Faded Fragments: A Nexus Series Novel

Faded Fragments.

Two words that came to me after I decided to change the original name of my novel (fyi it was first dubbed Kiss of The Dead and I used the font Papyrus to write it.) I was 14 when the story first came to mind. It started with a scene and to be honest it started as a result of finally seeing The Mummy and falling more in love with Ancient Egyptian mythology (and a young Brendan Fraser…let’s be real, Rick was and still is the dreamiest man ever).

The first draft of FF was messy, it was incomplete and was just a scene with minimal action and lots of dialogue. I have never had a problem with dialogue, the only real problem I had came from making them all sound the same because I didn’t understand the different nuances of speech enough.

The scene that started it all is still in the novel today, it is shortened, it has fewer made up words in it and more put together. I still really dig it. I wonder if you would be able to figure it out after you’ve read the story.

Faded Fragments started off as a single-character narration and a single book. I never knew that moving states and studying further would uncover the story more. And it was always there, waiting to be discovered but I just had to be open to it. The Nexus Series didn’t get its name until maybe 2015. And even then I had a great idea to change it again but that idea has since flown away. I think I liked it more too…oh well.

The first full draft of FF happened in 2013. It was during NaNo. It was the first time I wrote The End and felt some sort of relief because it was draft 4 by then. And right now? We’re probably at Draft 7 or something like that.

And I think because it’s at this point I didn’t care too much going into the editing process – i mean i cared but it wasn’t like I was about to break into a puddle of nothing. And yeah that’s dramatic, but I’m always taken back to when I handed in a short story at uni and it was completely ripped into. Picture this: I was in a new state and I didn’t know anyone in my class very well and I remember the pain of getting my story completed shredded and I cried when I got back to my room. I had never felt that sort of pain before when it came to my writing, but I needed it. It needed it. I reworked the story and was able to come out swinging with a better version that was much needed and it was in fact the first Distinction I got at uni and always the one that I remember so vividly. I proceeded to make it a podcast with my lecturer and because it was new to me, it was on Soundcloud, but it’s not missing in the aether, which is sad. I have it somewhere, I’m sure of it. But I’m no stranger to the editing process and just how much it can ruin your spirit, going into professional editing didn’t scare me. I was excited about it.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer amount of rewriting I had to do. And the way I had to refine it in a different way. It was probably the most difficult part of the whole story. I feel like writers need to talk more about just how much of a beast edits are. Because no one talks enough about it. I got through the copy edits and the line edits. They took me some time, more time than they should but I was planning a wedding, two engagements and working through a major TV show for my day job.

Once the developmental edits were done, I had to wait for the last bit of edits, which were more line edits and copy edits. But then it was up to proof edits and they were a whole different kettle of fish. No one talks about just how much goes into the editing process, just that it gets done, but proof edits were different. I have a lovely proof editor (in fact my developmental editor was so great too) that it was really easy. I procrastinated more than I needed to because I was scared and once I got through a lot of the edits it got easier, there were a few things I disagreed with but they were tiny things, it was more that I had started peppering in a major plot point but that’s ok, editing is subjective and you can take or leave whatever is on the page.

I also did beta reading backwards…I had all of the edits and various parts had feedback. I went out on insta and asked for some people to beta read for me and the feedback so far has actually been so great. I’m tweaking my very last scene and then the books is done.

21 years of back and forth, of sitting with the idea, pasuing, exploring and finally pulling it apart and bringing it back together and here we are. At the end of the road.

Faded Fragments is the first book in the series of 6. And I can’t wait for you to meet the characters. Come on the journey of what they have been through, but most of all, I can’t wait to get this book out in the world.

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Tell me, are you writing a book? I mean of course you are, but are there some burning questions that you want answered, leave them in the comments.