Carrying On

After the agent search, I felt like I needed to get back to writing for a bit. I needed to step away from the business side of things and do what I really liked. I knew of some independent publishers and hybrid companies that could help me get published, but I wanted time to consider how to carry on.

The Assignment was sitting in my e-drawer and I knew it needed some serious work. I refreshed my memory on where I’d left off and then took the manuscript to the chopping block. I lopped off the last several chapters and then went back to the beginning and totally rewrote the first few chapters to completely change the premise of how the title was introduced to the characters.

I also knew it needed several modifications during the narrative, such as a moment where I killed off an important character. In that example, I felt it didn’t fit the story as well as I’d hoped, and having the mystery of the character’s disappearance would drive the overall story better and give me opportunities for conflict that I’d missed.

I also needed a good climax. I came up with a good idea, but it became Chekov’s gun and I had to make sure I used it. I’m still not sure I did, and that’s a big part of the edits I still have to do on the book when I roll back around to it. I also renamed it Assignment Day to better fit the changes I’d made.

We’d planned a long vacation at the beginning of October, and I finished the draft the day before we left. My plan was to return and begin writing the sequel to First, which I’d been pondering for several months. Instead, things took a different turn.