The Prodigal Novel.

You know what?  I take back my previous blog entry (which I wrote before bed last night.)

Faerylander isn't my Book from Hell, it's my Prodigal Book.  Always a problem, but I dearly love it and wish for it to do well.

I couldn't make Bren's suggestion of an assassination attempt on the main character work, but in thinking about it, I suddenly had a brainstorm.  (I was up until 5:00 this morning thinking about it.)

I think I've come up with a solution that fixes the problem and ties the book together.  It makes the plot coherent, it deepens the characters, and it just seems to be the answer I've been looking for.

But it also means a top to bottom rewrite -- again.

If the solution wasn't so beautifully elegant --- didn't seem like it totally clicks -- I wouldn't do it.  I'd try to scrape by with the current version.  But this is what I've been looking for, the final piece.

Thing is, I knew it was missing something, but I just couldn't figure out what.

This new chapter is what I think it needed.  I say the entire book needs a rewrite, but its mostly in a few details here and there.  What makes me think this is the right solution is that it doesn't require a massive restructuring, but instead strengthens what I've already written.

I have a version that I wrote just before the last one where the new material especially works well (I was always a little 50/50 about which version was best, and now I know.)

So I'm dropping everything else (Ghostlander...) and embarking on another rewrite that will probably take a few weeks.  But I think it will be worth it.

What's more, I'm excited by it, and that is a pretty good indication that I've arrived at the right solution.  It just FEELS right.

Shit.

Another rewrite.

This is now the champion rewrite book.   Star Axe took longer to complete but there was a lot of off and on.  Deviltree was rewritten many times but never had several complete re-hauls like this book has had.

I'll never let myself get tied up like this again.

This may end up being my best book, but I'm not sure it was worth the cost.

But I'm bringing my Prodigal Novel home...