I’ll be turning 50 in February and recently I was having a bit of a crisis about my weight and my writing. You can see the weight stuff at Lowering the Feed Limit.

Anyway, Beloved and I talked about this and he asked me if I thought Sword & Illusion could be done by my 50th birthday. I thought so, then, but right now, I’m not so sure.

I knew it needed work, and I’ve totally “finished” seven of 34 chapters. “Finished” means that I’ve edited them, he’s read them, and both of us, after further edits, have proclaimed them polished and the best they can be.

However, now I’m on Chapter Eight and things are starting to get a little more “tricksey.”

There was a “factor” that I never felt fully comfortable with. I needed to get a character somewhere so he could discover something that would play directly into both major plot lines – the hero’s goal and the heroine’s goal – but the reason I chose to get him from Point A to Point B never actually went anywhere. He discovered what he needed to and the catalyst was forgotten.

Also, that catalyst originally had a purpose but after some rethinking of the plot, that purpose vanished.

So, I knew, deep down, something had to change and Chapter Eight was where it all started.

So, I rewrote it yesterday and cut 33 pages of unnecessary scenes. The good news is that it moves the meeting between the hero and heroine closer to the beginning, but it leaves a lot of stuff kind of in limbo – not where I had them but they are still necessary to the story. AND I did add some stuff that will have to be massaged into the story and it will require more additional stuff later.

Sooo, as you can see, I’m not totally sure I will get this book done on my self-imposed deadline.

Today I’m using Super Notecard to cut the chapters into scenes and making copious notes about who is in each scene and various other things that might come up later.

Also, I have to remember that this is only the second book in a series I think could go on to two or more books, and I need to make sure I don’t forget anything important in Book 4 (what color were her eyes???).

Writing my fantasy books is hard. They are big, overwhelming, complicated books.

But fun. Why would I do it otherwise?

Still, though, I’m looking forward to getting back to the simpler sweet contemporary series I have planned.

Thanks for listening to me vent a little.