Life, Death and Rewrites

Wow. And wow again.

My writer buddy, Moira Reid was looking over one of my current projects. She made it sound like she was just enjoying my story, but the truth is she quickly found several problems and helped me find solutions. In a matter of a couple hours we hashed out nearly half of the story.

I have been struggling over this story for quite a while. Some of my readers may remember the book, Amethyst Bound? It was planned as trilogy of novellas. In the beginning it felt like a cohesive story line that could carry the characters through the three novellas with ease, but with some  interference from real life in the middle, book two became the harbinger of doom for all my writing. I fought and fought with it and finally got it to a point where it felt close to where I first intended.

Unfortunately the editor in charge of the series did not feel it could work as it was and offered some suggestions to improve it. Back to the editing I went, still wrapped in a thin layer of hope, I reworked the story to address nearly all the editor's concerns. Many of which made sense and I was sure improved the story. As a side effect of the edit, the story twisted further from my original vision. I could accept the changes, even embrace them if it let  my characters breath life into their world...  Or so I thought. With nearly all the changes made (I kept one character that I was asked to cut), I sent it back again and once more it did not meet with the love I had hoped.

Part of me had already given up on this story. It no longer felt like my baby. Sadly even an ugly baby can be loved too much.

Some  might have  noticed, I can at times be pretty stubborn. I was determined to finish this story before jumping into bed with another. I really try to be that kind of gal. So with this one acting like a blockade none of my other stories could see the light of day.

Still, I am stubborn, so here I am again. This time I gutted the story and found my original notes in order to rework it from scratch.

If this doesn't work, I'm afraid Amethyst 2 will have to be put aside until I can find the love again. Wish me luck.