I’m writing again. My book that is. And I’m fairly certain that I’m more apt to finish it now that I’ve ironed out the timeline that for some reason was causing me tons of problems. The other night I sat in the attic and looked at all the things I’d written, rearranging them into files for each of the scenes I wanted to include. I thought I had written almost all of the story by now, but I still have the whole end of the book to fill in.

I also realized that I have a lot of writing that is just going to be scrapped, or put into a different book. I’ve changed my story a bit since the beginning, so the first chapters I had written so many years ago, probably before I got married in 2000, don’t fit into the story now. They’re part of the back story that used to exist, but I’m not sure if it still does. The original story that the book is very loosely based on was a story I had written for my school newspaper over 20 years ago.  I had created this somewhat dramatic story about young love, in a fantasy setting. Let’s just say I’ve scrapped pretty much the whole story and kept only a few characters.

Every time I sit to write more of the story, I see new things about it that I never knew were there. I discover something about my writing that I didn’t see before. Or I see how the characters have changed. I can’t trust that they’ll do what I think they’ll do. And I think that’s a good thing. Characters, like people, are meant to change. Otherwise they would be boring and stagnant, unwilling to accept new ideas, new thoughts, or to learn anything from their situation or experience.

But I have to be careful. If I immerse myself too much in the story I get lost in all the words I’ve written, and I forget where I am. I start writing in circles. Rehashing the same old sentences. It’s not pretty.

Hopefully with a well planned out timeline of what needs to happen, and in what order, I can use this as a map through my story, making sure I hit all the points of interest and end up at my final destination. Wherever that takes me.