I wrote several chapters of another Starcaster book before I realized that it can't be the second book. It has to be a later book. If it is used at all. For now, I'm discarding it and the entire outline I wrote the other week. Why? Because the stakes weren't personal enough for Tory. I still think the idea has merit. It is exciting and dangerous. But I think it's an idea before it's time because I can't think of a way to make the stakes personal for Tory.
For the second book, I need to keep it close to Tory and personal. After all, most of the time, we will not be following Tory through her espionage adventures. We'll only be following them when they get personal. That's the way these kinds of books work.
In the last book, I had a nicely corrupt police officer. I also threw an enemy at Tory without fulling exploring her potential. In the second book, some people in the Intelligence Ministry thinks that Tory's division needs to be disbanded. The corrupt police officer will happily get involved with this endeavor, because some people in Tory's division--including Tory, herself--knows just how corrupt he is.
And then we have Cecil, Tory's gentleman friend, who is just a magnet for trouble. He and the police officer would absolutely clash. And the boss of Tory's division is not really all that fond of Cecil.
Sounds like this could be the plot I was looking for. I'll explore it a bit before I know for sure.
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Be sure to keep all your false starts. You never know when they'll come in handy for patching other stories or starting new ones.
ReplyDeleteYeah . . . I learned that the hard way. I hate rewriting stuff because I lost or deleted it. It will go into a file and I'll suck the entire folder structure into a flash drive.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting plot. Good luck working out the details!
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean about that being a bit impersonal while you're still getting to know the characters. I hope you can use some of your recent work later. {Smile}
ReplyDeleteI also hope your other idea works for now. {SMILE}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
We'll see. Starting the novel with an argument between Crowley and Meyer (the policeman) might just work.
ReplyDeleteI'm not worried about the discarded scenes. When I write, I throw stuff away with impunity. Maybe one day it will work, maybe not.
Oh sure . . . work on both of them. Starcaster book 2 and 3 - I won't complain!!
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