Getting It Together

Yup, that’s right. I feel like I’m finally getting my s**t together.

My depression usually gets a lot worse just after the time change in the fall, and I’ve noticed that this year it seems to be getting better now that the time has changed back again. Which begs the question, is it because of the time change itself, or is it because the sun has been making more of an effort to shine lately?

Maybe it’s a little of both. But whatever it is, I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

I believe I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: if you are writing a series whereupon the plot of the next book relies on events of the previous one, DO NOT write the next book before finishing the previous one!

I’ve also mentioned before that the first 50,000 words of Wandering Wizards, the third volume in my Moonstone Chronicles, were written as a NaNo novel. This is all well and good, it got the novel started, but the problem was I hadn’t yet finished Lucky Dog, volume two of the Moonstone Chronicles.

I thought I only needed to make a few minor adjustments to Wandering Wizards and then carry on. Turns out I was wrong. Oh, so wrong. For one thing, considering the series is really about Jessica and her journey, there was very little Jessica in WW. And there were a few things from Lucky Dog that had a big impact on the action in WW. And WW ended up going in an unexpected direction that was taking it well away from the story line as a whole.

Normally I get the first draft done and then worry about re-writes, but Wandering Wizards is such a hot mess that I finally broke down and printed out the current version – all 165 pages of it. THEN I discovered a second document labeled “current version”, which was about 8,000 words shorter. Which came first, the long one or the short one? I had no idea.

After wasting far too much time on Sunday trying to compare the long one to the short one, I finally got fed up and just deleted the shorter one. If I edited out 8,000 words, well, I’m sure I can edit them out again. It was stupid to waste so much time (with the potential of wasting a lot more) trying to figure out what changed between the two. And no, I didn’t think of using the track changes option in Word until after I’d already deleted the short version.

So where does that leave me? With 165 pages to edit to get the story back on track. And hopefully before I get to the end of those pages I’ll have figured out where to end the book. There’ll be a case of mistaken identity, a kidnapping, and the potential for many bad things to happen - the big question is, will the book end before or after the wizard is rescued?

Buckle up folks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!


Prompts of the Week

Prompt one:
One day you come into work and find a cookie mysteriously placed on your desk. Grateful to whoever left this anonymous cookie, you eat it. The next morning you come in and find another cookie. This continues for months until one day a different object is left – and this time there’s a note.

Prompt two:
Writing as yourself or a character, tell the following tale:
A ghost appears before you one night and tells you to expect a visitation by three spirits who will each transport you to significant moments from the past, present and future. However, you soon discover that the three spirits aren’t quite like the ones who visited Ebenezer Scrooge…

Remember, don’t spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story.