I have really got to stop making posts without titles… :adds one: There.
A friend said to me today, “When it’s the wrong time, a decision can’t be made. When it’s the right one, a decision isn’t necessary.” We were actually talking about life in general (and dude, it’s so true), but it’s also true sometimes in fiction. The writing of it, I mean. I have spent a great deal of time going over and over various aspects of the plot of Devil’s Eye. There were problems with one of the plot threads I had set up in the original version. So Pot and I brainstormed and came up with an alternative, and I got down to the last two scenes and realized that the alternative just wouldn’t work.
My dear soul sister Claire and I went back and forth all afternoon trying to find a way. Until she asked, “Well why does the demon’s curse have to be broken? It would make for all kinds of great tension later on in the series.”
Um. She was totally right. It doesn’t. As soon as I accepted THAT, then the details of the last two scenes fell into place. And I came home and wrote them. And I FINISHED the second draft!!! Woo!
What I considered, in this context, is that Devil’s Eye is not the complete story of Mick and Sophie. The whole thing takes place in less than 24 hours. It’s only 22k, so there’s not a lot of room for relationship development. While it is a complete story in and of itself, it doesn’t end with a guaranteed HEA or HFN. It is, quite simply, a beginning. Do I have plans for a full novel with the two of them? I don’t know. I’m not guaranteeing anything. It depends on who speaks up and is noisiest. But the possibilities are definitely there.
So the next plan is to print out the whole draft tomorrow (or today, actually since I wrote this last night), run through to make any quick and minor revisions, then send it off to CPs. And then, I’m buckling down to outline the anthology story I’m writing over the holidays. I might even get a chance to dive into it while I’m out of town. And that would be a refreshing change of pace to play with some fresh characters. Then when I get back next Wednesday, I’m hoping to have my critiques back and to dive into any necessary revisions (hopefully nothing too strenuous) so that I can get Devil’s Eye out ASAP.
4 thoughts on “Devil’s Eye Draft 2 DONE!”
It sounds like you are gonna be busy. Someone once told me I should make my book into a series, but Im still waiting on ideas.
This was always part of a planned series, but more in the sense that there is an overarching metaplot, not that they all follow the same characters.
The guy on the A-Team used to say, “I love it when a plan comes together.” That’s kind of how it sounds with Devil’s Eye. That part you struggled with finally clicked. Yay!
Congrats on breaking through! That’s such a great feeling.