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 :)