Yesterday I completely rewrote a chapter because I had decided that a major event that had been the climax of the second novel in the space opera series was in the wrong place.  What this involved was me walking away from the carefully and painfully plotted outline sitting on 3×5 cards on the cork board.  But I did it anyway and spent a day of work redrafting an entire chapter.

Then I came wide awake at 5:00 in the morning because I realized that I had just blown the end of this book.  It was going to end with a whimper rather than a bang.  Yes, the outcome for my hero is dreadful and horrible for him, but it’s not creepy and it doesn’t serve as a powerful spring board into book three.  My original ending — the one on the board accomplished all of that.

Also by deviating from the plot as outlined I ended up with people not reacting to a shocking event which makes them look dumb or they have to start dealing with this event and it will drag the book out longer then it needs to be and I’ll have lost focus on the theme of this particular book.  As you know theme is important to me.  If you don’t know it and pay it off you won’t end up with a satisfying story.

So today I get to rewrite this chapter yet again and to back to the outline.