Hooray for August!

Well, that was another vacation!

I may as well get it out right now: I haven't been writing. I'm a terrible person. Horrible. (No good and very bad.) I've been thinking things over and I realized something. It's not something that I wanted to realize, nor was it something that I wanted to say out loud because that would mean some serious work. Not that I'm averse to serious work, but this kind of work would be something else. Okay, what did I realize? Take a deep breath, everyone:

I think I may want to rewrite the second installment of Amory.

Now that I see it in writing, it's not so scary. Look, I started writing this series back in 2008, and I had the idea for it in about 2007. The first book has been through the ringer so many times that I'm surprised Amory made it through (for reals: the first draft involved some weird kid that was supposed to kill Rick and start the second coming of Hell. Oh, yeah, and he fell in love with Amory and proposed to her). I can't believe that I thought this first draft would be okay with me. Like, I love it, I really do, but there's some things that I need to add, and I hate going back and adding them at weird moments. You know when you read a book and then see a really awkward, random piece of information, and you just know that the author stuck that in there during the second or third or fourth edit? I don't want that, especially because what I need to add is a pretty big component to the rest of the story, and that's not exactly something that you just throw in there. I've had this in my head for quite some time, but it didn't seem right while I was writing it, and now that I've looked at the story a few times, I know that's where I need to go.

So, yes, while I'd like to keep most of the story, I'm thinking about starting over. It shouldn't take me that long, as long as I start right away and don't dally around with things. I don't have a lot of time this summer because of work and looking for a new job and worrying about everything in between that, but I do have a few hours that I could spend not reading Harry Potter (fat chance, right?) or watching TV or playing video games.

That's been my problem with this story and I don't know why it took me so long to figure that out. I'd already edited it twice before I went back a third time and thought to myself, What is happening here? I wasn't into anymore. I thought that maybe it was because editing is a pain in the butt and I was over it, but now I realize that it's because I didn't like all the little things I had to stick in and smooth the story around. Not only is it annoying and time-consuming, but, after awhile, I started to not recognize my story anymore.

So, I suppose, I should get back to a schedule. My posts are going to come on Monday and Wednesday now (or I'm going to try my hardest). I'll keep you all updated with what's happening in the story and also maybe a few other things. Like, not only am I a German master now (not really), I'm also trying my hand at cooking. I can bake like no other, but cooking has eluded me. If I mess up cookie batter, that's no problem because at least I still have cookies. But if I mess up chicken, I'm screwed (for the record, I've made a few chicken recipes and they were delicious, so I'm not completely hopeless). But this schedule obviously started next week. This week is kind of filling up, but I thought I'd get something in. Let you all know that my impromptu vacation was not fun at all (long months with little paychecks never are), but that I'm back now and I'm going to get working.

After Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, of course.