Book 2 has a lot of salvageable material. A lot of awesome world stuff, some wonderfully funny scenes, some pretty scary scenes.
It was fun for me to read, and I made myself laugh a bunch of times, got a little teary-eyed, did a light revision and passed it off to my Editor.
Matt, however, is really, really good at what he does.
And he discovered that while the story is a lot of fun, what it doesn’t have is a strong story through-line.
Here’s the thing…
I had a line-for scene plot for the book built out.
It, however, lacked the sort of epic sense of wonder that made my heart beat faster while I was writing it.
So… when Epic Sense of Wonder crept past me while I was being a good girl and following the plot, my hunting brain caught the scent…
…And chased.
I got some great stuff out of the chase. The plot, however, got eaten by volemarines and vile scunners in the process.
So now, I’m going back and figuring out how to keep all the epic stuff, the sensawunda stuff, the glorious terrifying magic and the really creepy evil…
WHILE STILL HAVING A DAMN PLOT.
Today… plotting worksheet and tight focus.
There are folks saying, “But you teach classes on how to write novels.”
Yup. I also invent and test new processes, because if you do the same thing every time, you get the same results every time. And to get BETTER results, and consequently better novels, you have to experiment.
Many experiments… um… explode.
And the person looking at the new processes, and experimenting, is the one upon whom they explode.
SO…
THIS process is not going to be in any new class coming your way from me. You can thank me later.
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