The Road to Magic Arrives

The Road to Magic Arrives – It was a long struggle. Let me lay out step-by-step how I wrote and published my first fantasy.

The Road to Magic Arrives – Writing

I track all my writing of all my books in a spreadsheet. Thus, I know the date I started and the date I ended my first draft.

Start date: April 3, 2023

That’s three years ago! No wonder it felt like forever.

However, this is the beginning of the planning document. I wrote down all my ideas as ‘vignettes’ and then I organized them as an outline.

The REAL first draft was: April 19, 2023

I had to organize six plot threads, one per chapter, for 54 chapters. Whew!

When did I finish? April 2, 2025 with 111,345 words!

The Road to Magic Arrives – Editing

I rediscovered the Book Progress app in Word Press and I decided to use it to report on the progress of my first fantasy book, with the working title, Magic Arrives. The app asked me about my writing method and I decided the Snowflake method is the closest to my process. I work on multiple parts at a time. Here’s the overall structure:

• Story Structure – Done! April 19, 2023
• Characters – Done! April 2, 2025
• Scene List – Done! April 2, 2025
• First Draft – Done! April 2, 2025
• Editing – Content editing done January 26, 2026 (Line edit) – Dori Harrell
• Proofing – Done! March 31, 2026 (copy edit) – Dori Harrell
• Format edit – Done! ebook, paperback, hardback April 8, 2026 – Rik Hall
• Cover and content assembled on Amazon – done April 26, 2026 – Illustrator Sean Flanagan

Publishing on Amazon

The process looks like:

1. Upload your book contents in pdf format.
2. Upload your paperback or hardback cover spread (they’re different)
3. Review uploaded book for errors.
4. Schedule publication date. May 17th for Magic Arrives. The book is on pre-sale before that. Buy it here on Amazon:

For the ebook, the process is:

1. Upload your ebook contents in eps format.
2. Upload your front cover for the ebook icon
3. Review uploaded ebook for errors.
4. Schedule publication date. May 17th for Magic Arrives. The book is on pre-sale before that. Buy it here on Amazon:

The Road to Magic Arrives – Story Structure, the Series

So far I’m 100% complete on the Story Structure phase. I’ve captured my plot for this book, and the next two books in the triology.

Have a preview of the spines of the trilogy here.

1. Magic Arrives
2. Magic Wars
3. Magic Rules

Your Part

First, join my newsletter. I’ll give away free copies and discounts to my subscribers. Click here to join.

Next, beg, borrow, or buy a copy of Magic Arrives and read it.

Finally, leave a review! Here, on Amazon or here on Goodreads.

Leave a comment for me here.

Here are the covers: