In between working on the query letters and synopsis that I’m planning on sending out before the end of the year (yay, deadlines!) I’ve also started working a little bit on my next MS. I haven’t started writing seriously yet, since I don’t want to get caught up in the writing before I’ve sorted out the queries and synopsis fully (since the temtation would be too big to write rather than do that).

However, I find that I’m having some problems with this next MS. I was being a really good girl, plotting and writing everything down, planning probably at least half the book right there (yeah, I’m a bit odd.. I stop about halfway in and then as I’ve written a few chapters the remainder of the book falls into place and I can write the remainer of the plotline). But… as I started writing the first chapter… It just didn’t feel right.

So I made a small change and tried again. Still wasn’t right, I tried another approach to the scene. No… Still not right. Eventually (about 4 drafts later) I decided to change the setting entirely, from an office to a garden a few days later, simply skip that part of the story. And suddenly I had 3 chapters!

Now, I must admit that I’m still not entirely happy, and I think I might change the setting – but not the content to any greater extent – of the first meeting still. (I have a library in mind now) I’m also having to work a little bit on my hero’s motivation, I want to make sure he has enough reasons to try to resist the heroine’s charms (and she’s definitely trying to charm him!)

I’ve really had troubles with starting this though, I want my beginnings a certain way, and this one just hasn’t felt right yet. So I keep redoing it. Trust me, you don’t want to know how many versions I’m up in now… But I think I finally know how I want it, and as soon as I’m back from my vacation (I’m going to Florida for a week *happy dance*) I will sit down and start writing seriously.

Has anyone else ever had a similar experience? With writing or with something else? You’ve had this idea about how you want it, but once you get started you realise that it’s quite simply not as brilliant as you thought it was, in fact, it might actually quite stink? Or you just can’t get a handle on something, even if you thought you had it all sorted in your head. Why is it that things might seem so easy in our heads when we’re imagining it, but once we actually start to work on it we realise that it wasn’t quite that simple at all…?
Emily (who is looking forward to trick or treating!!)