So, right now I'm currently in the middle of writing the fourth McKenzie book. I was cruising along, nearing the 70k word mark, when I realized I was out of story. Not. Good.
I backtracked through the manuscript and realized, I'd had a huge turning point waaay too soon in the story. It concerned an event that happens at the beginning of the book, and is hinted at through the first half, but then-- BAM--I revealed it all too quickly. Without it, I lost a good deal of conflict and the story went as flat as a souffle gone wrong. Splat.
Normally, it wouldn't bother me. I'd just go back and fix it. But this time, I'm on a very tight deadline (why do I do this to myself???) so I have to not only go back and fix it, but I have to rewrite an entire third of the book. Yikes. And the scenes at the end of the book will now be moved into the the middle of the book. I'm also rearranging a lot of the second half of the book, which is really just a big mess right now.
It's been like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle and while I love jigsaw puzzles, I've never had to piece a book together that way. It's been... interesting. I'm still working out a lot of the knots, but the conflict is back and it's sharper, and that is good with a capital G.
But I have to admit, I will be glad when this draft is finished and I'm in the revising stage. Revisions will be a piece of cake compared to this. :D
2 comments:
Once you fix the jigsaw puzzle is done, you'll know you can do it, and then it hopefully wouldn't be so hard next time.
I'm just hoping I don't have to do it again. :D
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