Novella, Novella

Having solved a major story problem in my novella, I have forged ahead with completing it. Unfortunately, the story change also meant deleting almost an entire chapter, which still must be re-written, and most of the ending, which must also be re-written, from scratch. I realized that Chapter Five was very schmaltzy and unrealistic, compared to the other chapters and one of the characters just wasn’t dastardly enough, so he too was re-written. I had changed the conflict between the siblings and at the behest of my cousin, who read the original, I reverted back to the original conflict. The battle scene is my favorite indeed, and although I tweak it left and right, the crux of it remains the same. A minor character still needs to be written into the battle scene and plays a crucial role in the new ending. In the former version, he was killed off in Chapter Four. The spy’s role has been changed and although I JUST deleted a crucial dream sequence of the heroine, I will now have to re-install that dream sequence. Luckily, whenever I do re-writes, I save them all under different names. Makes doing things like that much easier. Tweak, tweak, tweak. Also in the former version, everything was pretty much tied up in a neat little bundle after the battle, with only one small problem left to content with. Bor-ring. Now the sex and violence must continue to its heart pounding climatic conclusion, which, I still haven’t figured out. I know what has to happen, yet I’m still contemplating who will be the one who comes through for the heroine and goads the re-written, dastardly character from above into doing something stupid which will cause his untimely and violent, bloody demise, leaving our heroine and hero to live happily ever after. Awwwwwwww... As this is an erotica novella, believe it or not, its the last three chapters, five, six, and seven, which must burn the pages and make it difficult to read. Squirmy, why-couldn’t-that-hunka-hot-man-sex-me-up-like-that difficult, or how-come-he-gets-a-virgin-and-the-rest-of-us-have-to-fast sorta thing. And, of course, I just realized the first four pages of Chapter Six must now be moved to Chapter Five. To give you some idea, when I started working today, I had over 32,000 words, now, 26,000. *Sniff* *sniff* I only cry a little when I delete. But this is what I love about writing. Figuring out those story problems, making things fit, making things more realistic (well, realistic if you believe in faeries and elves and enchanted rivers), and watching my characters leap to life (and into rivers, and onto the backs of horses, and into the sack with a hunka hot man) under my fingertips. Even if its never published, or never even makes it far enough to be read by a publisher, I’ll still sit down to read it and say, “G-d, I love this story!”