Getting the Beginning Just Right

I had planned for today's post to be about a scrapbooking project. I've been "collecting" the new kits from Kiwi Lane and had planned to open a few up and start working on some layouts. I've been excited about using the new templates, but writing and other craft projects have gotten in the way. I decided this week's scrap project was scrapbooking with the kits. My crafting table was all set up to play around with the templates during some short writing breaks or once I finished for the day.

The problem is I haven't taken any breaks and I haven't been done for the day until it was time to cook dinner. And after dinner, my brain has been too tired to do anything else creative. I'm back at the beginning stages of book 3 in the Merry & Bright Handcrafted mystery series. It's been a few months since I worked on it as I was editing book 2 in the series. Once I returned to the book, I knew the beginning wouldn't work. Actually, it wasn't just chapter one but the first five chapters. It was too slow. And I wanted to change the whole setting of the book, plus up the stakes for my heroine and there was nothing in chapter one or two that would work any longer.

I've been tweaking all week and finally have Chapter One with the right mix of humor, happiness, and a bit of annoyance to drive the plot forward into chapter two. Just the mood I wanted to create, the original beginning of the book was a little more melancholy. With changing the setting, I also had to try different ways for Merry to mention where and why she's there in a way that was natural way and not an information dump.

Well, time for me to get back to smoothing out the chapter and tweak the hook to end chapter one. If all goes according to plan, I'll be able to play with my Kiwi Lane...Saturday.