Plot

Good – Bad – The Tired

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Photo credit: ME! I have this sticker as well as a ton of others in my Etsy shop. (Or contact me and I’ll gladly sell off of there so they don’t get all of my money. 😬)

Hey all, welcome back! It’s a new week and in a few days, a new month. Is it just me or is the Summer flying by?! It seems like just yesterday, people were blowing up fireworks to celebrate the birth of our country. Of course around here, people are still blowing up fireworks because, well, that’s what they do. (And one day, my heart will start beating again.)

Anywhoooo, besides all the craziness of life, I have been up for nights-going-into-days on the book. The other day I worked from 2am to 1pm and pretty much collapsed to sleep. Well, sleep for about an hour. I’m having some trouble with that particular area. Sleep? What’s that? Between the heat and the story going through my head, sleep is a foreign subject to me.

That’s ok though! Just last night as I was getting something to eat, out of nowhere, a critical plot line that I’ve been having issues with resolved itself!! I have been having so much trouble with this part of the story, fully knowing that what I originally wrote was pure and utter crap. Even with all of the research I did on it, it still came off as made up nonsense that would never happen. Ever. I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. It’s been weeks of either obsessing about it or completely ignoring it and going on with the story. I hadn’t even thought about it in days so when it popped up last night, it was like a freaking revelation and I literally yelled out loud, “THAT’S IT!” (Thankfully no one else was home.) When I went into the old chapter, I did a complete rewrite and lo and behold, it works! So one major hurdle is being rectified and I’m feeling so much better about where it is going now.

In the meantime, it’s been days upon days of little or no sleep and I’m starting to get to the punch drunk tired phase. Which, I have to say, keeps me somewhat entertained, as when I read what I’ve written during these times? Has me laughing as I have apparently been writing like a lunatic on acid. Kind of how I’m writing now.

The point I’m laboring to make here is, eventually, things will work themselves out in their own time. Once I stopped putting so much pressure on myself to figure out this one plot point, it came to me. It’s like life I guess. Once you stop putting pressure on yourself to do something, it’ll happen. Once we relax a bit, you’ll be surprised at what happens. So I hope that will be your takeaway from this strange zombie rambling I’m doing tonight. Relax. Let life happen and maybe the solution to the problem you’ve been having? Will come to you. If it doesn’t, well then…have some ice cream. Ice cream can make everything better. 🙂

On that note, I shall leave you for today. I hope you all have a week of great opportunities and please, STAY COOL! It’s going to be a hot one here where I am and this Summer cannot end soon enough for me. Speaking of, for those who are keeping track, Pumpkin Spice Lattes start at Starbucks last week of August, you’re welcome.

Until next time folks, thanks for following along and I hope you will check out the links below. See you soon…cheers!

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If you’ve made it this far, I thank you and will see you in the next post!

Rereading, Spice and Tone Change

/ ccsocialcreative / 2 Comments
Photo credit: StockSnap on Pixabay.

Hey guys, welcome back! I hope you all had a great weekend. It was an interesting one around here with fireworks and a brief blackout, but hey, that’s Summer, amiright?

Quick update, I have added a new page to the site: 2025 On the Bookshelf If you missed the Summer reading post, it contains the books I mentioned there and more and will be updated as I continue to add those that I’m reading throughout the year. Hope you’ll check it out if you are looking for reading recs or Prime Day goodies. (Remember that Prime Days have now begun and run from July 8th-11th. You can find my associate links around the site and on the bookshelf page as well.)

So now that’s out of the way, let’s get to this!

I’m once again rereading my manuscript because somewhere in the last two weeks, the tone of the story has really gone off the rails. What started out as a romcom that I’d hoped the legendary Nora Ephron would approve of, suddenly went to a more serious and darker place I wasn’t expecting. Not to mention, it also got a bit, let’s say, ‘spicier’ than I was going for.

So it was time to take a major step back. I tried rewriting chapters and found that I kept ending up in the same place. I’m chalking it up to the Summer heat finally frying my brain and a few juicy books I’ve read in the past few months. However, for this particular book, I had never planned on it going in that direction.

I’ve decided to put those new chapters aside, maybe rework them for a future project that is leaning more towards that particular genre, but for this book? I want to keep it lighter, funnier, more romance and less smut. Not that there’s anything wrong with a bit of spice, but seriously, my mind went to a place that even I didn’t know it could go. So maybe this whole therapy thing needs to be looked at again? Who knows. At least I started to see the shift change before I wrote any more so I could put a stop to it.

Thus, the rereading.

Going back to my earlier chapters has been great for me. Not only am I finding editing errors, I’m also finding where I can combine my much shorter chapters into larger ones. So numerically, I’m not as far along as I thought I once was, but flow wise, it will read much better. I’m also finding the humor again which is what I really needed to do. 

This particular story does have a deeper backstory and one that I think needs a voice. So I have no issues with having a slight bit of a darker reality behind it. However, when the entire story started to take a more dramatic route, I knew it needed to be changed. When you as the author winces at your own work? It’s time to take a step back.

I’ll be honest, I have trouble with criticism. Of any kind. But with my writing? I get instantly defensive and either get angry or curl up into a ball…it’s just a reflex. Reading and rereading my own work these past two weeks, I’ve been criticizing myself like crazy. How could I let the story go this way? What the hell made me go to the dark side? Why would I ever have a character do that when I have never established any such behavior from them during their development? As harsh as I have been on myself, I can at least look at my writing through fresh eyes as I reread these chapters. Why? Because as I read them, they don’t even read as if I wrote them! So I feel like I am critiquing someone else’s work.

