So, I’ve picked up and re-started work on A Wounded Heart, the 3rd (and I hope final) book in the Paul Robertson series.
So far, I’ve written Twelve and half thousand words. AGM was in the order of ninety-six thousand words and ATS was over one hundred and twenty-five thousand. So that means I’m possibly somewhere between 10% – 15% of the way through it.
I have to be honest here, I’ve put off working on this book for a long time. ATS was a very difficult book to write—I found it very emotionally draining. And if AWH is going to be the last book in the series, it needs to end in the right way and wrap up as many loose ends as possible—which is going to make it intellectually draining. And that’s before we factor in any of the emotion which is the hallmark of this series so far. So you can perhaps understand why I’ve been putting it off.
I also now have a pretty good idea of the main beats I’d like to hit in the plot. I’m a very ‘linear’ writer normally—I write a story from beginning to end in the first draft and then make changes to what I’ve already written if they are needed to support the part of the story I’m currently writing, if that makes sense.
Essentially, I write a narrative as if it was ‘history’—but with the understanding that ‘history’ can change if it needs to.
And to write like this you don’t need a detailed plan for the plot—instead you need a number of ‘plot point’ that you intend to hit to keep the story on track.
I also tend to ‘write by the seat of my pants’. I like to let the characters led me and the plot where it feels most natural. This does mean, however, that planned plot points change. For example, I had planned on Paul having an affair with Clarissa’s mother in ATS. But it never happened. Paul wouldn’t allow it.
So, for AWH I have a number of plot points I want to hit on the road to Paul’s happy ending. What happens in between those plot points—well, I guess that’s up to Paul, Mark, Imogen, Emily and the rest.
