By the way, I think this is the 6th time I wrote a book that hit 200 pages. The first was AP3's 1st draft, second was an unfinished zombie story, third was an alien invasion story, fourth was AP4's first draft, fifth was AP2's second draft. I don't think I'm forgetting another book, at least I hope not.
It's also going to be interesting to compare the length for the published versions of first 3 AP books. AP3 will absolutely be the longest in the series.
I'm now 204 pages into the second draft, which is 20 pages since the last update. Not only did I manage to do the same amount as last week, I also made it over 200 pages. I started the second draft since the end of March, so I managed to do over 200 pages in about 2 and a half months. The progress I've been making is very encouraging and it's been great to get so much work done consistently each week. But there is still much work to do and I'm now on page 8 of the outline, meaning 143 pages are left. This has been a behemoth of a project.
I'm still on Brazil, but the action has kicked off. I don't know if I'll finish the segment this week. In the OG draft, it was a very long segment. I think in the second draft, it will…
So I'm now 142 pages into the second draft, 11 pages since the last update. It seems I keep writing 2 pages less each week. I did drop the ball this week and got distracted with other stuff. However, I did complete two briefing chapters and wrote the chapter that introduced Dimitri Mayakovsky, another brother in the Mayakovsky family. He plays a larger role later on in the book. There's also another large segment coming up with Sipho and team that's set in Brazil. A new villain will be introduced there that will cause the team a lot of problems.
I need to refocus and get back to writing more pages. It has been nearly 5 years since publishing AP2 and there hasn't been a new AP since. Any fans of mine deserve to have a new entry as soon as possible. I want to have AP3 out before AP1's…
I'm now at 118 pages in AP3's second draft, which is 15 pages since the last update. I did say it was likely that I would end up writing less than last week. This time around, the difficulty was with a mission set in Ukraine. If you remember at the end of AP2, Sipho and team were on their way to an outpost Merlov Krachenko had in Pripyat, Ukraine. So, this mission was them finally reaching that outpost. They do run into some complications, but I had a hard time figuring out what sort of problems they should face. I do look at my first draft constantly to see how the original versions of scenes played out. Despite both versions having the same time and location, they both play out very differently. I did end up working through a lot of the mission, but I'm not done writing it yet.…
I will be taking a long break before starting the second draft of AP3. Like I said in the last update, I did a lot of work on the AP series this year. I like to game, but I had to do a lot less of it in order to work on AP. By looking at the first two AP books, you can see that I put a lot of effort into this series. AP3 will be a massive endeavor, and so will AP4 when I get to work on its second draft.
I also have another standalone book that I started in 2023 but haven't finished yet. I want to return to work on that and if I keep the same momentum I had with AP4, I can finish it very quickly. I'm also thinking about writing a quick blog post about AP3/AP4. It has been a long wait…
To add on top, the AP3 outline is officially longer than the original draft of AP2. That is pretty insane to have an outline that long. I think my second draft of AP2 was above 260 pages, and I doubt the outline will surpass that. Despite the heavy workload, I'm glad to have made so much progress with AP3 and AP4 this year.
Sometimes I regret adding extra details to AP1. For example, groups like Warhawk, Zaeed Front, and the Afghan insurgent groups were not in the original drafts for the first three Armored Piercings. They do add an interesting dynamic to the world of the series, but it created a lot more work for me. One recurring issue I had while writing AP4 was repeatedly forgetting details I wrote earlier, which resulted in plot holes later on in the book. I don't usually write outlines, but for AP4 I had to write multiple for each main plotline so I could properly keep track. I may need to do the same with AP3. I think I was premature in stating that AP3 will come out in 2026 at the earliest.
I recently surpassed 1230 pages for AP4. This makes it the longest book I've ever written. My 1st draft for AP3 was just below 1200 pages. I never imagined reaching this length for the book, but there's still so much story to tell. There's no doubt I'll surpass 1300 pages, and maybe I'll hit 1400 pages, which would be insane. I'm trying to finish AP4 as soon as possible so that I can get back to working on a final draft for AP3. It's been 4 years since publishing AP2 and I don't want to keep any fans waiting for more years. When I finish AP4, I might write a blog post about my writing journey on that book.
Welcome to our group Armored Piercing Operations! A space for us to connect with each other and share our love for the series. Feel free to post your thoughts, theories, etc.
