Writerly Dilemma

For those of you who follow this blog and happen to be beta readers (*coughfamilycough*) of my series and don't want spoilers, stop reading now. For those of you who follow this blog and do not actually share DNA with me and intend on reading my series when I eventually publish it...Well, first of all: ohmygoshiloveyou and second of all, stop reading if you don't want spoilers.

That being said, here's my dilemma: I hate book three. Those of you who know me in real life have heard me bitch about book one in much the same way but it's different, I swear. I am just plain tired of book one because I have rewritten it countless times and edited it even more (and I'm still not done with it). I love book two. Book two is full of awesome. It's exciting, it's sad, and then it's exciting all over again. Book three...well, the plot elements are necessary, but they are also something I am deeply struggling with.


See, here's the thing. Book three is all about the personal growth and dramas of the main characters. Some of them have already had their fair share of drama, and those characters are going to be shifted to the backseat a bit. But their personal dramas still come into play because emotion is the theme of this book. Do I have themes for the other two books I've written? Pffftt. No. But book three has a theme, so roll with it. I did.

In this book, I introduce a new race called the Baiul (by-weeee). What are they? They are pretty much psychic vampires. They feed off of people's emotions and can also manipulate people's feelings. They can't make you feel something that isn't already there, but they can magnify the hell out of something that is there. Needless to say, all these personal little dramas that would usually take the back burner to the war that's brewing are now taking center stage and it is effin people up. Not everyone is affected (which is explained) because someone has to save their melodramatic asses, but still. Most people are.

I've been looking forward to this book for a while now. I like that one of my favorite characters gets to play detective and tries to sort it all out. I LOVE the ending. It's epic and it's jarring. I feel like it comes out of nowhere because when I thought of it I said "WTH? Where did that come from?" But it's the build up to all of the cool stuff that, to be frank, really blows. If it is boring to me, I can't really expect the reader to think any different. So how do I take these personal struggles and the growth my characters are set to experience and make it more interesting than an episode of Dawson's Creek? (No offense meant--I was a total creek geek growing up)

This is usually the part where I say "I'm bored. Time for someone to die!" and let out a maniacal laugh that echoes throughout the hearts of my beta readers. Not really, but sometimes they probably think that. And it is tempting. The problem is that there was a lot of action (I think) in the first two books. You had assassins attacking. You had torture. You had double agents revealing themselves and their nefarious plans (told you there would be spoilers!!). You had more torture. There was murder. There was romance. There was suspense. With book three...well, there's intrigue. I hope. But I miss the suspense. I miss giving myself heart palpitations at the very thought of what was going on and what was about to happen. So I'm trying to figure out a way to do that while still staying true to the plot. Because it needs to happen. The chaos of all of these personal dramas being magnified is vital to not only the characters' journeys as they address issues that they were trying to suppress, but also for the overall plot arc of the entire series. Like I said, the ending is very jarring. If I ever publish, I might need to go into hiding.

So what's a writer to do? Blowing everyone up and starting a new book series is sounding very appealing right about now.

I settled for writing a blog instead.