Every book is different.

It's true what they say.  Every book is different.

Tuskers I just came flowing out of me.  Tuskers II required a little more thought and planning, but still came smoothly.

Tuskers III has been a challenge.  It will take me a two whole months longer to finish (gasp, two months!?)

Yet...I like the book.  I like the theme, the characters, the ambition of the wide-ranging plot.  It's just that it isn't as cohesive or well-behaved.  The writing isn't as smooth, the plot will have to be moved around a little.  It will require more re-writing.

I've been kind of stuck lately, trying to finish the first half of the book.  The plot has been getting bigger.  I'm almost to the point of thinking maybe I need a Tuskers IV to pull it off.  But I'm going to try to get this done, not more than 5 to 8K words longer than the other two books. I think I can do it if I'm very to-the-point-straight-ahead-tell-the-story-to-the-end..

I need a couple more chapters of set-up to finish the first half.  But at least I knew how I want to go about it. 

I drank a little wine last night, and for once it did actually seem to spur some inspiration.  Then again, maybe I was just ready to get going again.  The most important thing about writing is setting aside the time to do it, and then doing it.

It seems like most often when I'm stuck, there is a good reason, and I need to figure out that reason before I proceed.  But that can also be dangerous, because sometimes a good deal of time passes, and the farther away I am from the action, the harder it is to focus.

Anyway, I finally figured out that I needed a new bad guy who can bring about the final battle.  I needed to show how widespread the Hamaggeddon was.  I needed to have internal conflict among the good guys.

So that has finally all come together in my thinking.

Often I find that if I can't write a chapter, it is probably because I have the wrong viewpoint character, and yesterday I realized that the chapter that had stalled me was being told by the wrong character.  Once I had the right character, the chapter actually came easy.

The first "half" of this book is going to be around 33K words.  I'm hoping to wrap up the second half in 20K words or less.  Just straight action.

I'm going to jump ahead a couple of years in the timeline, and I'm looking forward to the fresh start.  But first I have to finish the first half, a full month after I thought I would.