Shock Horror

I have just realised I didn't post at all yesterday - most unlike me.

I've been plotting and reading, and reading and researching. All very mundane and fairly boring stuff, kinda...

I've ripped Newland in half. I didn't like the way the second story line of the book was coming together so I pulled it. That left me with half a book which needed an extra 45,000 (or so) words and an ending to find. I needed to find layers to make the extra tale a lot more than just padding.

At the moment it looks like my story is going to be around 40 chapters in length, which equates to somewhere between 8-100,000 words. I'm gunning for 90-95k - if I can find an ending.

The research came about due to Alex's teachings on layering, imagery, and plants. I've made a choice on my imagery and that requires some additional learning on my part. It will make the whole thing that much more authentic and visually stimulating (remember this is a historical dark fiction piece). I've been thinking about my layers and that's made me realise my opening scene is that much more powerful because of the layers I instinctively included.

I explained it a mate today who was asking why I was reading some stuff he hadn't seen me reading before. I explained all about the imagery in my opening scene, what it represented, how it was portrayed, hidden meanings from a number of different angles - he looked at me kind of weird as if to say, "Yeah right. You've written something that subtly complex..." - I just smiled and walked away - I did write something visually stimulating, full of imagery, and full of layers for my opening scene - it still needs polishing by my beta readers, but not yet. I need an ending.

I'm working through the first half of my plot and fixing missing bits and adding in additional threads to build the story in the later half where I removed the old storyline. My big issue now is the ending (have I mentioned that yet?). I have a few in mind, but they all seem a little cheesy or gimmicky to me - not good. So I continue to work on what I've got and hopefully the characters will reveal to me what the ending has to be. Not how I like to work.

My plot is two thirds complete, with the beginning of a third act. I'm just not sure where or how it will finish. Wish me luck in finding it - and soon.