Okay, so not really cookies as much as throwing out 45,000 words because really, they weren’t good.
Or should I say, they were good enough but at some point, the dough gets overworked and the story doesn’t rise. This was the case of the last eight chapters of that damned WIP.
Keep in mind, something like this isn’t new. It’s happened before. If you had any idea how long it took to get Sinner’s Gin going, you’d have told me to take up knitting…something that’s NEVER going to happen. Just saying.
Characters need to gel. I don’t pretend to write great literature and I sure as hell don’t claim to be Donald Kingsbury (no really, go read Courtship Rite. Fucking brilliant book). I just want to write a story. And sometimes, the story I write sucks.
Sure, I can keep shoving at it but at a certain point in time, usually when I’m shoving a camel through a needle, I have to stop and take a look at what I’m doing and say… okay, this is shit and it’s not going to work.
All in all, it’s a pretty easy decision to make. Do I mourn the lost two weeks? A little bit but maybe I can suck in some of it back. Right now, I’m on laying down the bones again and trying to scrape off everything I’d assumed about the characters from the prior chapters. Because really, it’s all new again.
It’s actually going better. No one’s stewing in a pot of disgust and I actually have space to move the characters around. Good thing that. So, wish me luck and most of all, pray for my sanity. I’ve got some catching up to do.
