PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING JANUARY 21, 2017

WRITERS ARE HUMAN TO TWO TOO!

As author Terry Brooks once said, "Sometimes the magic works," and truer words were never spoken.
When you're in "the zone", the ideas and words just click and it's a minor miracle when your typing skills are able to keep up with how rapidly your thoughts are coming.

Then there are the OTHER days...
My friendly neighborhood beta/proofreader Nancy Hansen sent me back Chapters 5-7 of the HUGH MONN, PRIVATE DETECTIVE story I'm working on with a note, saying that what I had written and what I had planned as the plot for what was supposed to be the first story of Hugh's third book weren't working out right.

Well, of course I was greatly concerned at hearing that and, after going back over everything for

myself, sadly discovered that somewhere along the way I missed the proverbial left turn at Albuquerque because the 20,000+ words I had at the moment weren't exactly how I intended the tale to be.

So this left me with three possible options.
1. Fix the existing story.
2. Toss the existing story and come up with a new one, or
3. Set aside the existing story and come up with a new one.

Since I figured the work in progress would wind up novella size, which would leave me needing a

second feature for Book 3 anyway, I chose Option 3 and have decided to concentrate on the "companion" tale now.
This will allow me to work on something fresh while continuing to write, and in time I can come back to the original story with (hopefully) a fresh perspective on how to make it better.

Between being a pack rat to begin with and having some pretty good passages in the tale, I'll never be exercising Option 2. But whether or not the first story can be fixed is something only time will tell.

Right now, I've got a new HUGH MONN mystery to write, so I better get started.
See you around the Internet.
Lee Houston, Junior
22 January, 2017