Affliction will be out July 2, 2013! Why isn’t it in June like normal?
I was writing along on Affliction, and it was slow going, which isn’t usual for me at the beginning of a book. The book seemed to be fighting me and I wasn’t sure why, this usually happens when plot, or character, are not conforming to my initial idea and I’m refusing to make the change that the character wants. The book and I continued to duke it out, and I had some all time low daily page counts after page 150, that’s usually the moment that a book gains momentum, unless . . . unless it’s going to be longer than planned. My deadline was coming, I didn’t have time for substantially longer. You see the problem, right? Books are like legs, they need to be as long as necessary to reach the ground, otherwise you have serious problems with walking, running, and just moving forward in general. The more I tried to keep things under control, the harder it got, and the slower I wrote. What I had on the page was good, and I was having fun while writing, but still there was something wrong. Early on I’d told my editor that Edward might be in the book, but as we neared page 300 I assured her that he wasn’t going to be in it, because if he was going to show up that he would have put in an appearance by now. You see it coming, don’t you? Yep, you guessed it, Edward strolled on stage after page 300.
Now, I love Edward. I love writing him. Anita loves to work with him. He is her best friend, after all. Yes, I know that she needs a girl best friend again, since she and Ronnie had a parting of philosophies, but since my best friend, not counting my husband Jon, is male, I guess it makes sense that Anita would gravitate that way, too. Edward’s first scene was perfectly him, and wonderful interaction between him and Anita. It was great! I always love their dialogue. Here’s the problem, any time Edward steps on scene a book is guaranteed to be at least a 100 pages longer than I had planned, and usually between 150-200 pages longer. That’s great for you readers, but I still have to write the pages and meet my deadline. Affliction was plotted out to be a long book anyway, but adding Edward so late in the game, I knew was in trouble.
I called up my wonderful editor, Susan, and told her I wasn’t making my December deadline, it just wasn’t happening, was there anyway to make a later deadline? So, that’s how we ended up with the book moving to July, and my deadline moving to February, because I needed the time to play with all the characters that kept insisting they would be on stage this book.
Not only is Edward a surprise guest star, but Jean-Claude has a much bigger role than I had planned on, and the Wicked Truth are on stage, which I was trying to avoid. I love them, and they are yummy, but when I started nearing 500 pages I thought we had all the familiar characters we were going to introduce in this book, and yet, when I stop typing this I will be finishing their introduction scene for this book. Introducing two minor major characters at nearly page 500? What the hell? I mean, you just don’t introduce people this late in the game if the book is going to stop soon, right? Right? Argh!!!! I love everyone and the book reads well, Jon is really enjoying what he’s gotten to read, as has my editor, but come on all you fictional guys and girls, enough already! I got a deadline to make!
I now realize that one of the things that has slowed my page rate per day is that I’m still fighting the book. I’m still trying to force it into the smaller shape I had planned. I have to stop fighting myself and just let the book be what it’s going to be. My goal for the day is to stop worrying about how many characters are in the book and how late in the game they are stepping on stage and just write. It’s really all I can do, write, and let my imaginary friends have their heads, and like a horse that I’ve been fighting to hold back in a race, I’m hoping that once I give them their heads we’ll pick up speed and fly past that finish line ahead of the pack.