Home Stretch 10 Chapters To Go!

Home Stretch ladies and gents! The Silver Ninja Edition 2 is finally within 10 chapters of completion and I cannot . . . freaking . . . wait!

After the rough draft is done I move onto editing which is a hell of a lot easier than coming up with brand new scenes even though I hate it.

Before we begin. Enjoy this soundtrack while you read:

To get this close to the end is an extremely exciting moment. It gives you that push you need to power through the final chapters and the energy to write until four in the morning. To celebrate, I’m going to finally share little tidbits of what I’ve done to the book and how it’s going to blow your mind.

Don’t worry, no spoilers were included in the making of this post.

Let’s start off with the core identity of the book. I have done everything in my power to make this a brand new experience even for readers who completed the first book. On the outside, the plot looks similar. Meek woman turns into a mighty superheroine and uses her fancy, high-tech suit to save lives and terrorize criminals while trying to stop a plot to take over the government.

Oh but it’s so much more than that, so much more. Meek woman also happens to be someone who was traumatized by her past in the police force. The relationship between her and her husband becomes strained and the more she uses the suit, the more she isolates herself from those she loves. Where did the suit even come from? Why are people accusing her of murder?

 

OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH BETTER NOW!

 

Though I’ve tried my best to be transparent with how much work I’ve put into this edition, it’s really hard to encapsulate in a blog. And yes, I will be super bummed if the readers still think I failed to make the characters likeable and interesting. I mean, how would you feel if you worked  your hardest at something and everyone said, “Yeah . . . don’t quit your day job.”

Anyway, because this is essentially going to be a brand new book. I’m testing out a new artist to bring a fresh new female perspective to the mix. It will be my second time hiring a female artist and I’m really curious to see if she’ll be the one for the book cover. Expect to see new artwork before the end of the summer!

Okay now for the parts you guys are curious about. Exactly what has changed that will make this book worth picking up? Will this alienate fans of the original?

I’m no psychic. So I can’t tell you if some fans will feel alienated. Yes, I did cut down on some of the action scenes and put more focus on character and plot development. I know most readers enjoy my action scenes and I love writing them but I needed to make the action more meaningful. I made this choice to cut down on butt kicking because I wanted to know more about who Cindy’s husband Jonas was. I also wanted the villain and Michael to feel less two dimensional and in order to do that, I needed them to have their own scenes. So in the choice between character development and action, I chose character development.

 

Besides, what’s the point of having an awesome action scene if you don’t care if the character lives or dies? It wasn’t a difficult decision either. I just had to remind myself how bored I was watching the Transformers movies.

 

In order to create character development, I utilized a technique from my second book The Silver Ninja: Indoctrination. I added new POV’s to take us out of Cindy’s head. Now as the reader you get to see why Jonas obsessed to create the suit, why Michael chose to keep secrets from his friend, what drove our villain to enact his plan, and why Cindy became a shell of who she once was.

I’ve also fleshed out some secondary characters which only had one or two scenes in the 1st Edition. Previously, I only gave you a glimpse of Cindy’s partner on the force. Edition 2 now features a detailed backstory that fills gaps with interesting bits of history that tie directly to the plot.

Speaking of backstory, a lot of people hate flashbacks (me included). In most cases they tend to be an excuse for the author to write exposition that help build the world but don’t move the plot. What I’ve done is a similar technique that was used in Adam by Ted Dekker

I’ve tied the backstory directly into the plot, creating parallel stories that connect at specific junctures. Events that happen in Cindy’s past are immediately or eventually reflected into the modern day. Questions like, Why do the cops hate Cindy? Why is she obsessed with finding a specific individual? What illness does she have that other characters are alluding to? All get answered in the backstory.

I’ve also addressed complaints with plot holes, continuity errors, and Cindy feeling useless despite having super powers (lack of agency). To fix this, every single scene is driven by cause and effect.

Cause: Cindy mysteriously inherits a weapon that gives her super powers.

Effect: She starts investigating where the suit came from.

Cause: Jonas is out of money and can’t afford to pay the hospital bills or the mortgage.

Effect: He sacrifices his company and finds a 9 to 5 job so that he could pay the bills.

I’m not going to say that a plot hole won’t pop up somewhere, after all I am human, but I will say that I have taken my time to make sure the plot is solid. I will deceive you, excite you, scintillate you, and hopefully hook you into wanting to read more.

There will be themes of female empowerment. One woman, petite in size, fighting up against three brutes without the aid of super powers.

Themes of forbidden love where a man develops a crush on a married woman that could cause rifts in her marriage.

Themes of family, where a sister’s love and support helps her sibling who is on the verge of suicide.

Writing this book has forced me to take the hundreds of hours I invested into reading, practicing, learning, and more importantly writing, to finally bring this book to the level of quality I wanted it to be in the first place.

It will probably be listed as Sci-Fi Action when it goes up on sale but it’s so much more than that.

The Silver Ninja 2nd edition goes beyond technology and punching faces. It’s a story of what desperate people are willing to do to right the wrongs they see with the world. How a husband refuses to share his burdens with his wife and wants to solve everything on his own and be the man of the household. How a woman who can’t look at herself in the mirror is forced to stare back and accept who she is and what she’s become.

It may be a superheroine book but it’s a superheroine book about real people and their real problems.

 

I can’t wait to show you what’s coming next.

Wilmar Luna

Wilmar Luna

Couldn't be a superhero in real life so he decided to write his own. When he's not creating empowered female characters he can be found watching films, reading books, and playing lots of video games. Buy his books here: https://www.thesilverninja.com/purchase/