Day 1 of Rewriting Lust

Yesterday, I decided to start a week early with the Book in a Month.  Today focus was writing a one sentence summary of my book.  The purpose is that when I go to write or rewrite in my case, that all the elements of the novel tie into that summary.  Lust (the title of my novel for those who don’t know), is an urban fantasy mystery/thriller.    In Lust, their is a killer who targets families and sexually assualts them.  Yes, I know, that’s pretty dark, which is why it’s for adults who like CSI, Criminal Minds, Bones, SVU.  The novel itself doesn’t get graphic with these scenes, the reader becomes informed of the graphic nature of the crimes, but there is no graphic scenes.

The other part of day one is mapping out story ideas.  I already worked on reducing some of the concepts and simplifying the rules of this particular universe.  Over the years, as my interest grew in other novels, anime, and television shows, the focus of the novel has changed.  Now it’s based on three works.  The setting is inspired by the anime Fairy Tail, although it takes place in modern time, making my book series an Urban Fantasy.  The series plot is similar to the Men in Black movie/comic book franchise.  The difference is that instead of aliens, I’m writing about ghosts and psychics.  This is what gives my series the mystery and police procedural elements. The characters are inspired by my college friends and RWBY.

The central theme or motif of Favor of Ares is Greek Mythology.  Then there is the context, which is based on parapsychology.  Those two elements together are what help shape the universe of Favor of Ares.  Along with the plot, setting, and characters, being somewhat fleshed out, I was able to map out the main story idea, the inciting incident, and turning point.  Now, again, I already knew what they were, but now during the rewrite, I can work on introducing the characters more slowly and changing the location of the inciting incident.

I went through all of chapter 1 and fixed grammatical and concept errors.  Taking the advice from two published authors/creators who read it, I made the chapter more gripping and less “chewing the scenery.”

Art wise I’m still studying Mastering Manga, but I’m also trying to merge the manga style with the DC animated style.  In order to create my own.  I drew and digitally colored David Bostick and Crystal Carroll, which I will upload on my Deviantart Page and my portfolio page.