SquarePeg Books

One of the reasons I don’t plot, is because sometimes most of the time my stories develop a life of their own. I know where it starts, and I know where it will end.

HOW it gets there and HOW it ends is a different matter entirely.

My second Romance book is an example of that. I had whole scenes mapped out and even written. I had wonderful one-liners and set-ups that made me giggle, smile and weep.

As of right now, 75% of all that is now in the recycle bin. I desperately want to use them, but it isn’t working for this story.  Too much is going on, and lovely, delightful scenes have to be cut or this will turn into a meandering 160,000 word behemoth.

No. Just no.

I save that kind of wordcount for my fantasy novels. I can use them there. I can justify them there. You NEED words to describe a whole different world.

You don’t generally need that many words for a current day, set in this world, romance.

The fantasy gig lets me write and expound upon things. The romance thing is more of a set it up, knock ’em down, make it look good and nail the landing sort of thing.

And it sucks, because I have all these fun scenes that just. Don’t. Work. They don’t fit with the lineup. If I want to use them, I’ll have to come up with a whole different story, different characters, different -almost-everything.

Which is just about where I am right now. I had this character designed specifically for this role. I had these scenes written to expose her humor, her scars, her armor.

Now they ain’t workin’ worth a damn.

On the one hand this is good. It means my brain isn’t stale and broken and unable to work – I can move pretty fluidly through my notes and write relatively smoothly when I’ve drained the tank and changed the synovial fluid every 1,045,200 minutes per manufacturer instructions (for those of you who got that joke, thank you for being my nerdy theatre/science people).

On the other hand, this sucks. It’s heartbreaking,  All those ideas DOA. They best they can hope for is a renewed life in a recycled transplant. Although, the recipient may reject the donation as well.

My stories can be picky little buggers that way.