News

I got no pages yesterday. God knows I tried, but nothing. I finally had to walk away from the computer, the book, all of it. I could feel my imagination thinking, rolling around, almost liquid, as if the ideas were floating on some metaphysical ocean, and I just had to find the right way to coax something out of the that warm, deep, water.

Usually when I take some time to let the thoughts percolate, by morning I’m ready. My muse has found a way around the problem, but not this morning. This morning I still didn’t want to go to the computer and work on this scene. Why?

It is the climatic fight scene of the book, SWALLOWING DARKNESS, but more than that it’s a scene I’ve had on the drawing board since almost the beginning of the first book. It’s not just a climatic fight scene for this book, but one of the climaxes for the series. Not, THE, climatic fight, but one of them.

I had it so clear in my head. I have had sticky notes on the wall so long they’ve begun to fade in color. I knew this scene. I knew what it would be, and how it would work . . . and I’m wrong.

Remember I put this scene together somewhere after A KISS OF SHADOWS was written. DARKNESS is the seventh book in this series. A lot of character development and plot has happened between book one, and this book. A lot. Some of it planned, and some of it not. This morning I realized that I had to let go of the scene I thought I would be writing at this point in the series. I had to let go of my sweeping epic battle, as planned. I had to redo, rethink, let the characters be true to themselves, rather than my ideals.

It took me about twenty-four hours to let go of the scene, that would not work, and begin the scene that would. I’ve got six pages done today, and I’ve set up what we’re doing. It’s not what I wanted to do, but it’s what works. It’s true to my magic system, my characters, and my plot that has come before. I can’t break my own rules now. Dammit.

So, six pages of progress, and tomorrow hopefully more.