The Dragon's Spine

Today I finished the "first draft" of the story I was working on (the working title was Krullus, but the actual title will be) The Dragon's Spine. It also went from a short story to a novella. It seems I seriously underestimated the length of the story, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

It needs a few runs through the editing machine, but so far I'm quite happy with it. The editing process, I think, should be fairly painless this time around, partially due to the length (it weighs in at just over 13,000 words), and partially due to the way it was written.

With The Dragon's Spine I was really editing as I was writing. Initially, as I was sitting down to write for the day, I would start at the beginning, reading and editing as I went, to get the creative juices well and truly flowing, as well as to tighten the whole thing up. As things progressed, I would start at a story break, rather than at the beginning. When I reached the end of the "editing" part, I found I just flowed straight into the writing for the day. It was quite seamless. It was also a good way to write, at least for me, on this particular story.

So, what's it about?

The story is set in the Eria universe, several hundred years before the novel. It focuses on a young warrior Krullus, and his two companions - a mage, Aldor, and a rogue, Nystar, and their trip to The Dragon's Spine Mountains. Rumors abound about the mountains, and Krullus, having found no one that claims to have been to the mountains, decides to go there himself. Why has no one else been there before? Is there really a dragon under the mountain?

I'm not going to give away any more than that - where would the fun in that be?

I will say, however, that I went in to the final phases of the story with two possible endings in mind, and in the end (after a fashion) used both. Yeah - I didn't think it was possible, but it was, and it worked, I think. I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks when it hits the Kindle bookshop!