I came up with a brilliant idea last week and have been completely caught up in working on it. My writing group made a suggestion in one of her critiques and I’m just going with it now. (Have I mentioned how good she is?) So…her suggestion, my idea? That doesn’t seem fair to her. So her idea. But still my writing! And honestly. I had to come up with all the hows and whys. That certainly wasn’t easy. But just looking at what’s out there as far as books go, I realized that I really needed to do this character justice and what I have now just isn’t doing that.
What’s really entertaining is that it’s going to turn my two book project into a three book project. The dreaded trilogy. I always have a little disdain for the trilogy because it’s rare that any of the books can stand on their own. I suppose that I’ll have to work extra hard to make certain that these can. The first one should be able to–it’s the middle one I’m most concerned about. And I love the beginning pages of the current novel (which will be turned into the second novel) so I want to keep those as the first novel, but that means writing a whole new beginning for the second novel and that just won’t work because it ruins the whole set up that I had going on there… So I decided that I would sit down and just try writing a new opening for the first novel. Just to see–then I could use it if I wanted. I sat for thirty minutes in front of a blank screen. Quite pathetic. I used to adore writing beginnings. Loved it. Would come up with first sentences of novels that would rival any Bulwer-Lytton winner. And now? Nothing. I started and deleted about a hundred times.
On another topic, I’ve finished with both Enid and Beatrice (who actually turned out to be pretty entertaining) and am on to William and John. Will’s a real pill. Wretchedly full of himself. John’s so-so. He hasn’t amazed me yet…I’m still waiting.