Yesterday I completely gutted my new story, Cross of Fire. One of the dualities of creation is the inescapable reality that you have to sometimes destroy what you create to make what you really wanted to create. Kind of a Noah thing going on.
I reorganized Cross of Fire, and in the process realized I had written over 100 pages and just now was getting to the meat of the story. When I had the thought - this should be two books - I knew I had to cut. And cut. And cut some more.
I eliminated one whole character - kind of like Back to the Future when the photograph changes - and threw away the entire WWI tie in piece. This forced a change in the major plot vehicle, and elevated a minor character, Gela's boss, to star status. Half of my research notes went into a holding folder as well as most of the 'snippets' I had already written. Fodder for future work..
The good news is that it is a better plot. Also, I have the makings of the next series... I had written about Case Yellow, the attack on Holland, as a part of the story of Mina Pientka, Gela's cousin. That now will become a new story... a single event (the German assault on the low countires) and three unrelated mini stories stemming from that single event. The first one is already written... Taunte Truss and Kindertransport (Google it- an amazing story). I will put these pieces away until I am finished with The Juno Letters series, but will be looking for the other two plots as I go.
I feel good this morning!
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