Detours suck

Recently, I’ve faced a significant challenge in my current WIP, Son of the Morning (periodic updates here), and it has made progress slow going. I’ve been doing a lot of re-reading and spot-fixing these days to try and find an easy fix, but ultimately I’m looking at a substantial rewrite. Ugh.

I was working along at a good clip but began to realize that my story was growing more extensive than I expected. I am already at 102,000 words and hope to have a book of around 150,000, but I don’t think I will fit what I want to say in 48,000 words. I have too many unresolved tangents that I don’t want to rush as they are essential to the narrative. I also did some calculations, and some of my timing is off. Namely, I have two groups that will meet, but I either need to delay one group somehow or push a whole story-line into the third book for it all to make sense logistically. I’m talking about a month here- no small amount of time, so I think it’s best to push into the next book for the story’s sake. This path has positives and negatives. The positives are I will have a substantial head-start in the third book, Noonday in the North, and it gives me plenty of room to flesh things out for Son of the Mourning. But the negative is that it sets Son of the Mourning back significantly. I set my own deadlines, but still, it’s a hit to the drive.

This stuff happens. It’s part of putting a world down on the page- especially with a story that will span 5-6 books (close to a million words). This quest is no small feat, and I have to keep reminding myself of that point. It is not exactly what I envisioned, but that’s ok because I’ll get there eventually. So what do I do now? I strip half of what I’ve already written, tuck it away for later, and remind myself that it is not gone, just delayed.

It was great stuff too! Things I was excited to share! Scott, focus.

In the end, this path will be for the best. It will concentrate the story and keep it tight and fast like the first book, Dawn of the Lightbearer. It will give me room to hone in on a significant plot point and give me a great head start for my third book in the series. Rome, or Lucardia in this case, wasn’t built in a day.

Writing can be frustrating, and nothing is more frustrating than a setback. Sometimes every word feels like gold, and the most challenging thing a writer can do is separate themselves from those treasures. You have to tell yourself that there will always be more good stuff from where that came from, that every wrong tangent you put down on-page is only directing you to the real magic. Detours suck, but at least they are not complete stops and sometimes they lead you to wonderful places that you would miss otherwise.

Well, back to writing. I’ve got a lot of work to do!

Cheers!