As many of you will remember, my current project is the sequel to
Shrouded Jewels, titled
As Fairydust Settles. This story follows Mical and Davey as they deal with the results of deception and how it affects their marriage. Meanwhile, Mr. Benson is determined to keep them from happiness.
I have had a hard time with this story, for a variety of reasons. The first draft was written during
NaNoWriMo 2011. As any NaNo author knows, the focus is on the wordcount; the content is secondary.
NaNo 2010 (
Forgotten Memories) worked beautifully for me. I had an entire novel, in the right order, and though it needed editing (my first drafts--and even second, third, and sometimes fourth drafts--are
never perfect), I was thrilled with the result. NaNo 2012 (
Tomatoes Don't Judge), I believe will be similar. I haven't looked at the draft lately because I work on one project at a time, but I'm not expecting unpleasant surprises.
As Fairydust Settles was more like a compilation of scenes than a novel. They were out of order, and when I could read it critically, I learned that much of the writing didn't fit within the story.
After three or four outlines, I finally had one I was happy with. The only problem? It meant deleting more than half of the current story. For a while, I lost motivation. Can you blame me? I continued on, but the writing was slow and difficult. Although I was excited about where the story could go, I was frustrated that it had taken so long to get there.
Finally, I've reached what I consider the fun part. I'm on chapter 16, with an end goal of 20 chapters. In the next few weeks, I hope to have this draft completely done, and I'll move from writing to editing. It's taken some time, but I'm happy with how it's turning out now...and I'm so excited to finally share this story with you all--by December this year, if all goes smoothly!
