History of the Story: Sun Slayer & Once Immortal

This write-up is dedicated to one of my writer friends and beta readers. I was delighted when they expressed interest in my writing process. This piece is for them and any writer second-guessing whether they’re doing things the “right” way.

Sun Slayer

My dark eastern fantasy about childhood friends separated by political tragedy, seen partly through the eyes of the villain’s son, ended up around 174k words long (about 600 printed pages) after over 18 drafts and taking several years to materialize.

Pre-2019

Sun Slayer emerged from a mean tangle of world building snippets I developed for an old web game, a short story, and a 2014 draft of about 35,000 words. I still recognize the character names, but not their purpose in the story.

Draft 1 (~2019)

Sun Slayer began as a school meets (crappy) political intrigue novel set during the violent collapse of a kingdom.

Draft 4 (2020)

This is the draft I sent to my first round of beta readers (S, M, and B). Did you know that the final version of Sun Slayer ends on the same line as this draft? It was one of the few elements of Sun Slayer which remained unchanged ever since.

Draft 9 (2021)

This draft was sent to sent to beta reader E. The biggest takeaway from this round of feedback had to do with the novel’s structure: the story began after the inciting incident, leading me to relay a lot of plot information through flashbacks which disrupted the pacing/flow.Draft 13 (2023) This is the last draft which was seen by beta readers, 3 critique swaps (J, T, G).

Main change: I expanded and reworked the novel structure to be chronological. This draft essentially grew 30-50% in word count from the last. One of my readers made a comment/suggestion which inspired me to overhaul of the second half of the book by changing the main PoV.

Draft 18 (2024)

Sun Slayer was released in summer following multiple rounds of line edits and polishing.

Once Immortal

Once Immortal is a tribute book to my parents and teachers, and I was at a point in life when they were often on my mind. This book is a short and sweet (~82k words) whimsical fantasy, a humorous adventure + academy fantasy seen through the mentor’s PoV.

Draft 1 (2023)

I started writing Once Immortal in 2023 as I was wrapping up work on Sun Slayer. The early chapters began as little vignettes I came up with while taking the train/bus during morning commute.

Drafts 2 & 3 (2024-2025)

A lot of fleshing out “empty” scenes and tweaking a few plot points.

Draft 4 (2025)

After beta reading feedback, I made some limited-scope but impactful developmental tweaks to make certain events feel less out-of-the-blue and more aligned with the protagonist’s character

Draft 5+ (2026)

Primarily line edits, polishing, clarity tweaks, polishing

Closing Thoughts

I think multiple factors led to the different processes between Sun Slayer and Once immortal. They were obviously very different projects, even from conception. Sun Slayer, my dark epic fantasy, was a massive, ambitious project involving multiple PoVs and serious themes. The book required multiple outlines and significant rewrites over many years, a process which took its emotional toll. I don’t regret a moment of the experience and am proud of the final Sun Slayer, but I was burnt out and wanted to reconnect with writing through something light-hearted, exploratory, and most importantly, fun.

Once Immortal was just me exploring interactions and ideas which felt interesting, heartwarming, or reminded me of my parents/teachers. No outlines, no massive structural changes. Unlike the more careful deliberation required to craft the plot-dense and scheming-filled narrative of Sun Slayer, the simpler nature of Once Immortal gave me the space to loosen up a little and “flow” with the words as well as the main character’s personal journey.

I suspect a writer’s approach colors their work, even if subtly. Once Immortal won’t feel like Sun Slayer because these books had distinct goals and emerged from almost opposite writing philosophies. There’s something special about experiencing the results as a writer. I had a chance to explore a new style and push myself to examine new themes and moods.

While I am somewhat nervous about how my readers will receive the differences between Sun Slayer and Once Immortal, I hope they will see each book as I did: an invitation to let me surprise them and to embark on a new adventure.