Queen of Time is riddled with problems, so many that I sometimes want to just scrap it and start over. Wanting to finish Darling before embroiling myself in editing, I keep on pushing it to the back burner. Today, on an impulse, I grabbed a chapter that has a lot of transitional, important material, and a notebook and started over with the chapter. Different things happening, different questions being asked, different character development. If it works out, I will continue.

As I said though, King Uther's decision makes all the difference in the book. If he forced her to try and go back through the Doorway, she would die. If he gave her over to the people out of anger, she would die. If he put her in prison, she would die. If he sold her off as a slave to another kingdom, she would probably, well, die.
After the king, how Gwen reacts to what happens becomes just as important. With some of the characteristics shown at the beginning of the book, she could be the kind of person who would just hide in her room and never come out. Then, she wouldn't meet the people she meets, form the relationships she does, go through the life changing events that she does, and ultimately, bring about the things that bring the book to the climax.
The story is going to need work. A lot of it. And it might not pan out at all. The good news is, I was able to put my story in a whole new perspective today which is not an easy thing. I was able to write a questioning, logically deducting Gwen like I haven't written before, a shier girl than I'm used to but one who actually felt likable.
Hopefully, this means I can get back to my long overdue edits for Queen of Time. I think it has the potential to be an awesome story. I'm just going to have to become the writer to fulfill that potential.
Being the goal oriented person that I am, I came up with some goals of what I want for Queen of Time more than anything else, mostly things I haven't been able to accomplish to my satisfaction in other stories.
- Gwen to be a very different heroine than I normally write but still likable and relate-able.
- The world building to feel rich and visible. Being able to take readers to my picture of Camelot would be awesome!
- Having a cast of different and believeable guys
- Having good chemistry between my female and male main character
- A complicated enough storyline to keep the reader guessing but not confused.
Seeing my goals here makes it sound like my book should be so easy. Unfortunately, I am not good at writing anything on this list. There's no good way for me to ease into it with a book of this caliber. I'm just going to write, and rewrite until I'm done!
-Anna Leigh