more changes than i thought

Well, I wrote notes about the changes to the magical system in Marla, Book One which led to thinking about plot concerns, which led to going through my scene outline (a must for anyone writing a novel!) and reminding myself of what happens in each one. This took a long time. The book is over 400 pages long. I only read a couple of scenes, skimmed a few, and scrolled down through most, but it still took awhile. This led to me seeing some problems I hadn't seen in my last revision, and seeing even more things that would need to be changed because of the changes I am making. Fortunately, I have no doubt that it will be a better book after I make these changes, unlike in Song of the Prophecy where I am still not sure.

Anyway, I will be cutting one of the major plot elements of the book because I think it was just a device to add more excitement and to fulfill certain plot necessities. Now I think the same ends will come about in a more natural way, stemming from some things that characters would naturally do. At least I hope so.

The changes I'm making will actually help with a lot of the characterization, however. I know these characters. They've been living with me for over ten years after all, although I'm not sure when these particular incarnations started to coalesce. And sometimes I know what they would feel and how they would react without there being a real reason for it. Or something. It's hard to explain. It's like I knew these ideas were coming before they came and the characters were reacting to something I hadn't written yet. Ok that makes no sense at all. I have better back story now. It makes more sense.

That's it. The back story! Before I knew the characters as they are when the book starts and had come up with some back story for them, but now the back story is a better fit for how the characters are when the story starts. Yes yes yes! That's what happened. My subconscious is more genius than I thought. =) j/k

I'm pleased with my progress, even though I've barely gotten started.