The Book Two Posts: Episode 12: Magic Moments and Changing Characters

Dear Readers,

First, I finally finished the EverMerge Gnome challenge, so here is my "Duck Duck Gnome"!  I felt that the Gnome challenge was very fitting since I'm still writing the Gnome Sweet Gnome series. I realize that not everyone will be impressed. 😸

It has been a strange time since I published my last book. There has been every type of distraction you can think of (a pandemic, for Pete's sake!), and I'm an easily distractible person. I had a lot of things tripping me up about the current work in progress, but I finally determined that I want it finished! Don't get me wrong. I'm actually really enjoying the writing at this point. My brain is really happy with the task and living in this other world. I mean, of course, we could ALL use a vacation from the real world right now, right? So this is the best possible scenario at this point! 

The Book Two Posts: Episode 11 - Plot Twists

If you have read my earlier posts, you know that I've been organizing my office. It was also part of a huge effort to reclaim my creative space from work, which takes up far too much mental real estate, for health benefits, to take back control of my life and space, and to get back to doing what I love.

The Book Two Posts, Episode 10: Fixing Broken Chapters

As I've pointed out in previous blogs, I've been having issues with one of my plot lines. For one thing, I just didn't enjoy reading Chapter Eight at all. It was almost painful to read, and I wasn't sure why. When I would reread what I had written to get back into the flow and reached Chapter Eight, I felt like, "Oh, that chapter. Not again." I just hated it for some reason.

The Book Two Posts: Ep. 9: Over 100,000 Words and Counting

I managed to nail down the beginning of the first chapter. For months, I wasn't entirely thrilled with it. I would take it apart and rewrite it, and still didn't feel like it was right. I started deconstructing again and added another paragraph that I feel is somewhat foreboding and sufficiently sets the tone for the story. I finally had that moment where I felt like this is it.

The Book Two Posts, Ep. 8 and Organizing

The book is at nearly 98K now, and I'm currently in the process of rereading, editing, tightening, polishing, and moving things around in a way that makes sense.

There are still a few problem areas to be fixed before I'll think of it as anywhere near complete. I think that it flows well in most areas, and I'm still struggling with one or two plot threads. I'm hoping that moving things around will help solve some of the issues. It's like I already had a solution to the problem, but I wasn't making the most of it.

The Book Two Posts Ep. 6: Friday Eve and Climaxes

A lot of the time, I come up with thoughts for blog posts while I'm in the midst of doing other things. Then, they slip my mind because I'm doing other things. Life has been pretty hectic for the last, I don't know, five years? I sometimes feel like I don't even have time to day dream, which is just plain wrong.

Anyway, back to writing updates. :)

The Book Two Posts Ep. 5: Chapter Breaks

In case anyone wondered, the book is definitely a book. The word count is inching its way toward 100K, but I have plans to remove a chapter that may become a standalone short story or novelette, possibly a give-away. That's actually a good thing because, inserted into the book, it seems out of place. I've spent a good while working on the timeline and calendar, rearranging some chapters, and trying to decide if I should put my chapter breaks in different places or merge chapters.

The Book Two Posts: The Rewrite Ep. 4 and Life

I'm in the process of working on the rewrite of Book Two, and I'm at least 29 Chapters into it, which is over halfway. The good news is that I've figured out how to address an issue that I've been wrestling with.

I won't really call it a block. It's one of those things that I've been asking myself how far down this rabbit trail do I go, and is this something I should do? I was trying to figure out the best way to look at the plot. Situations like this one are where I'm faced with those thoughts I had put on the back burner to deal with later. Then it's time to, as my mother would say, fish or cut bait. You have to decide which one you want to do. Nobody can help me with those decisions. They don't know enough about where I'm coming from or where I'm going to help.

The Book Two Posts: The Rewrite Ep. 2

First of all.... I got some feedback on the first 30 pages, and it was good. 😁 She wants to know what happens next, which I think is the desired reaction. That's when I told her I can't send her the next pages right now because I'm editing them and adding a new scene.😅

The Book Two Posts: The Rewrite Ep. 1

 
I recall being filled with excitement when I had about two chapters left to write in my rough draft. I was really pleased. I had lots of stuff going on, and things were interesting. After finishing, I had planned to shelve it for a while, but I just couldn't leave it alone.