Things I’m Doing Instead of Writing the Next Book (A Procrastination Post)

1. Unpublishing a few books that need a few tweaks (i.e. put back the sex I removed while on a drunken spree).
2. Removing most of the passages about family in Falling for Jordan that detracted from the romance big time
3. Unpublishing that book while I’m removing said passages and fixing plot
4. Getting the last of this flu bug out of my system
5. Laundry

It’s Monday and the LilDude’s off from school because it’s Presidents’ Day. While he’s staying in bed for most of the morning, I’m working… or kinda working although it’s probably procrastinating from the actual work of starting the next book.

I really should just leave Falling for Jordan the mess that it is but it’s difficult to do that when you know what’s wrong with it and it’s the second book in the series. It’s where the drop-off happens in my read-through to the rest of the books in the series and that’s critical. So I need to fix it.

When I wrote Falling for Jordan, I was in love with the cover of a man and a baby and I wanted to hit the surprise baby trope while unaware that my brand as an older woman/younger man author was getting established due to Everything She Ever Wanted. I had also wanted to incorporate Filipino family quirks that I grew up with which unfortunately included prejudices toward blue-collar work, like the belief that ending up with a doctor was definitely better than falling in love with a contractor… that kind of thing. It’s what I was familiar with but on the page, it was terrible.

And then there was the mental health issue of the ex-girlfriend. It was shoddily done and didn’t need to be there at all, and definitely not in the way I’d written it in my panic to hit my deadline. Didn’t I have it edited? Yes, but I changed so many things after I got it back so the fault’s all on me and now I need to fix those issues.

Considering it’s been three years since I wrote it, it’s amazing how far I’ve come in my writing journey. I’ve definitely gotten better at my craft and am able to distance myself enough to objectively see the problems in early stories.

It’s energy I could better devote to writing that new book but with the new book being book 6 in the series, it means I need to fix book 2 first. I could easily remove book 2 and pretend it never existed but the rest of the series references that book and books 4 and 4.5 are offshoots from it. I also found glaring editing remnants from its previous versions.

So for now, book 2 is unpublished and has to be rewritten. It should really be a completely new book and who knows? Maybe that’s what will have to happen which means it will also need a new cover when the time comes.

Interestingly, while going through the post-publication edits for Falling for Jordan, the next book is coming to life inside my head. Or rather, the heroine, which is how I used to always start my books, from deep inside their heads and their hearts.

Maybe it’s just part of the process. Fix what’s broken while allowing it to help me write the next book and avoid the same pitfalls I encountered in book 2, one of which was sticking to a word count no matter what which led to wordy and repetitive sentences.

I haven’t put a deadline for the next book yet although I’ve given myself the next three days to fix Falling for Jordan. While it will definitely take more than three days, it’s a start. Until then, I’ll keep working at my craft. I’ll keep writing.

What about you? How’s your week going?