plot revamp and costume making

Well, it’s Friday—thank goodness. It’s been one hell of a week.

I figured out what was wrong with my book, which is not good news. I can still use the 42,000 words that I have, but my plot needs a total revamp.  Right now, the book is rather episodic. The scenes don’t really link together, and the story jumps time a lot. Also, the two plots that I have are subplots by nature, meaning I don’t have a main plot. How I managed to plot a book without a main plot, I have no idea. That would be why I am in this situation.

Most of what I’ve written—like 99% of it—is totally usable, which is a comfort. That means I didn’t waste the past three months of writing. It’s just the scenes that I have are in the wrong place, if that makes sense. To fix this, I’m going to start the book earlier in the story. Right now, it starts a few months after the end of the first book, and I think that having it start earlier—like maybe a few days or a week after the first book—would vastly improve my whole episodic timing problem. And I know why I got into this mess. I was so concerned with making sure that the second book started off quickly, since so many people complained about how slow the first book started, that I failed to set the story up properly. So while the writing is good, nothing makes sense because it isn’t in context.

So next week, I’m going to spend all of my time replotting this book. I need to find a plot that will tie everything together, rearrange the subplots that I already have, and focus on writing the story that needs to be told, the story that I want to write. While I do have readers to please, writing the book the way it’s supposed to be written is the best thing that I can do for those readers. If I dwell too much on every bad or so-so review, or even on the good reviews with tiny complaints, I’m going to drive myself crazy. It won’t be my book. It’ll be some weird conglomeration of the internet’s.

Now, what this means—I’m not 100% sure that The Guild Conspiracy will be completed in time for a December 2012 release. I think I overestimated my own ability, thinking that this book was going to be as easy to write as The Clockwork Giant. Well, it’s definitely not. That whole writing a first draft in four months was due to it being an awesome story from the get go and a lot of luck. If you’ve followed the blog for a while, then you know that the first book was only intended to be a first book, a standalone novel. So I didn’t have plans for a sequel, much less two. But over the course of writing it, I found that I needed more books to adequately tell a satisfying tale. I can honestly say that writing sequels is not as easy as you’d think. I thought it would be. It’s merely a continuation of the story from the first book. Well, yeah—but no. The sequel is its own thing, and honestly, I think it should be better than the first book. Which means I have to work doubly hard to make it so. I may have to work twice as long on it too. It’s entirely possible that The Guild Conspiracy will see a Spring 2013 release. But who knows, I may figure the plot out next week and power through the book without any problems, finishing in time for the original release. I’ll definitely keep you updated.

In other news, the Renaissance Faire is tomorrow! And I’m still not done with my husband’s costume! I worked most of yesterday on it, and I’m going to spend all of today and tonight finishing it. I expect I’m going to have to make a Hobby Lobby run at some point, especially since sewing notions are 50% off right now. I once again half-assed the costume, forgoing interfacing and lining. I cut so many corners, it’s amazing that I can even produce a decent looking costume. I think after I finish this one, I’m making a new pledge to sew things properly, following the directions to the T, rather than looking at them and thinking Oh, I don’t need to do that. No one’s going to know the difference. I think this will be easier with the new sewing machine my husband is going to buy me for our anniversary. The one I have is no less than like forty years old, and it’s seen better days. Yet, I have produced fairly amazing work with that stupid thing. I’ll probably keep it as a backup. While old, it’s definitely reliable. Most of the time, when I get frustrated at it, it’s because of user error—like sewing a sleeve on inside out. Or failing to realize that the bobbin has run out of thread. Or failing to realize that the end of the needle snapped. So on so forth. Still, an excuse to get a new one? Yes please.

Any of you having problems with your works-in-progress—writing or otherwise?