A Talk With Thomas

I'm going to be honest here; I had all but given up on this story. My stress was making it difficult to even put a coherent sentence (or thought) together, and I began to think that it was doomed to remain in limbo until I finished my big move and got away from all the stressors.

Thomas, apparently, wasn't having that.

Out of the two of them, Thomas is the more outspoken twin. He rarely censors himself, much like the person from which he was drawn from. That person caught my attention about two days ago, when he did something so amazingly stupid that I wanted to hop a plane, fly overseas, and smack him with a bag of coins. Granted, it wasn't a life-destroying stupid move (more embarrassing, I think), but it was still stupid. I won't go into detail about it here for fear that it will reveal who my inspirations are for these characters, but I will press that it was one of the stupidest things I have heard someone under the age of 25 do in awhile.

Anyway, this stupid action stayed on my mind. Eventually, as characters sometimes do, Thomas started running his mouth.

"I think you were focusing the climax of Forbidden Children on the wrong twin," he said to me.

I tried to ignore it.

"Think about it, think about what we are. Because of what we are, we will never be completely in control of ourselves. Everything about us, even our abilities, will be out of our control."

I was lying on my bed half-asleep when this thought entered my mind, and I sat up. I went straight for my computer, knowing that it was after 1am and I was due somewhere work-related at 6:45am. I didn't care; Thomas had given me a new direction for my novel.

That was early this morning. I haven't looked over what I wrote (I'm about to), and I'm sure that some of it will be utter nonsense. My hope, though, is that something in those two pages will stick. Perhaps something will stand out and give me something to build on. Maybe the whole thing will get scrapped.

Even if nothing in what I wrote is useful, it gives me hope that I can make the second half of Forbidden Children work.

I really should send both of the knuckleheads, Thomas and his real life counterpart, a fruit basket.

PS- Forgive me if my grammar seems a bit off, but I am VERY tired. (sleepy smile)

Serious Editing

Wow, I've been MIA for months! Well, there are a lot of major personal changes coming up, including a major move to the opposite coast. That doesn't mean that my writing has suffered, only that I have had time to really think about it. The thinking has left me borderline terrified. Here's why:

In March, it dawned on me that the back half of Forbidden Children was looking less than stellar. There was too much downtime between the really critical scenes, leaving a lot of insightful but boring chapters. I also got really bored with the plot lines involving their interactions with women. We all know that if the author thinks certain scenes are boring or forced, the reader will think the same, times two.

I love the climax of Book One, but I have started to hate the reason for the climax. It is over a damn girl, a pretty boring girl at that. I know my twins, and they would not throw themselves into such a situation over a cute but rather dull girl. My really strong female leads do not make their grand entrance until Book Two, so any female paired with the twins before that is not high on my importance list, anyway.

This leaves me with some huge plot holes to fill. This is the main reason why my now grumpy Reading Team has not seen anything new from me. I could probably send them about four to five more chapters. After that, I've got nothing.

Book One is not going to be dumped; it has way too much potential. But major parts of it will be, paving the way for William and Thomas to be much better represented. This will probably be the hardest task in writing this entire series. The rest of the road map is perfect, and even has room for possible add-ons and surprises. I know where all the characters (and I mean ALL of them) will end up. But no one will ever see that beautiful road map if I can't get the damn car out of its neighborhood. That is my new task, and it will not be easy. Few things are as pitiful to see as a book that suddenly loses direction halfway through, and that is my issue with FC.

I am certain that I will figure it out because everything else about this series seems to be solid. My main heroes (or anti-heroes) are awesome guys, my bad guys are awesome pains in the butt, the society they live in is over a decade old, and the I adore the main plot. The main question is this: how much of the twins' back story needs to be told before I get to the present?

Oh, and I welcome any comments or suggestions :)