Square One

My replotting has gone far deeper than I ever thought it work. Using Noah Lukeman's The Plot Thickens\, I literally took each of my main characters back to the drawing board. I've learned a lot about them, and I think it will definitely strengthen their motivations and make the story flow much better. My heroine has even changed so much, her name isn't even the same! I didn't really like her name when I settled on it, but I couldn't find anything I liked better. Now, however, she has a name that fits her perfectly.

The rewrites are going well, I'm really happy with the progress overall, and I'm definitely feeling productive.

I Made My Reading Goal For January!

I read two Sabrina Jeffries books (Historical Romance) and I read Noah Lukeman's two books on craft.

Next, I'll be shredding what I've witten so far, and dragging it back to the drawing board. I hope to make progress in leaps and bounds in February since I'll most be rewriting what is already written, and I don't have to ponder so much on plot. In the next few days I'll be mind mapping (Thanks, Nadia!!), and generally brainstorming those huge flaws so they won't be there in this draft - which I hope to take to completion.

I Need To Get Off My Ass

Seriously.

I've been using excuse after excuse to not sit down and fix the errors I've found in my MS. I want to just keep plugging away forward, but I can't do that until I go back and fix some critical errors. It's going to completely change the pacing, and my word count, so it's nothing something I can make a note about and go back and change later. I don't want to rewrite yet, so I keep putting it off.

So, this is basically a mental self butt kicking to get off my lazy ass and get to work.

I won't have the first rough draft done by the end of January like I wanted, but I am still on track to get a real first draft done before AJ goes in for his surgery - and that's important because it's my main goal. I can handle missing a few short term goals, as long as I make the longterm one.

Writing is a marathon, and not a sprint.

By this time next week, I want to have all of the rewriting done, and be ready to plunge ahead once again.

Being Stuck Sucks

I really don't think it deserves to be any more eloquent than that.

No, I don't have writer's block. In fact, I think I have writer's abundance...is there such a thing?

Since my revelation, I attempted to put it to work...with disastrous results. I now feel like there is so much going on, I don't have a story - I have chaos.

I took a few days away so I could get my perspective back and figure out where I made that wrong turn. Turns out it was about five chapters ago. In terms of writing, that's a looooong time ago. It means a lot of rewriting before I can go on. It's a dauntless and scary task. I think that's why I've been putting it off. I read a book to refill that creative well, and I've been pondering the problem before me.

The issue is...I tried to stick far too many short story threads into one place, and the characters are running around with no true direction...sort of like the proverbial chicken lacking it's head.

Now I must figure out which of these short story threads needs to take place NOW. Which one is going to propel the story forward in a believable manner? I still can't figure it out. I think I need to write down all of these short threads onto index cards and arrange them that way. Perhaps seeing them spelled out will make it a bit more clear.

Until then, my poor characters are left at the intersection of at least four differenr roads, our hero tapping his foot impatiently with an insolent stare on his face, while our heroine rolls her eyes and places her hands on her hips in haughty indignation at being held up.

Perhaps I should give them a sex scene so they leave me alone to ponder this out...

For anyone who ever thought writer's block was bad? You've obviously never experienced this - having so much to write and no ability to write is a far more acute torture than staring at a blank screen with a blank mind.

Revelations

No, not that creepy scary part of the Bible.

There is nothing like a good epiphany moment when you are taking a shower and minding your own business.

I don't know about you, but I have two miniature children (under three), and a husband, who all constantly command my attention every last minute of the 24 hours I'm allowed every day. Needless to say, unless I barricade myself in my bedroom with strict instructions that I'm not to be bothered for X amount of time, I don't get a whole lot of free time to write and/or plot. I do most of it in the car (when the kids aren't screaming), and in the shower.

I love showers. In fact...I take two a day. Hubby thinks it's because I'm a clean freak. I know better. It's because I think better in the steamy silence...and because I'm a clean freak.

So, I was taking a nice hot steamy shower this morning (while Thing 1 tore the house apart and Thing 2 sat happily in his bouncer watching Dora and Diego), and pondering my story. I'm a little over a third of the way in, and I feel like everything is moving too quickly all of a sudden. The first quarter of it landed about where I wanted to, but the rest is going much too fast. At the same time, it's happening at the same speed it needs to happen. Confusing, no?

I'm coming up quickly on that sagging middle, and man is it looking like it's going to sag.

Then, suddenly, it occurs me.

The Hero isn't going to get what he wants in the end. Oh, he thinks he is, of course. And, for a while, it seems like he will. But then, our heroine is going to show him the error of his arrogant and controlling ways. Our poor dejected hero, who has everything he thought he wanted but finds that he's sadly lacking what he didn't realize he needed, is going to spend the rest of the book trying to force this enigma of a wife to love him - because alphas always get what they want.

So, what I thought was going to be the big climactic ending, is really going to be the jumping off point for the middle, a decision there is no turning back from that will turn the love story completely around.

I'm excited, and can't wait to get writing.

Unfortunately, since I'm also hanging out with my nephew, I have THREE pint sized terrors today, and the writing will have to wait until naptime.

Thursday Thirteen #3

Thirteen New Books I Plan To Read This Year

13. Sabrina Jeffries' The Forbidden Lord
12. Liz Carlyl's Never Lie to a Lady
11. Stephen King's On Writing
10. Catherine Coulter's Wizard's Daughter
9. Nicole Jordan's To Seduce a Bride
8. Nicole Jordan's To Bed a Beauty
7. Sabrina Jeffries' Untitled Work about Lucy Seton
6. Sabrina Jeffries' Untitled Work about Cousin Michael
5. Donald Maass' Breakout Novel
4. Saul David's Prince of Pleasure
3. Ian Kelly's biography of Antonin Careme
2. Linda Berdoll's Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife
1. Kat Martin's The Summit

Thursday Thirteen #2

Thirteen Hunks to tempt my muse in '09.

13. Mathew McFadyen
12. Mark Consuelos
11. Norbert Leo Butz
10. Adam Pascal
9. Anthony Rapp
8. Eric Dane
7. Gerard Butler
6. Mathew McConaughey
5. Hugh Jackman
4. Richard Gere
3. Jon Hamm
2. Patrick Dempsey
1. My Hubby :)