial fit into the story. It doesn’t, it won’t.

With that being said, I am trashing four of these things that genuinely serve zero purpose for the plot:

  1. Summoning Saint Mal’gel and the usage of him in the story (Saint Mal’gel is a god, his presence ruins the story. It’s better if he stays in the shadows, doing little to nothing, the clones as well).
  2. The Succession Trial goes away (none of the branches are fighting to take some crown, though that won’t stop the betrayal, deaths, and scandal within the dynasty).
  3. The Thornwood Dynasty being broken into three main branches (they will become a single huge family, with plenty of changes and even things added in).
  4. Aeris serves as a Knight (this was a toughie, though I needed to understand her character and how she is connected with her family. I don’t think I want her as a Knight, something else can work even better).

Aeris will still be searching for the whereabouts of her father, along with who killed her mother, which will lead her to discovering her family she never knew. Then other things will happen, deaths, betrayal, scandal, learning the royal heritage, and so much more.

Thoughts and feelings?

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@Akje
@alenatenjo
@Xelyn_Craft
@copyedit
@JojoDahlia
@NotARussianBot
@TheTigerWriter
@NatilladeCoco
@Churro

I am still going to do the story, but I need to reevaluate where I am going now that I realized this sooner.

Since I am getting rid of the four crucial things, I really do have some plotting and planning to do because of it.

Yet with the editing of the second draft, there are still some things in that draft that can work, it just needs to really be made better and give a twist for the third draft.

Also, calling the project Project Succession, isn’t too misleading, so it will stay. The title of the story will be totally different from what I originally wanted.

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Update: I know what the plot should be now!

Aeris is going through schooling to become a surgeon, who discovers bits and pieces of the death of her parents through a conversation of two mysterious people who are actually trying to find and kill her, leading her to escape and seek out her mother’s side of the family who she discovers is the imperial Thornwood Dynasty, making her a long-lost royal who everyone thought died with her parents. Drama filled mysteries and familial insanity ensues

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Yay! Sounds so interesting! I love books with tons of family drama :wink:

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I’m glad you were able to catch these things and take the story in a better direction early on. I had similar experiences with my first draft going into the second. A lot of it just doesn’t make sense until you take a step back and look at your atory objectively, but that’s what the drafting proccess is for!

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Thank ya kindly!

I know, it’s crazy!

I am so glad I realized that now because I now know what to do with the story overall.

Aeris being something other than a Knight is so refreshing. She is a college student wanting to be a surgeon, yet that will make this another challenge. LOL!

:sweat_smile:

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Anyone else?

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It often takes those “Edit Moments” that show us the way… Often I also see the minor mistakes in doing so. For one “Short Story” I found that without thought, that I had written out, not off, a character… I had to going back and forth to inject that character back into the tale before eventually finding the way to allow him to die. He was diseased and would have died anyway, but it was also more work for the rewrite of every other characters thoughts and feelings towards that character, and their motion’s to aid his suffering and his departure… And all events afterwards in memorial…

That was a lot of work, but it was a valid and needed edit…

This is often the exercise that makes out future endeavours easier to workout and often avoid in future projects. It is all good practice…

SD

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Thanks!

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Bump