Under the Northern Lights updates!
Here’s my typical (and probably last 😭) progress update about UTNL, since it’s been about 3 weeks since I posted the last chapter.
I’ve been working on the epilogue almost every day! Along with the two drawings that go along with it, which I am SO excited to share 😁.
In addition to that, I’ve been going back through the earlier chapters, and have been doing some actual editing. Since I know some people like to wait until a story is completed before binge-reading, and/or just in case anyone ever felt like rereading, I figured I’d go through the whole story again and tighten everything up.
Nothing will change about the plot whatsoever, I just will be working on making the flow smoother and taking out really unnecessary inner monologue/backstory that is already shown in other ways. When I first started writing this story, I had only been writing for a few months, so I wasn’t even aware of the most basic writing advice such as ‘show, don’t tell,’ let alone all of the nuances of flow/syntax that I think I’ve improved on over time.
Like...I already know I have a tendency to be wordy/over explain, but when rereading those first few chapters I was like omfg Taryn...you don’t need to write that he balled his hands into fists, growled, and that he’s feeling angry...I think they get it 🤦🏻♀️ 😂. Hahaha but it’s okay, we’re all improving as we go along!
As an example, I just finished going through Chapter One and I trimmed almost 600 words while also improving the general flow, as well as occasionally tweaking the dialogue just a bit to make it more in character (now that I have the entire rest of the story written to cement those versions of Inuyasha and Kagome...which was not the case at the time I started).
It definitely will still have plenty of room to be improved further, but I had to stop somewhere for now due to time constraints. Also, my writing style I’ve established does like to dive deep into the character’s thoughts and feelings, so I didn’t want to take too much of that away.
ANYWHO
Because I’m doing all of that at once, it’s going to take a bit to wrap everything up. Ideally, I’d love to be able to post the final chapter and artwork by next weekend, but we’ll see how things go with work/life always getting in the way.
Until then...
I put a few bullet points with teasers for the epilogue under the cut!