Rebooting

Okay, I know I’ve said it before, but I can’t stress this enough. If you are writing a series, especially if the books need to be read in a sequential order, do NOT write the next book in the series before you have the one before it finished.

Three years ago, I did a really stupid thing. I really wanted to participate in NaNoWriMo but I was having trouble coming up with an idea. So I decided to work on book three in my Moonstone Chronicles, Wandering Wizards. The problem was, I didn’t have book two finished yet. But I thought I knew how it was going to end, so I blithely wrote my 50,000 words of Wandering Wizards, basing it on the events in Lucky Dog.

But as books sometimes do, Lucky Dog went in an entirely different direction than I expected, so Wandering Wizards ended up with enough plot holes in it to make a giant’s golf course. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to spackle over those plot holes, but like trying to mend a big hole in a wall, sometimes you just can’t spackle over it, you need to do a full on repair job.

Finally, I just had to sit down and think about where this book is going. There was a lot of stuff that didn’t need to be in there and a lot of stuff that needed to be included. So in the end I made the only decision left to me, I decided to scrap what I had and start from scratch.

It’s all good though, at least now I have a better idea of where this story is going.

Wordage Report

Blog Posts (not counting this one)
3,672 words total
Down by about 60 words from last week. I did pretty good about getting my posts written and scheduled on time, except for the quotes post. The night I wrote this post I didn’t get to bed until after 2 a.m. Sleep is for the weak. ;-)

Goodreads Reviews
0 words total
Since catching up, I’ve read two more books, but I haven’t got around to reviewing them yet. So much for my big plan of reviewing as soon as I finish reading. *sigh*

New Ideas
0 words total
Ditto to last week: My mind’s been a bit of a dust bowl lately. Sometimes the ideas come faster than I can write them down, sometimes ... no so much. But that’s okay, I’ve got ideas a-plenty in my files in case I want to start something new. Which I really don’t.

Editing
0 pages total
I did make a bunch of notes, so I know exactly what I need to fix in Elemental Earth, but last week was big on the planning, light on the actual doing. It needed to be done, so I don’t consider it time wasted.

New Words
1,287 words total
The first 1,000 words were for the new prologue for Wandering Wizards. It introduces the bad guy, makes a subtle reference to the book that came before it, and sets up the motives and action for the rest of the book. All in all, I’m quite pleased with it.

The other 287 words were on my short story Dreamer. I’m not sure this story is working for me anymore. While I know there’s a way to fix it, I’m not sure I want to go to all that trouble. Don’t be surprised if I just end up scrapping it altogether.

This Week’s Goals:
New words on Wandering Wizards
Figure out how to start Elemental Spirit
Decide what to do with Dreamer
Bonus blog post

As for last week’s goals .... I did make the decision on what I was doing with Wandering Wizards, and I managed some new words on it - even1,000 are better than nothing. I don’t know that I’m any closer to being able to start Elemental Spirit though. And while I also got some new words on Dreamer, I did not get the bonus blog post done. So I guess that puts me about half and half for the week.

This week’s excerpt is from the prologue for Wandering Wizards:

Deep in the heart of the Shadow Mountains, darkness gathered. In a cave within Carenkara, the highest mountain, two men met. The first was a tall, thin man, features so fine and pale he might have been carved from alabaster. He was not, as one would expect, dressed in black robes, but in robes of a deep, dark red, the colour of oxygen rich blood. They were bordered with gold symbols so bright they were painful to look at. He stood in the centre of the magically created chamber, awaiting the approach of a man dressed in brown.

“You wished to see me, my lord?” The man in the brown robes bowed low. At a glance he was seemed quite ordinary, and he took great pains to keep it so. He was both a thief and a spy, and it would not do to have any memorable attributes.

“Have you discovered the source of the marked shift in the magickal energies near (whatever town was closest to where Jessica healed Dominic)?” asked the other, without preamble.

“I have, my lord. A woman healed a man of a grievous injury using magickal energy.”

“And why have you not secured this woman?”

The man shrugged. “She has lost her magical aura. It would appear she burned out her magic with the single healing.”

“Stupid woman,” the man muttered. “I have another task for you.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“I seek a talisman, or more to the point, the person in possession of a certain talisman.” He produced a clear crystal teardrop and held it up. “This is attuned with the talisman and will aid you in your quest.”

The man in brown accepted the crystal. “My thanks, my lord.” He hesitated for a second, then spoke again. “The world is vast, my lord. Is there one direction better than the others to begin my search?”

The lord chuckled mirthlessly. “The talisman appeared in Ghren from another world and was lost again in the Darkwood Elven Realm.”

If the man in brown was surprised by this information, he kept it well hidden. “I live to serve,” he said, bowing once more.

“While you serve, you live,” the other corrected him. With a casual flick of his hand he dismissed the spy. Once he was alone, he snapped his fingers and torches set throughout the chamber flared to life. With unhurried steps he made his way over to the throne sitting on the dais.