Yes, I’m just like anybody else. I can procrastinate with the best of them. Sure I’ve had my share of distractions, but that’s not a reason for not writing anything the past couple of days. Even if I’d written for 10 or fifteen minutes I would have put out something, but I didn’t. I didn’t write one word of fiction. I want to complete Of Gnomes and Dwarves before November 1st. That date is quickly approaching and I still have a big battle scene to write.

I may still be able to get there. All the characters are converging on the location. A couple scenes will be cut out as they’re not as important to the story. I did re-read the end and wow is it terrible and weak. I’m hoping the new ending will be much stronger. That’s my goal anyway. The original was meant to be emotional yet bring the group together in a stronger way. The end I wrote felt forced and didn’t bring much emotion to the table.

It was fast! It was packed with action from page to page. Willie does his thing and the rest of the gang all do their best as well. I just know I can write a better and stronger ending. I think including Semal (the main villain) as a POV character helped bring more insight to the story. This is something the story lacked before.

Another thing I did was to remove the ‘storyteller’. This was a person with a prologue, interlude, and epilogue to the story that showed how events played out far into the future. I doubt I’ll bring that element back in as it didn’t enhance the overall story. I also excluded the viewpoint of two other characters I had intended to give one chapter per book to tell their viewpoint of the story. Instead they’ll only show up in other ways (dreams, mental images, etc). I’m having fun figuring out how to bring them into the fold.

I also told more side character stories in this book. I want to re-use some of these characters later in the book so it’s fun to bring them in. If I decide to self-publish this series, this will also give me a lot of material for short stories set in the same universe with these characters. Obviously Maus, Willie, Slick, and Reeg will all have to be included in short stories of their own.

As for the plotting of V&A Shipping II. Yeah, I’ve kinda put that off as well. I will likely be pantsing part of the book, but I have a general feel of where it’s going. I’m ready to start bashing out words on that one. Oh yeah. I think it’s distracted me a little from getting the end of OGAD completed, but again, that’s an excuse.

I’m also still progressing on my two secret projects. Slowly, but progressing. I’m hoping to start both on Jan 1st. I just need to get some more work done before I start.  So much to do and so little time. I also owe a couple people some audio (and one a video). This is going to be a long weekend (meaning busy) before Halloween gets here. I’d better get at it!

Until Tomorrow!

WOO WOO!