I’ve been working on my fiction book again!
The Legend of Taro is an epic fantasy adventure novel inspired by stories like The Alchemist, Spirited Away, and Big Fish but involving magic and anime-style sword fights against demons settled against a background of Japanese-folklore.
My working premise is currently:
In a world losing the ability to dream, a fisherman named Taro must follow his own to defeat a dark presence spreading across the land.
I wrote the first draft as a stream-of-thought experiment over the course of three months. After tinkering with it for a year, I sent it off to an editor and finally heard back last August. Since then, I’ve been busy with life (teaching and practicing movement, finding a girlfriend(!), and endless procrastination), but it’s now time to resume the journey.
My Overall Struggle
The hardest part of this project has been figuring out what the story is actually about. That might sound crazy, but since I started writing with no real direction, finding that direction has been a challenge.
At first I thought I might write a story similar to Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse. It’s a story about a boy who travels far from his cloister in search of the meaning of life and runs into troubles along the way. My story begins with a fisherman, so I figured he might take a similar direction. I was wrong.
I also had the thought beforehand that I’d write a novel in the magical-realism genre, something similar to my favorite author Haruki Murakami. While my story began as grounded in realism, it gradually lost touch with the real world and bled more and more into the fantastical.
Steering the course and deciding on a direction proved futile in advance, but eventually the story has chosen for me. Ultimately, I’ve ended up with an epic fantasy story set against a background of magic, swords, and Japanese folklore.
At this point, it was time to get some help from the outside…
Hiring an Editor
I hired an editor for many reasons. I’ve found there’s nothing more helpful than inquiring the guidance of someone much more skilled and experienced than myself. Hiring a professional isn’t cheap, but it’s worth it. I went with the same editor for my first book, The Trail Provides. Her name is Brianna.
When I sent my first draft to Brianna, I felt stuck. I knew the story wasn’t great, the pieces didn’t fully fit together, and it needed a ton of work.
I received more than I could have asked for.
Brianna sent me three extremely useful documents:
1) My manuscript filled to the brim with in-line edits
2) A content review – an overview of everything wrong with the story
3) Recommended outline – a proposed summary and restructuring of the plot
All in all, these documents helped me to take steps again toward working on the story. I finally felt refreshed and knew what to work on. At least I had some direction, some clarity.
My Editor’s Feedback
Brianna uncovered three major issues in my story:
The lack of depth in character building – Most of my secondary characters were not fully fleshed out. They lacked names, detailed motivations, and brief histories. I need to give these characters some love, immerse myself in their world, and make sure readers have reasons to care about them.
The lack of depth and consistency in setting (World building) – My story bounces back and forth between western/modern and eastern/traditional settings. That’s a problem. I’ll scale back to traditional settings. The settings need the same treatment given to primary and secondary characters. They need unique histories, customs, and ways of life. Each setting should offer Taro some kind of tool to aid in his journey.
The plot – The story currently has two major sections of trials toward the middle and end of the book. These trials would better be suited to be combined into one. I’ll need to cut and integrate some earlier chapters to make sure the plot keeps flowing.
The above is just the tip of the iceberg. Smaller areas for improvement include: the story needing a cohesive magic system, more descriptive writing, tying untied threads, maintaining a consistent narrative perspective, and much much more. I’ll adjust all of the above in my second draft.
Where I’m At
I’m currently working my way through the line-edits, on page 23/174 of a 83k word manuscript (roughly 13% complete).
I haven’t addressed much of the major issues listed above. I’m simply rewriting certain confusing bits and deleting the unnecessary bits when noted.
I’ve been slowly removing elements of the story that are wasteful, unnecessary, and unessential to moving the plot forward, or tied together with greater themes of the story.
One example: originally, I had a character named Suki arrive at the river and lead Taro beyond the river, preparing him for entry into the Dark Forest. It turns out that whole journey away from the river delayed Taro’s facing of the Dark Forest and also took away from his own autonomy. That has now changed.
More and more is set to be cut. Entire characters, scenes, and chapters. While at times disappointing to see past efforts deleted, I know it will make the story better. What’s left will offer me clarity on expanding the essential parts of the story, writing descriptively to immerse the reader into the story. Plus, not everything goes to waste. Just as all parts of a slain horse are used to make foods, hides, and glues, all parts of a story can be equally repurposed and reshaped.
Words of Encouragement
Brianna offered me some words of encouragement at various points in her feedback. Here are quotes some that stood out:
“I really believe in your story, so I wanted to give you everything I had.“
“In your updated chapters, I saw a lot of improvement in your craft from the chapters I saw in the beginning.”
“This was an excellent effort, and you did the right thing by getting a content evaluation first. This book could be very, very good when you are done with it. I believe in this story, and I believe in you!”
While the content evaluation was extremely critical in the best way, the new direction provided encouragement. With a lot more work, I can attempt to craft what remains into a meaningful and worthwhile story.
All it took was a little push…
I look forward to sharing more with you as it arises.
If you want to stay updated and informed on it’s launch, you can subscribe to this blog.
Much Love,
David
This blogpost is part III in an ongoing series of AuthorLog Book Updates:
I. I Started Writing a Fiction Book (Dec 2023)
II. The Story of my Upcoming Fiction Book (Aug 2025)
III. The Legend of Taro (Dec 2025)