I have been slowly progressing on my stories the past week or so. Changes I wanted to make to the stories (some mentioned on the page, most not) pretty much required some overhauls to what I had written and what I had planned to write. Given the little I had actually written in book 1 (about 12k words), I figured I would start there. Essentially, I am re-plotting the entire book. I am about 9 chapters in, and I am expecting another 20 or so. I am hoping to be done plotting everything out by the end of August, so I got about 2 weeks.
For Gibson in book 1, the story is going to remain about 75% the same. There is going to be a little switch up in the order of things and a few new things, but no huge changes. Anne, on the other hand, is changing almost everything. Originally, she had been there for a little bit of romantic tension with Gibson, as I developed my world more, she was going to get more air-time as well. And in book two, she got a role almost as big as Gibson's. And her role kept getting larger as I was looking forward to other books (NaNoWriMo is only a couple of months away). I had more that needed to happen with Anne in order to get there. So, to fill this gap, Anne's story from book 2 is now her story in book 1...plus a little more so I have a carry over story for book 2.
In book 2, I have already written over 150 pages. With changes I am making to book 1, 30ish pages are going away. The rest is getting a huge tone change. Gibson is off adventuring for months while Anne is still in Saramis (setting for book 1). In what is written, Gibson spends a lot of time pining over Anne and wanting to be back in Saramis, given the changes, now he thinks she is a bitch and is glad to be gone from her. So yeah, tone change. Anne on the other hand, is looking to put big things in motion and spends the entirety of book 2 gathering and consolidating her power. After finishing the plotting on book 1, I am going gung ho into plotting out what I don't have in book 2 (hopefully) by the end of September.
If all that goes well, I can spend October plotting out book 3 for NaNoWriMo. I have a couple of different directions I am thinking of going on this one, but I won't know which one I will take until I nail down Anne's story in book 2. She has a lot to do, and it might take more than the first two books to do it in. Either way, I have stuff for Gibson to do.
I think I have said this before, but I am glad I haven't finished these yet, and I may never finish them. I am liking the flexibility I have to go back and mess with things. My overarching view of my world and the people living there is changing. Everyday my characters become a little more real to me. There isn't a day I don't spend significant chunks of time thinking about them, and as long as I keep away from a couple of the evil bastards, I tend to get along better in the day.
