Dilemma nearly solved… nearly…

I mentioned the other day that I had a writing dilemma – a sort of self-inflicted dilemma; I’m editing a very long novel I wrote and ‘finished’ several years ago, and to keep my creative side going I’m writing a new novel too. Editing is such a grapple, and sometimes quite boring, going though and trying to spot all the mistakes… and writing something new is exciting and stimulating.

My dilemma is that I have realised that my ‘finished’ novel needs much more work on it than I had supposed – not just slashing away all the unwanted verbiage, and pruning it into a lean and readable shape, there are parts which need reworking, reorganising, sequencing etc and it’s a massive undertaking.

Last night, at about midnight, I had a sudden breakthrough… I suddenly felt as if I was really getting to grips with the long novel, I felt as if a shape was arising out of the muddle, a shape that worked and I felt more confident – and I also realised I had to give myself a more realistic time-frame… I think if I continue working hard and consistently, it should be ready by Christmas, this Christmas, Christmas 2016.

At the same time, the same midnight, a problem I’d had with my new book resolved itself… a hotel I was having trouble writing about relocated itself to an old harbour and a plot problem was solved. I feel I can confidently move ahead with this too, and i even have a name for it – Earthquake! This new novel, the fifth in the Radwinter series, should be ready by about July.

I feel full of energy now, I can see which way I’m going! So, back to work! …Earthquake! should be published in July, Lucky Portbraddon in December!

In case you haven’t read my novels yet, they are pblished as e-books and here is a link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=lois+elsden