When Plans Go Awry

I had planned on doing a review of the movie Maleficent today. Hopefully I'll get around to it later this week. You see, I have been struggling rather a lot with my latest novel (title pending). It is the sequel to The Orb and the Airship, which is my fantasy/pirate/sci-fi-ish adventure story, for those of you just joining us.I had planned to get 10,000 words written on this one in the month of November. I have been planning, plotting, and thinking about this story for over a year now, and I thought that I was ready to start actually composing. I wrote 3,600 words... and it started to fall apart. So I planned and plotted some more. Then Nano started, and I wrote 2,500 words... and the story once again began to fall apart. I talked it out with my sister a bit, I chatted with my husband, got some ideas, and started over. I wrote 680 words, before a new idea hit me and I felt like I might actually have something that would work... but all the writing I had just finished was pretty much useless.So, last night, my husband and I sat down and created a new outline. This one is far more specific than the previous ones, a bit more detailed, and covering a lot more of the characters from the get-go. I've also had to step back from my original idea. I had wanted to pick up the story 6 years after the end of The Orb and the Airship, but now that I've worked with that idea and hit walls of all different shapes and sizes, I realize that that idea is not feasible. Perhaps another writer could make it work, but I can't. Instead, this story will pick up almost immediately after the close of book 1, which I think readers will actually appreciate a bit more than what I had intended to do.But I am happy to announce that as of this afternoon, I have completely re-written the prologue, managed to pound out 1,200 words, and I am quite satisfied and even pleased with what I've come up with. It's been a frustrating couple of months of false starts, but I think I finally know where this story is going and what story I actually need to tell.Hooray!I'm also pleased to tell you that I will be holding a King's Warrior Read-Along in the month of December! I've had a lot of interest, and hopefully we can have a lot of fun together reading through Book 1 of the Minstrel's Song. I will tell you more about that later this week, as well. But for now, dust off your copy of King's Warrior, make sure you've got a cup of hot cocoa (or whatever hot beverage you prefer) and a fuzzy blanket to wrap around yourself, because we'll be kicking it off on Dec. 1st with the Prologue! I'm hoping to have some fun prizes to distribute throughout the read-along as well, but we will see!