The plot… she thickens…

There is no greater feeling as an author than the moment everything comes together.

I mean it.

We hum and haw over every detail and second guess everything. So, when things finally click… when we finally achieve that glorious HUZZAH with our stories, it hits, and it hits hard.

That is exactly what has happened to me lately.

Well, for starters, I will explain where things have been going.

My precious lappy died mid-writing session. I knew it was coming given how loudly the whirls and scrapes were coming up from beneath it so I had sound mind to save very few words to my secondary external harddrive. To which I am grateful because I was only missing like three words when it crashed.

It did however cause a huge inconvenience to my bank account. But I am beyond thrilled with the new laptop replacement as it’s much faster and without all of the years of random crap bogging it down, performs so much better. Huzzah to new lappy! Rip old lappy.

So, back to the writing.

I was chugging along in book 2 and speeding through towards the midway point. Granted my midway point was at roughly 78k words but hey…. it’s better than being done when this epiphany struck.

The pacing felt off for most of what I was writing but I kept telling myself, “Just get the story out… you can edit it later…” to which my brain would not listen. Does it ever though? No, no it does not.

I was chewing on it for a while. Book 1’s pacing was a slightly different beast given it’s the beginning of the series and had a lot of hefty work to do in establishing characters, motives, personalities, world building, etc. So, with all of that and how I wrote it, it ended up being a very slow starting pace that slowly built up over time to then sprinting towards the end and the big reveal.

Did I intend for that? No.

Am I mad about that? No.

Do I wish I had changed it before publishing once I realized it? Also, no.

BUT…

I did not want to make the same mistake with book 2. I wanted it to keep up the momentum that book 1 built towards. HOWEVER, the way it was going, it was clearly plowing through at breakneck speed allowing no one, my characters nor myself, to take a damn breath and process everything that comes up… which is a lot.

I kept telling myself that it was ok. Again, I would fix it in the rewrite or editing stage. But the more my brain wouldn’t let go of it like a dog with a bone, the more I came to realize the problem. The story is good. Is solid. It’s only the speed that is the problem.

Do I want to slow it down to match book 1? No.

So, what am I going to do? So glad you asked you beautiful human you…

Start over.

Yup! From prologue. I started over.

Is this something I recommend everyone do when they get stuck? No. But I do find it helpful to do when you’ve been stuck and then as you rework the plot and WHEN those plot points hit and you have the OMG OMG OMG YES, IT’S ALL COMING TOGETHER euphoric feeling slam you in the face, then yes, it’s helpful to start over.

And that is exactly what happened.

It all came together.

I had my huzzah moment.

And it was glorious.

Def euphoric.

In realizing what I needed to do and where I needed to slow things down a bit, not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR new ideas came crashing through the gate that in all actuality make the story stronger and more interesting. Double win… or would that be quadruple win? I’m not sure. But nevertheless, I am now #winning.

Ok, slap me now for even thinking hashtag winning and let alone for actually typing it. You have my permission to do so.

Anywho… these new revelations and storylines are giving me renewed life.

(also could be coming from the trailer that dropped for Frankenstein because holy shitballs… I CANNOT WAIT! - p.s. Guillermo del Toro is one of my favorite directors of all times so huzzah to one of my favorite stories of all time and extra huzzah to the cast!)

Don’t get me wrong though, replotting can be an absolute bitch and is rather annoying BUT so worth it. I am still in the process of the complete restructuring and have begun writing over. I still get to keep a lot of what I had to add back in but currently I’m at the 17k mark with lots of what I already wrote waiting in the wings for when it’s relevant.

It feels so nice.

This does, however, mean that the overall story… aka the series… gets to be a tad longer possibly. As of right now with the plot changes, it means I am breaking book 2 into 2 books. So, instead of ending where I thought I would end, that will be in book 3 and the middle of book 2’s previous version will now be the end.

Trust me, it makes sense to me.

The series might actually end up being 5 books instead of 4 which to me isn’t that big of a deal because in all actuality when I first plotted the series, it was originally going to be 5 books but I wasn’t sure I wanted to stretch it.

But the plot… oh she stretchin’. She stretchin’ good though. She gettin’ really thick.

This also means my mind has been in hyperdrive for what seems like weeks now but it’s a good thing. I’m starting to feel like that meme though… this one.

Yup, that one… minus the cigarette cuz my lungs could never.

Does this mean I am behind on writing? Yes.

Doubly so when you add in the 2 weeks without a lappytop. Blah.

However, I am perfectly ok with this.

I would rather the story work its magic as it wills it than force it to be something it’s not. Nobody should do that. So, it will take the time it needs. I will keep you posted randomly through blog posts and every month in the newsletter. Which had some slight changes btw.

In case you missed it, the newsletter has moved from a weekly update to a monthly update. The first Wednesday of every month to keep in theme with “Whisper Wednesday” from when I was sharing it on RR. Each month I will update my progress there so you can stay up to date and possibly get some sneak peeks as well.

One tiny tidbit I will leave here is that for those of you who have read the book and LOVED Cooper, as most of you have, he is actually becoming a third POV character in book 2. Huzzah and you’re welcome. You will love it, I promise.

Oh and the paperback came out! I almost forgot to announce it here! See? I am so focused on the plot’s thickening that I forgot to say that early on. She is gorgeous! OMG! I am so chuffed with how the physical copy turned out! We finally got the files working and I received my final proof and yessssss! So in love!

I ended up having to go through IngramSparks which is a total pain the ass themselves and forced me to price it higher than I would have liked to but c’est la vie. I am keeping the eBook with Amazon so that I can keep it under a price I want and keep it enrolled in Kindle Unlimited for those who have it… for now. I might eventually go wide with the eBook as well but for now, she’s where she belongs.

I think that’s it for now, just a further deep dive into what’s been going on lately with me and my plot.

At least I have the plot for book 2 and 3 because my own personal plot has left the building.

Til next time!

Happy Reading!

<3 Rhea