Welcome to Muse Monday!
Every Monday, I’ll write a post about writing, or the muse, or frustrations with the muse, or excitement about the muse, or whatever strikes my fancy to write regarding the craft of writing. I’ll also include a Linky. Link up YOUR post about writing, or the muse, or frustrations with the muse, or excitement about the muse — ANYTHING to do with writing and the craft of writing.
Re-Writes
My current work in process was the first book I ever wrote. I wrote it in 6 weeks – 100,000 words of uneducated, un-researched story that just poured out of me.
The thing is, it’s a really good story. The other thing is, there is so much in there that is just junk.
It wasn’t so hard to re-do the first half of the book. The mystery and intrigue plot just needed a little bit of refining. I did need to incorporate the things I’ve learned about police procedure and such over the last fifteen years. But, all in all, tt wasn’t too bad. The relationships needed a little bit of help, but it was okay. I breezed through seventeen chapters in two days (about 8 hours) of writing.
I thought, “Wow! We originally wanted to publish this in August. Even though I ended up taking the summer off, maybe we can still do it in August, or close to it!”
Then I hit a wall. The relationship changed and became sexual – what I do not write now. The intrigue and mystery plot got more intense and I was able to see just how clumsy I used to be about that type of plot. And while I’ve started sprinkling some elements of faith through the story, there isn’t nearly what there needs to be — especially now that I’m removing the sexual relationship.
Consequently, when I got to chapter 18 (and really, I deleted two chapters until I got to this one, so it’s the old chapter 20), I read, re-read, started to re-write, and finally decided to scrap it all and start fresh at that point. Three solid hours of writing Friday and I have half a chapter to show for it.
As I write this in preparation for Muse Monday, it’s actually Saturday, and my mind is whirling with plot ideas, character development, and where things need to go in the story. I’m itching for that 9AM-2PM writing window on Monday morning to roll up my sleeves and dig into the second half of this book.
What is going on in your Muse world this week? Leave a link to your blog post! Here are the rules.
