I'm sorry I have been so reserved recently in my posts. A mix of personal issues and lots of work have made me extremely distant and reluctant to post anything, but I think I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I am home again, blanketed with gray skies and temperatures that struggle to break above 50 degrees, but at least it is home. I have heard from my editor and the book will be back in my hands again before the end of the month. The copyeditors have had their way with my darling book and they will be sending it back for me to approve of their edits. I have been told that I will have only a week to go over the book, but it doesn't sound as if that is going to be a problem.
In the meantime, I am fighting my newest project. I had completed the first three chapters, but I had been truly happy with only the first chapter. It was around 2 in the morning, laying in bed, staring at the black ceiling that I realized that I was going about this book all the wrong way. The result -- chapters 2 and 3 have been completely scrapped, the POV has been narrowed from three storytellers to just one. Many of the themes and tones remain the same, but I think the narrowed focus will help to get and keep the reader invested in the storyline.
It's very rare for me to scrap big chunks of a book during the rough draft. I'm not particularly fond of doing it during the revisions, but I will. The rough draft I treat differently. At the onset, I tell myself that it is all good and just to get it down on paper, changes can always be made later. Unfortunately, this one just felt wrong. I wish I could be more specific, but after writing for more than 18 years, much of what I do now is driven by instincts and subconscious planning.
If anything, I've learned to be willing to start from scratch again and again and again, until it is finally there.
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