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I’ve finished the read through of THE HARLEQUIN. I’m happy with it, except for a few things at the end. I tend to rush the climax of a book at the end sometimes, not always, but sometimes. I know this about myself as a writer, but I also know that once the first draft is done that a rushed ending can be fixed later. I rushed a few fight scenes, which I’ll need to flesh out and take my time with. I have a few questions on the metaphysics. I need to go back an reread some of the other books to find out what’s actually in print on certain topics. It’s always a throw away line that you forgot you wrote that will come back to haunt you. You don’t remember you wrote it one way, and it’s in print, so you write it now, and suddenly you have two mutually exclusive truths in print in one series. You try not to do things like that but when you’re writing book fifteen of a series, it’s a concern.
I hope you and yours have a great Thanksgiving. I may actually take tomorrow completely off, so there maybe no blog tomorrow, not sure. I’ve done the read through, made my notes. The book looks like it’s bleeding sticky notes. Most of the notes are small things, like spelling of people’s names, does that minor character have blue, or grey eyes, that sort of thing. I gave a bad guy the same unusual name as a victim in an earlier book. I must like that name. Most of the notes that might actually need a rewrite are all at the end. Like I said, rushed the ending. I’ve made notes on things that absolutely must be fixed, and made more notes on things that could be redone. I’m not quite certain on a part of the fight and how it goes, but I think I’ll let the book sit until Monday. Let my subconscious work at it. If I feel particularly inspired I may sit down and start the first chapter of the next book, but I think that will probably wait until I’m positive THE HARLEQUIN is put to bed. I’ll see if the muse moves me early. For those who are new to the blog, at the end of most books, I open a new file on the computer and write the first chapter of the next book in the series. The voice, the world, everything is strongest and clearest at the end of a book. I write either all, or part of the beginning of the next book so that months from now when I sit back down to Anita I’ll have a chapter, or at least some pages and an outline of the beginning. It makes the writing go so much easier. Strangely, I didn’t write an opening for Merry 6, when I finished MISTRAL’S KISS. I have no idea exactly where to start the story. Normally, that scares me, but for some reason with this book, it excites me, as if the book wasn’t ready months ago to tell me where it began. Books are like people, they have their own personalities, their own rhythm’s. Not just each series is different, but each book is different, unique. For everything that is the same from book to book in the process of writing, there are a dozen, or a hundred things that are different. Experiences you only have with this book, this person, this moment. Anyway, I’m off. Happy Turkey Day.