By the way, this is a reason why I don’t do reviews. I hate getting anything of mine reviewed, so I won’t do it to someone else. I will only share what I like. If I don’t like something? You won’t see it. Anywhere. Here, my social media, whatever. But if I like something, I’ll throw a post onto my #booktok or add it to my bookshelf page. Artists of all kinds from sculptors to musicians to writers and beyond put their hearts and souls into their work. To criticize them to me, (and me only here), can feel very personal. So I try to keep it more positive by sharing the stuff I really enjoy.

Anywhoo, back to my book for a quick moment…I am now halfway through the reread and it has really been helping me get the story back on track. I’ve taken more notes in the past week of new story ideas than I have in a month, so hey, maybe I’m onto something here! After all, this project has certainly been going faster than I would have thought. It’s a story I have been excited about getting out there. I’ve also been waiting for the other shoe to drop. One that will slow me down, block me from moving forward and lo and behold, I hit it.

Whatever you are working on, take the time to go over it constantly. Then go over it again to keep the flow going, the continuity, the voice. Make sure you are keeping with the vision that you’ve had for it all along. Sure there is room for change, maybe your vision has also been altered. Just make sure you are doing it in a way that will make YOU proud. I’m not saying that the darker stuff I wrote wasn’t going to work. In fact, in some ways, this book could totally go in that direction. It’s just not what I wanted for these characters, so I’m going to stick with the original plan. It’s what’s best for myself and for this work. (Then maybe, I’ll add the spicier stuff to the next one.) 😉

And that is where I’m going to leave you for today! Thanks as always for following along my strange journey and hope that you are getting something out of my rambles.

Be sure to check out my links below and on the site and until next time…cheers all!

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You can find the new 2025 On the Bookshelf page in the main menu or click here.

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To follow me on social, including my new #booktok account, click: linktr.ee/promosocially

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If you’ve gotten this far, thanks again and see you soon!! ☺️

Plot Betrayal, Extended Research and June was Hot

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Photo credit: StartupStockPhotos on Pixabay

Hey guys, welcome back! I am in shock that June is over. I mean, is it just me or did you also just blink and it was done? As someone who feels that Summer is the equivalent of living on the surface of a volcano while eating razor blades, the faster these months go the better. (Basically, I need Fall, I need Fall now!) Even though this is my least favorite time of the year, I can usually deal with it. With my very odd schedule of sleeping during the day, I miss most of the heat. However, my AC this year has decided to only churn out the minimal amount of coolness and I’m currently sitting in a room with both the AC and a fan on and it is still 84 degrees. But I digress…(sorry, just needed to get that out). 😬

This past week I’ve run into the proverbial wall that I’ve been afraid would come for some time. If you’ve been following along here, you know that my writing has been going pretty smoothly so far. I’ve gotten into a routine, a rhythm, a wonderful flow of typing, creating this story of mine and I’ve been so happy with it. And then…

I hit a chapter that is important to the plot. Like, super important to the plot. I wrote it out, let it get out of my head and then went on to the next. After I put everything away for the day to get ready for bed, that one chapter was replaying in my mind. I didn’t like how it panned out and the thing is, a good portion of the next chapter very much depends on the bad one.

So, ok. That night I went in and reread it. I could see where it went off the rails. I make a copy of it, (I write each chapter individually for just such an occasion) and rewrite much of the thing. Go on to write the next two and ok, I think I’ve got it under control. I usually print out a chapter after two edits but kept this one off to the side for now because I was excited about where the rest of the story was going.

In the back of my mind though, that one plot point was just not doing it for me. If it was a case of it being a sort of side story or one for a secondary character, I could forgive much of it for now and continue on. However, this is a crucial storyline and one that needs to be told with accuracy.

This has been added to the routine. I need time each night now to research how this scenario should play out. Granted, I normally love, LOVE researching anything. But I painted myself into a corner with this one. A ‘said in passing’ character trait early on, has now become important to the story as a whole. The problem here is that it is not something that I am knowledgeable about and therefore, my search history is now one that is unrecognizable to me.

By the way, I’d like to mention how hard it is to talk about this without giving anything away! I’m trying so hard not to reveal anything about my book, so to talk in generics is proving to be quite a challenge.

I recently started a booktok (under NewChapterCove) and have started to follow a number of authors. Not just to support them, but to also see if I’m alone with a lot of my journey. I saw a post yesterday where this particular writer said something about how he looks at his screen funny when his character does something he wasn’t planning on. I COULDN’T AGREE MORE! My characters have taken on a life of their own and for the most part, I run with it. But now here I am, over 40 chapters in now and scrambling to figure out this one scene that I just need to move past to get on with my life.

Which of course means that this has become my panic chapter. That chapter in a book where the reader goes, “seriously? This is where it’s going?” Said with all the sarcasm that one could muster btw. Which of course, is a nightmare for any author.

With this happening, I’ve decided to put it aside for now. I have so many other things I’d rather be writing, the next few ‘days’ in the story that I want to continue with and can’t rewrite that one nightmare chapter until the rest of this is out of my head. Only then, will I be able to rewrite the sequence of events to have this all make sense and fit with the rest of the story. Or so I hope.

So this is where I am now. With these now higher chapters, I’m still trying to work out how this will wind down even though I really don’t want this book to ever end. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing it and it has also become a special escape for me every night. The thought of extending it to a sequel or series to keep it going is still up in the air right now. I can’t think that far ahead until I can work out this rather brazen plot betrayal of mine.

And that is where I will leave you for today. I thank you so much for reading and following along with my slight freak out and hope that if you are celebrating the 4th of July, that it is fun and most of all safe! (Leave the doggies at home too. Fireworks are the leading cause of the most lost dogs of the year.)

Until next time folks…be good, be kind, be you!

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If you’ve gotten this far, I thank you and will see you next time!