Series Update April 2016…

It’s becoming an increasingly slow slog getting this series finished. I raced through my re-write of book two towards the end, then started book three and got stuck after the prologue (which was very clear in my mind) because I got myself in a tangle about which character was where, what they were doing and why. What had always been a very clear path to the end suddenly seemed flawed, although I could not put my finger on the whys or wherefores.

I took another break from the story to give myself some thinking time and (fortunately/unfortunately) began to be very plagued by a character who wants to be written – but she is not from this series so has to stay where she is for now despite how loud and formed she is in my mind. She will play a major part in an upcoming project which I think is actually going to be a series of books aimed at children. Who expected that one?

Back to the Aethera and I remained in a muddle and feeling somewhat despondent after so many years of watching them interact so coherently in my thoughts and in the many hundreds of pages already written. I began to feel very depressed by the lack of progress until the very thought of opening the files and my big ideas sketchpad had become a monumental task in my by now very messed up head.

Time heals all, they say, and a little more time away from it all – anxiety and hopelessness in tow – started to work some wonders. I began to focus on the good things that I have already written, particularly on those little plot mysteries that solved themselves in the writing and the answers that had come to earlier questions that I had no idea I was asking at the time.

Where there have been those solutions, I had to believe there will be more and suddenly I realised that the only way forward was to go back over what has gone before (again) and find the words to continue the story.

I revisit book two with a more positive view this time. I think I know where it gets a little muddy, and I think the explanation for that already exists on the pages written and the thoughts as yet unwritten. I may not yet have an agent to help me through the tougher times, but I have three solid main characters, an ever forming world and a sidekick who is worthy of his own story. I have the ingredients I just have to get the mixture right, and I will.

Book two the re-visit is underway. Time to spring clean my words ready for the next ones.

Elloise Hopkins.