Thursday posts tend to be about the craft of writing for me. Either things in writing, my writing, anything goes, because as much as I ask you guys, I still treat it with more of a get to know the author sort of day. 

And it would be completely unfair of me to have a week about lessons and not share mine. The question of this Thoughtful Thursday is What’s a writing lesson you had to learn from the story itself? The manuscript refused to co-operate somehow, and taught you something you didn’t understand yet. What was that and how did it change your writing?

My answer? That’s what made the whole book series what it is. When I started writing my first book ever, what would become the bones in books one and two (wrote too much the first time already) it was supposed to be a romance. It was about an RP I used to do, my character, and just the idea of a better life for them than what had actually happened (people fade away after time) and the stories that felt real and imagined all in one. 

The romance needed telling, but as I wrote and wrote, they seemed better apart somehow, like there was no course this went that worked out ok in this long draft version. Obviously they had a deep love, but there was a gap or a plot hole I didn’t see coming. The characters did. They have such strong personalities it was clear to them what had to happen, and it took me years to do it justice. And about five books so far. Sometimes the answer is that you can be in love with someone and not be ready for that yet. There’s a saying about the right person at the wrong time. It’s a little bit like that, but also not. Because in mine, when they met, they helped the other find themselves. So yes, they are right for each other, and without the other, the careers wouldn’t be what they are. (Without Woods, being who he was to start, there never even would have been a Tweety, and that life changing moment would have been a missed opportunity) But the careers and the love both need the time to grow and stabilize, and you can’t always tell your dreams to wait. So that’s the lesson learned in the writing that took a long time to figure out how to tell it through the characters we had.

How about you all? Any lessons learned from an unruly writing project?