Why can’t I just be whelmed?  Even though I have finished the second draft of Kingdom of Happy Fools, one might get the idea that I am near the home stretch.  If only it were so!  I have taken the whole novel apart scene by scene and found that in adding the structure, that certain things are out of order based solely on that.  Now here is the problem:  Not only do I have gaping holes in the novel, I have to blend in those scenes that were further in the story because now they are closer to the middle.

What makes it even more overwhelming is that I have to figure out where to move some of the scenes so that it not only makes sense but keeps in with the three-act structure.  That leave large gaps in the story and, at certain points in the story, I have to figure out where some of the middle goes.

Now I can do one of several things.  I can extend the novel accordingly, which might put the word count somewhere in the phenomenal range.  I don’t think I want to do that.  The other thing I can do is go ahead and move them to an earlier moment (extending the scene count by a scene or two) and adjust, again possibly adding an extended page count.  Yet another idea would be to simply move the scenes down into the areas that are missing in either the beginning or toward the end.

This is my dilemma.  I want to keep the architecture in tact but all the story elements (in my mind at least) are so important to the plot.  Many of the things that are already there, I like.  But….as the saying goes, I’m going to have to “Kill my darlings.”  Not something I relish, but if it is what I have to do, then I do what I must.  It will sting a lot, I know it, but my story might be better for it.

So, that’s my overwhelmed moment.  I had to step away from the story tonight or risk further overwhelming moments.  I know it will get better, because Copper Rain was the same way (you’d think I’d have learned by now!)

Lee