Sigh

Well, I've done it. I've mangled my novel almost beyond salvagability (if that's even a word).

I don't know where I went wrong, but I'm further off the path I wanted to be on than I was before I started today.

When I started today, I thought to myself, 'Hey, you should do a bit of backstory work here.' And I did. And what's resulted is bad, bad, bad. I was talking to a friend about it and described it to him as having dug a small hole with what I'd written earlier this week and with what I've done today, I'm so far into this hole that I can't see out.

He did come up with an interesting suggestion, though. Stop with these characters right now and start with a whole new set. Eventually, merge them. I may not go that way exactly, but I'm still looking for a place to set the three Macbeth witch-like women somewhere, so maybe finishing up the backstory on the Baley clan and then moving on to the witches might be the way to go. See, at some point, and I really don't know when I'm going to reach this point, I plan on bringing the witches directly into the Baley children's world (they won't be children at that point, but young-ish adults). How to get there may be the problem.

What I'm seriously considering is something I don't do often - plotting the rest of the novel out just to see how, and if, I can get back on track. It'll be a challenge, and I don't have much time to do it, but I'll think about it tomorrow while I'm flipping eggs and buttering toast at work.

Check out what I've done so far at my website.