The Second Novel Bloat (I’m Not 1,000 Pages, I’m Big Spined)

Second-book inflation is a real thing in the world of fantasy novels. It can happen when the author feels obligated to be bigger and better than their first go-round, or because figuring the page count of a novel isn’t easy when you haven’t actually written a sentence yet. I’ve read series where the author clearly got so caught up in their own world-building that they forgot to maintain the narrative thread to keep readers’ interest. I’ve also read sagas that I loved where each book in the series was bigger than the last.

Of course, it’s also possible to go in the opposite direction with this. An author can decide to write three books, and the final one in the series has a lot of threads to wrap up, so the author needs an extra 150 pages–200 tops–to finish everything up satisfactorily. And then they rush the ending because they want to keep all three novels around the same size. Or don’t want to be accused of “lingering” at the end.

Personally, I think a book should be as long as it needs to be. If the story is good and the pacing keeps me turning the pages, I can guarantee I won’t be put off by the page count, whether it’s 150 or 1,500. That being said, if the story is good and the pacing keeps me turning the pages…could I have more pages, please? No, this doesn’t mean I want filler about how richly detailed a tapestry is with all 74 years of its history and where it has been showcased in the castle, nor am I interested in minor characters who have no bearing on any of the main heroes or the plot. 

Just, you know, more of the good stuff.

Storm Clouds Gather is shaping up to be bigger than Prelude to the Storm, but I have all these super legitimate reasons why that is. For reals. PttS was, in essence, a prologue designed to introduce the reader to three different protagonists who are going to try and stop an awful, awful thing from happening. I wanted my audience to see the strengths and weaknesses of Imar, Kitoor, and Garith and get a feeling for who these characters were and what made them heroes.

Yes, there are also seeds of disaster being sown and dark hints of what might be coming, but in essence, it’s the story of three heroes being heroic in their own unique ways. Poor Garith didn’t even get to show off his fighting chops; they were just hinted at around the edges.

And there you have it! Book I of The Storm Cycle starring three dudes, each in a controlled, unsophisticated (one might even say remote, or frontier) community, running into some trouble. 

Storm Clouds Gather, however, is a completely different animal. We’re going to border towns where different cultures clash, and the capital of two kingdoms in one giant city where two sets of monarchs reign. We’re going to the Kingdom of the Vansernic and the Orman Perisie Nations and then the center of the might of Darg before ending up near the southern peninsula. And friends...that’s a lot of travel and a lot of culture.

On the plus side, all of this has existed in my head for decades, but on the minus side, I have to codify everything that (at least to me) is “common knowledge” and make sure that it’s presented to my readers in a consistent and intelligent manner. And this means I have to make sure that I have my ducks in a row with graces as currency (along with gold), the architecture of seats of power when royalty can spend money like it’s water, realistic anatomy of creatures that were never in the Bestiary or Monster Manual, and borrow or create weapons for all these cultures that makes logical sense with a recognizably organic history reflecting each polity’s inherent nature. 

And now I see where some of this bloat can come from as a fantasy (or sci-fi) world expands. As an author, I’m exhaustively researching the most esoteric stuff you can think of (Did you know that insects breathe through spiracles and don’t have lungs at all?) to ensure that all these weird races make biological sense. Did you know hens have Sperm Storage Tubules (SSTs) that help them fertilize eggs laid over multiple weeks from a single mating? Gross!

Most of this research comes from a deep-seated need to NOT have things in place that can be explained with the word “magic”. Yes, it exists in Auren, and yes, the gods will be performing a minimum of one miracle per book, but that doesn’t mean I want logic thrown out the door. Books or series that rely on magic/gods as their answer to everything make me, as a reader, believe in the world less, and I want everyone who reads The Storm Cycle to feel Auren in all of its wonder surround them. Logically.

And with all the research I’ve done, I want to share it with you. Look, you guys! The Komodo dragon, which can weigh over 200 pounds, can sprint faster than the average human! Don’t you want to see how I applied that real-world logic to my fantasy-world reptilian humanoids?

Of course you don’t. More story, less bloat.

So, as a responsible author, you have to walk that line between making your world unique and logical and “real” without falling prey to the trap of wanting to constantly reinvent the wheel. "Sure, there are catapults and ballistae in the real world, but my fantasy series has these siege engines, which are soooooo cool and unique. And did you see my stagecoach? It’s pulled by mongooses! Yeah, that’s right. Eat your heart out, Tolkien!"

Finally, we get to the beating heart of my dilemma. The Storm Cycle was never supposed to be about three dudes protecting Auren from an evil god. There is a big cast of characters, and they all have their parts to play. Some have smaller parts than others, yes, but I still want them to feel three-dimensional to everyone, not just “Silly Dwarf #4” or “Haughty Elf #2”. 

I’ve been blessed to hear back from many of my readers about some of the minor characters, and I've been humbled by how “real” they found them to be. Kral isn’t just a big, hulking chieftain; he’s insightful, capable of long-range thinking, and able to act silly when the moment calls for it. Shalith garnered some love from the audience for how she was able to be intense when things were getting grim, yet still found time to trade barbs with a broken-nosed would-be thief.

With Storm Clouds Gather, our heroes will be joined by a pair of Vansernic, a powerful votary of Tarzha’s, two Perisie, and another Child of The Beast. Maybe even this Chosen One who, I’m pretty sure, must be in every fantasy series. And I need all of them to be as real as the Warlord’s colorful metaphors. 

All of a sudden, our cozy get-together is getting a little crowded. 

The trick is going to be to not rush anyone’s introduction or shortchange the narrative, but also not to bore you with the backstory of every character’s distraught childhood, abandoned dream, or first pet–even though I will absolutely know all of those things so that you’ll feel their well-roundedness without being bogged down by it.

All in all, it’s going to be a bit of a daunting task to thread that needle and hit the sweet spot in length without anything feeling rushed or unnecessarily drawn out. Although the process is speeding up as more and more backgrounds and history become canon in my “Auren Reference Guide” (or whatever I’ll end up calling it), I’m still going to take off two days this month from my day job to try and get caught up to my time deadlines so that I’m not rushing to get SCG out on December 31st of 2027 to make sure it comes out “one year” after PttS.

When all is said and done, friends, you should have a well-paced and right-sized novel ready for you next year. Whether that novel ends up a svelte 500-page or a super-curvy 900-page novel, however, remains to be seen.

All artwork by Forge. Copyright Leonard J. Chastain 2026