How I’m Going to Finish Book Four

As many of you have noticed, book four in the Emergence series, The Specter, did not come out in October as it was meant to. I was on time for months, made every goal until near the end. And it took me a good month of revisions and talking with fellow authors and re-reading previous books to realize what was wrong. After discovering why I couldn’t hit the finish line, it took me a good two weeks to accept that truth and move forward. But it’s all going to work out because I have a plan.
What’s Wrong? Just Publish It

I’m not a perfectionist. Anyone who has seen my videos or watched me bake knows this to be true. If I waited until something was perfect, I’d never produce a darn thing or finish any project. Hence, when something is bothering me in a novel, I can usually find a solution that works and move forward. That was not happening with The Specter. I’d move forward, then backward, then delete whole sections, then find a flow I was happy with, then delete it all again. After starting the project with a bang, I wasn’t sure how to finish it.
If this was a book one in a new series, it probably wouldn’t worry me so much. Nothing was factually inaccurate for the world. There were plenty of character building moments and interesting plot twists. If it was a book one, I could produce the satisfying ending and leave future Kelly to solve the bigger issue before the series ends. Well, there’s only one more book to wrap up Fauna’s entire story and I am future Kelly. So that book one excitement wasn’t enough to get me to hit publish. And book four has to line up properly for that banger of an ending in book five.
Plus, there are readers—some of you reading this now—who are invested in Fauna and her found family’s journey. I can’t give you anything but my best work at this point in their arc. I’m heading somewhere, I promise. The need to make sure the ending is justified by the plot and world building, as well as satisfying for the reader, sits at the top of my priority list. And I simply could not get the book out in time and meet those requirements.
Can It Be Fixed?

Of course. All stories can be fixed; it’s a matter of identifying the problem and putting in the work to fix it. Which means I had to identify the problem before I could fix it.
This was where that advice I routinely offer about building your writing community came in handy. By talking out the plot points, where the story must ultimately end, and the motivations of the key players, I narrowed down the two main elements that weren’t working: antagonist motivation and murder-mystery pacing.
Antagonist motivation was pretty simple to reorient. However, it meant the story needed to start in a completely different place and he needed to be introduced in a completely different way.
The murder-mystery plotting took a bit more to iron out. You’d think after three books using this sort of genre pattern, I’d have it down. They say it takes a million words for a reason, I suppose. Ultimately, I have worked it out and made sure to slip in the relationship bits and the body drops and the clues into their proper order.
So What’s the Next Step?

That’s the hardest part for me. I must rewrite the manuscript. The Specter doesn’t need a facelift; it needs a Nicolas Cage/John Travolta Face/Off.
There’s good news, though. Peer pressure motivates me when it comes to achieving goals. And though I—and many of my fellow authors—no longer support the organization that promoted November as a writing month, it’s nevertheless become a tradition for many of us with day jobs. Sometimes, that extra push to get those writing goals in through everything else that’s going on can be just what’s needed to finish a project. So I’ve made a plan and I need your help to stick with it.
For every week day until the draft is complete, starting on November 4, I’m going live. Ii will continue to stream until I get 2000 words written. I’ll need about 60K words to complete this project, which means I’ll need six weeks to get this done. If you’ve followed this blog, you know I’ve never been a write every day kind of creature. But I excel when I’m project focused.
We Want to Help

Good. I want you to help too, if you’re willing and able. Though I do have a day job in the form of Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing, I’m the boss and I can be flexible with my hours of work. I’m most able to focus on writing in the morning. So I’ll go live every day at 8 a.m. If you can, you can follow the stream on YouTube or Twitch and participate with me. There are a ton of productivity streams all over social media; I participate in quite a few already. It’s not just about writing. You can read during that time or clean or work on a project or do your day job if you’re remote that day.
The pattern will be productivity for 45 minutes then break for 5 minutes. We’ll do that twice than have a longer 15 minute break for the third round. On a good day, I’ll only need two rounds to hit 2000 words. On a bad one, I could be behind this desk all day. After six weeks, I’ll have a completed draft and you’ll have functioned as a muse for a desperate author.
As a reward, for anyone who shows up during my sprints and says something in the chat, I’ll put your user name in the Acknowledgments of The Specter as a thank you for helping make it happen.
Where Do I Sign Up?

There’s no formal sign-up. I’ll be using the company social media platforms to do the streaming from since those sites are already established. So I’ll see you on either YouTube or Twitch starting Monday morning at 8 a.m. CST. Let’s make the magic happen together!