Something silly might have triggered it off. A sudden doubt about the reaction of your heroine. Or maybe the feeling that your hero’s Big Secret is too big secrety.  Or even the fact that you’ve never really got that ending parargraph just the way you like it. But whatever it is, something somewhere has abruptly rendered your story into a heap of steaming ordure.

If you think I’m going to tell you wonderful things about how to overcome that moment then you’re sadly mistaken. I just wanted to complain about it. Mainly because my lovely chess ms, that I loved when I wrote my black moment, suddenly became The Worst Story in the History of the World. I don’t know why. I suddenly thought that my hero was too dark. Too much of a b*stard. Too unsympathetic. There wasn’t enough glamour in it to make it Presents. My heroine’s conflict was waaaaay too light and unexplored, and she was also too shouty. The plot just dumb.

The crazy thing is that this all this could be true. I just don’t know. All I know is that there came a moment where I fell out of love with it and wanted to rewrite the whole damn thing.

But I guess that’s the moment where you either stop working on it and send it off. Or you put it away.  Either action determines the worth of the story. Sending it away magically makes the story even worse than you thought it was. Putting it in the drawer somehow makes it fabulous again. Because when you take that story out and read it again after a week or four, it’s amazing how amazing it turns out to be. And you wonder how you ever doubted it.

Then you send it off and it magically becomes crap again.

Writers are magicians.

So do you work your magic on your mss too? Or is it just me?

This story has been a nightmare to rewrite actually. It’s currently in its 5th iteration and I’m so close to the characters, that whole gentle reveal thing has been really hard. Plus the fact that having no external conflict at all, the reason the two stay together in the book is all down to their choice and if they realise they’re falling for each other they would run a mile! So I have to keep them lying to themselves about what they’re feeling which makes for a slow build book. They don’t know they’re falling for each other and keep telling themselves everything’s okay – until right at the end when it blows up in their faces. Don’t know if that’s right but that’s the way it’s played out. And I’ve realised I’ve got quite a few love scenes in there. Ah well, the attraction between them is the excuse they use to stay together so it’s a large part of the story. And each scene does forward the conflict – I hope!

Good news for the first edit though is that I cried a little at the end. Always a sign that you’ve written something emotional! I didn’t in the first draft – first time ever – so I knew I’d have to go back and ramp everything up. So big yays for tears! Anyone else cry when they write their happy endings?

Right, nothing to do now but wait until I hear back from the ed – whenever that will be. Oh and I’m doing a writing tip on the Sisters’ blog today too. Will go up UK time. I’m thinking I might do a little something on dialogue…

Anyway, it’s an extremely rough and dirty draft and there was a moment there when I wondered if I could even give them their HEA (my poor hero had a particularly tough time). But they sorted it out and got there in the end. So, my last thing really is wondering whether or not to put in an epilogue. There is a thread in there that if I wrap up within the story, it will affect the pacing. Then again, it should be wrapped up (will he survive his climb or not??) and the logical place is to put it in an epilogue. Decisions, decisions.

May not make all that much difference if they don’t want to see the full but hey, I’m gambling that they will. Six weeks and counting, and considering that it’s holidays UK way, I’m thinking I’ll be waiting a while yet.

Anyway, what to do now??

Which leaves me now with two completed manuscripts and two more halfway there. Of course, they could ALL be utter pants and in no way acceptable but sadly, the only way to tell whether this is the case would be to submit and this I cannot do until I hear… But as you all know, I am NTAI.

Anyway, for those of you who are wondering at my ability to finish two mss comparatively quickly, know that the only reason I can do this is that writing is my day job (while oldest is at school and youngest is at creche) so I do tend to have the time. Plus, a great tip that I learned from doing the Nano (novel in a month), was to do a chapter plan beforehand so I know exactly where I’m going, then write without editing. This does mean an incredibly rough first draft – there are scenes that aren’t finished ’cause I’ve got too bogged down – but at least the whole thing is down on the page. Works for me at any rate.

What about the rest of you? Where is everyone at with their current WIPs?