Where Things Are

I want to update everyone on where I am with my novel Legends of the End. The book is finished and now I’m doing my edit. The novel is written in two parts so I’m almost at the end of part one. Part one is much longer than part two. The end of part one is complicated because there are so many issues coming to a head all at once. I took a few weeks off to help my wife in her recovery from a knee replacement. That took my full attention. She is doing very well and my focus is swinging back to this book. I do have an editor waiting for this manuscript. Richard Thomas has agreed to work with me. He edited my first novel and the fact he is excited to work together again is a great encouragement.

I’ve realized that a lot of the way things go in the end of part one reflects some events in my own life. I think creative writing is how I process things inside of me. My first novel was filled with the horror of what it’s like to live with a dissociative disorder. For me it’s PTSD and writing my first novel help me more than any drugs or talk therapy. I don’t always recognize how things in a story relate to me but because of this break in the editing I gained a bit of distance and saw some of the relationships. This has helped me see ways I can change things (tweaks really) that will give another layer to things that makes sense and pushes the conflict level to the max.

The upshot is this is taking a little longer than I was planning for so my schedule is in flux. Part two is pretty set so it should go faster. Thing is I keep cutting but the word count keeps growing! I’m on page 217 of a (currently) 351 page manuscript. That’s around 240,000 words and growing. I know Richard will help in reducing that word count. I have been accused of underwriting at times and I’m trying to get ahead of that issue but undoubtedly there will be sections that need unpacking as I cut down other scenes. Like I have said before, editing is a horror story in and of itself but a necessary part of the process in getting a story out of your head and into a book in your hands.