April 2025 Camp NovMo: The Lost Dragon

Hello, and welcome to my corner of YWS where I'm working on what will hopefully be the final rewrite of this story. I'm not waiting for April to roll around -- I've been working on it since the start of this year. Currently, the story sits at about 27k with 11 chapters and we're close to being finished with Act 1/3.

At present, I'd like to write at least 30k in April. That's the low-bar goal. The mid-bar is to finish Act 2, and the high-bar goal is to finish the draft. Tiering goals like this helps me feel like I have something achievable, but it also motivates me to keep going and not stop at it.

We'll see if I can finish Act 1 by the end of March. So, then Act 2 would be what's on the plate for April.

What are the vibes, you ask?


Have you ever had to rebuild everything you know and believe from scratch? Have you ever faced the consequences of your actions and realized you aren't the hero everyone said you were? Have you ever had to reinvent yourself while everyone else is trying to shape you into their own image?

Then maybe you'll be able to empathize with the main character, James Hawke, who's struggling to do the same. The stakes are high. James has already made history once: the question is if he's willing to make it again.

YOU GOTTT ITTTTT!!!
FINAL REWRITE PROGRESS LETS GOOO!!! <3

"spaghetti-western fantasy" is totally accurate and I LOVE IT

CHEERING YOU ON !!!! <33

Oooo I love this topic!

I love the idea of tiering goals and I think I tend to do that too. 30k is CRAZY to someone like me but you’ve already came so far and I’m sure you’ve got this!!!

I totally love the vibes, btw. Spaghetti western and themes of redemption are some of my favorites. I’m especially excited to hear more about James’ character arc!

YOU GOT THIS break a legggggg!!! <3

This project looks AMAZING, legit. Spaghetti western fantasy? I cannot tell you how much I love that combination.

Keep at it! This April is going to be amazing.

Sike! That's a trick question that nobody asked. It's both! Sort of. You see, I am an artist and a writer and I refuse to be kept within the bounds of choosing visual or written storytelling, so I'm combining both. I'm using graphic novel pages to show flashbacks as a literary element in the story, so if you were expecting just to read: now you can also expect to look! Which... involves reading, but you know what I mean.

Perhaps this makes you curious. Curious to see some art, that is? None of it is fully finished in a polished sense. In the same way that this is still a draft, the comic pages will also remain drafts until the script for them is finalized, because I'd rather work smarter and not harder. Drawing takes more time for me!

Here's a big splash page with no context. <3 If you want context you'll just have to read the WIP I guess. (If you demand I hand over the link to you I will give it. Probably.)




Fantastic. Yes, I have written music inspired by this story and the world it's set in. If you are interested in hearing my original music (though some if it is older, now) you can check it out in this playlist I have on SoundCloud!

As for perhaps more accessible playlists with story vibes, here is a youtube playlist with songs I associate with this story.

Squealing over here with the art tease! <3333

So I have not finished Act 1 but I have reached 30k, insert salute emoji.

My favorite jaded cowboy dude who has a million fake names!! I’m so excited for you that you’ve reached your last rewrite of The Lost Dragon. You’ve worked hard on it for so long, and I enjoyed reading it in a previous draft. And the graphic novel elements?? How cool and fitting for you, I’m looking forward to all of it and the MUSIC <3

Wait do you want to query this at some point?
If you do -- Francesca Zappia might be a good comp author for you!! She's also an artist and has included original art in her books as well. Her first couple of books are YA contemporary and then she switched to YA horror.
Disregard if you're not looking at traditional publishing, but if you are there's kind of a prescient for what you're doing which Publishing People like to see lol.

this is so multimedia and i adore it o.o :3 and final rewrite?? exciting !! all the best, sound!

Oh!! @Carlito! I am considering traditional publishing! Is comp author short for uh… comparison author? I… don’t know things

soundofmind wrote:Oh!! @Carlito! I am considering traditional publishing! Is comp author short for uh… comparison author? I… don’t know things

Awesome!! And yes!
When you eventually write a query letter you should include at least two "comparable titles" of relatively recently published books that your book has similarities too -- basically showing where your book would fit into the existing market. But you can do things like THE LOST DRAGON would appeal to fans of This Author and This Series. Or THE LOST DRAGON includes original artwork similar to that of Francesca Zappia novels and can be described as THIS BOOK meets THIS BOOK. Stuff like that!

THE PROGRESS SO FAR:

- Completed chapter 14
- Ch. 14 included 3 comic pages, which took the bulk of the past few days. I had to look up references. Madness

That's it so far. Thumbs up emoji, but hopefully I'll finish part 1 soon lol. Also, I realized idk how to count word count with comic pages: because they count, just not as numbers of words...?

EDIT: Sike, I just wrote 2.3k words and finished Ch 15