So it looks like Corruption is getting a delay, for a few reasons. I was originally planning to release the book in January, but now it appears I need to push it back a few weeks or even months. The main reason is plot rewrites. I’m also going a different direction with the cover than I initially thought, and am hiring a professional to do the artwork instead of using the ugly clip art version I created in GIMP. My cousin Laura Hollingsworth, who did the beautiful cover artwork for my upcoming novella The Lich (below), is now doing the artwork for Corruption, too. She’s good, right?

As for those plot issues I mentioned…

After a long conversation with my dad last night, a big chunk of which was spent talking about his feedback on the book, I’ve realized that something I have feared about the story all along was definitely not just in my head. There are some serious pacing issues in the first 30% of Corruption. My first full crack at an epic, complex fantasy with three different, nested plotlines was bound to have some significant issues. In this case, it is too much setup in the beginning of the story.

There is a big chunk at the start of Corruption where the characters are meeting, Dan is settling into his new life in Eastern Europe, and things are falling into place for the events in the second half of the book,  when shit really begins to hit the fan… I think everything after this period of buildup is awesome, but, as my dad pointed out, too much setup means a slow beginning, which could end up causing readers to put the book down before it ever really begins.

Duh. I should’ve known this. I kind of did, but I needed to hear it from someone else. And this is why beta readers are important, people. Art can’t be created by committee, true; but it also can’t be created alone. You always need people you trust to give you a second opinion. Always. Nothing is ever perfect on the first go. There are always going to be some changes.

So, how am I going to attack this problem?

My strategy is twofold. I am introducing a new POV character to breakup the monotony of the opening of the book. This POV character is actually my favorite character in the book, but his action was mostly off-screen until the climax of the story. A Clare Quilty type, if you will. Now, he is getting his own chapters-short and to the point-which will bridge two of the three nested stories that make up Corruption and hopefully give its first act some much-needed gas.

This may not be a perfect solution, but other than adding foreshadowing to some of the dialog, which I am also doing, I’m not sure how to go about it without a total rewrite, which I’m not willing to do. I like the first act of the book a lot, and don’t want to throw it out. It does what it needs to do, it’s just a bit slow. I already like the pacing better with the added chapters, and plan on finishing my first pass of rewrites by the end of this week.

Beta readers, let me know if you want the update.

Takeaways

If I’ve learned anything from writing it is that, like any discipline, it is a mirror for life itself. You make mistakes, you learn, you adapt, and overcome. If you fuck up, you take the positive, leave the negative, and try your best to use that experience to grow. Doing the opposite will never get you where you want to be. It is also monumentally important to let others in on the things that are important to you, to take help and wisdom from others and give it when you can. It is a much longer and harder road when you try to go alone.