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   Atticus
   Atticus · Jun 27, 2018

   In April, I wrote the first 50,000 words of a novel whose name was never decided. In fact, the name of the series needs to be redone; I'm saving that brainstorming session for a well-needed, long, hot shower. In May, I took a break from writing, save a handful of school projects, to focus on the last month of school and make sure I survived finals week. And in June, I revived this project and continued to write, scene after scene.
   
   But from the beginning, I knew that something wasn't right. I knew that there was something off about this book, and as I wrote it, my suspicions were confirmed. Some sort of internal writing sense was telling me that this plotline was not engaging enough to hold the reader's interest. And since this is the second book in a trilogy, I feared that my readers would give up on my series because this second book lacked a gripping plotline and thus miss the finale to the series, which I hope will be my greatest work as a writer (no pressure, right?).
   
   I brushed the feeling aside, hoping that a good round of editing would perfect it. But as I started to explore new dynamics and questioning my premise, of how I could make the storyline of "Two fugitives travel the galaxy and try to convince people to risk their lives to join them on their quest" interesting enough and not just the same speel about how their cause was great hundreds of times and then the same reaction: a door slam in the face. It got boring for me to write, part of the reason that I shelved it in May.
   
   I never thought that I would rewrite the entire first 50,000 words, and it's still possible that I'll salvage parts of it. But I am changing the plotline entirely. Now, I want this book to be about how the protagonists travel around the world in a search for a way to transform a powerful superfuel (name TBD) into a weapon that can be used to bring the NUS to its knees.
   
   And originally, that was what this book was going to be about. But I lost sight of that, and my book suddenly transformed into a completely-planned and, frankly, boring attempt to rally supporters to their cause, with no logistics whatsoever figured out (like where they would gather, how they would evade the NUS, what ships they would use, how they would be fed, etc.).
   
   So now, in four days, I've tasked myself with figuring out how this plot will go and what that means for the first 50,000 words of my novel. And I'm sure that throughout July, I will still be trying to iron out all of the details, and maybe even some big-picture stuff. It's a lot to manage, and I'm pressed for time in figuring this out. I expect that I'll be taking a lot of long, hot showers and constantly thinking about it—but that's what summer's for, isn't it?
   
   Wish me luck as I embark on my quest to figure out how I want this story to go and face a unique challenge of what to rewrite and what to keep.
   
   It won't be easy. But if I've learned anything from writing the first draft of Blue Powder Book 1, it's that it's all worth it in the end when you have a finished manuscript. And that is what is motivating me to work through all the struggles of this book so that I can eventually emerge as the author of two complete, novel-length rough drafts.

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