One of the things that had been nagging at me for the last several chapters was that the most important aspect of the story–God!–was being neglected. I feel very strongly that if you’re going to write a Christian story–Mike, then you’d better make sure you’re not just throwing in enough window dressing at it to fit it into a category. At the same time I didn’t want to force something in where it didn’t belong. But the moment I wrote Dougerty’s line about the Wanderer in the last chapter I knew I had my opening. My main goal in dedicating a full chapter to this mysterious new character is to plant a flag letting everyone know that this story…that seems to be about a wizard, and magic, and knights, and a giant lizard–dragon, is really about one true thing. Their world, like ours, needs the Lord. So, let’s see if I even came close to pulling that off?
It’s funny, sometimes when I write something even though it comes out pretty much like I envisioned it, it’s still not what I wanted it to be. Overall, I’ll likely keep this chapter, and keep the events and characters the same too. What I wasn’t thrilled with was the lack of impact, both from just having the Wander stop by–even though he’s supposed to be a big deal, he wasn’t a big deal, and from his story, which was also a little underwhelming. I do like him, and I like his story, I just need to do a better job of writing both of them. If I can turn up the volume on those two aspects I think this chapter will have severed it’s purpose and leave the readers asking some very important questions, like…“Who is this guy?”
My best to you and yours,
Mike
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