I have a couple of manuscripts that have been sitting on the shelf that I can never seem to complete. One is finished, but not quite right. The other is partially done. Maybe. The problem is that I’ve never been able to get either story out the door. I have the best intentions, but something always comes up to throw me off track. Another manuscript would sell and the editor would have requested edits. Or a new line would open and I’d want to submit something, but the stories I had on-hand weren’t quite right. The list of reasons is endless, but I keep going back to these stories on occasion to try to make something of them. I love them both, but it’s been literally years.
So what am I doing now? You guessed it. I’ve picked up the partial manuscript and have begun working on it again. I hate to even say what it is, because I’ve told readers before that I’m working on this story, only to not follow through. But here we go again. I’ll say it. I’m working on a third Dream Weavers book.
I have the story in my head. I even have eight draft chapters. Heck, I have a finished cover! You wouldn’t think it would be that hard to finish it out. But something different happened this time when I picked it up. I see a problem in the first two chapters, and I have a better idea. That means that instead of just editing words for flow, I need to edit the content. And that’s a lot more work. It could affect (and probably will) the following six chapters. Am I going to do it? Of course. Maybe that’s another reason I’ve never been able to finish this book… that I knew subconsciously that there was a problem with the story itself.
I’m taking this as a good sign, even though it’s going to slow me down yet again. And as I work, I’ll be on the lookout for something else to swoop in and try to take priority.