20 Days Remaining

I had missed my previous deadline.

So, I imposed a new one, and that  is coming due. Needless to say, the itching sensation of its nearing presence is growing fast. That nervous vibration that dwells in my shoulders, and in my back, and in my neck that tells me that something of importance is looming. It isn’t that I had to do this to myself, but I seem to work best when I do impose such a limitation upon myself. It’s a trick that I gave myself many years ago when I wrote my first rather lousy novella. My friends at the time said I became unbearable as I wrote up to 20 pages a day. I was always cranky, and generally not someone they wanted to be around even when not writing for I focused so hard on my task. I guess, sometimes that’s what it takes to get the job done.

Why is it that I was having such difficulty these recent months in completing the edit? I have come to the conclusion it is because they could not see the ending of what I was doing. Sometimes the ideas need to just simmer on the back burner of the mond for long periods. Tonight, I came to the realization that for me writing is almost like driving in the fog. You can’t see too far ahead and even though you know where you’re going sometimes the story, like indistinct shapes looming in the fog, take time to come clear. Sometimes you can see things that are not really there. That is what my sense has been these recent weeks as I have been muddling through trying to learn what it is that I am writing. For really this and it has resulted in a lot new material to go in.

I had of course needed to change the whole voice over to third person, which is left me with some real interesting issues in how the story is told. The first person voice does not do a direct translation over to third person just by changing the pronouns. It leaves for some awkward grammar although it’s intriguing in other ways. It does give the book a lot more Personal Touch. Seeming more like it has been told by a narrator who was either a witness to the event or a biographer of some sort. Not that that is a bad thing, in fact I originally intended the whole series to be read like a set of Memoirs dictated to a biographer. I kept seeing the movie “Matthew” in my mind’s eye to some extent.

If you have not heard of the movie “Matthew”, it is a brilliant concept. A movie that takes the entire Book of Matthew and word for word tells it in a cinematic fashion just like if you were watching a memoir being dictated to a scribe. The flashing back and forth between the narration of the biblical Book of Matthew and mixing it with the events that he talks about as if you were really there. At least that was my original idea of going forward, but that doesn’t really work in the manner of which I was hoping. So something new is coming about.

At least now, 20 days out, I see more clearly how I’m going to finish this. It is taking some clever twists, at least in my mind, and doing minor alterations two characters that have existed already. The good news, or at least the way I see it, is that the intrigue is going to increase. Plus the overall depth and connectivity to the second novel (which is currently cooling on the rack awaiting) is also greatly increased. It amazes me how much I needed to write that first draft of the second novel to develop the world more fully for the first. I would like to say that it is been a lot of fun, and I suppose it is to a certain respect, but at the same time it has been hard work!

Therefore, with my self-imposed deadline 20 days away, the nerves are ringing, the mind is suddenly blazing, and I am so excited to be done with some of the grunt work that I have suitting before me before I can get to the points that really are exciting my soul.

So what are these things that burn white hot in my mind?  Ahhhh… Spoilers, Sweeties.  Those would be spoilers.

I will leave you with twowords of encouragement I have received from an “Alpha Reader”.

The first is that my research is paying off giving the book a real feel of authenticity.  That was very nice to hear.  The second was that the reader lost them self in the book so much they lost track of the time.

THAT is what I love to hear most of all!  Hopefully when released ,you will all feel the same way.