Substance

Last weekend while on my retreat I was able to edit four chapters of  my present work in progress and add 9000 words to it.  Normally at this point in the process I would be at least half way done with my manuscript.  With this book its only about a third of the way done.  I asked myself this week why.  Why is this book taking longer to write?  The only answer I could come up with is substance.

I like to think my characters are pretty well developed.  With the other books in this series the characters are young and falling in love for the first time.  They are fresh out of college, and even though they have some experience in life the feelings they have are new and always exciting.  The series is call the Broken Heart Collection because the family is trying to find a way to mend their hearts after the death of their mother and wife.  She truly was the heart of the family.  For the children it has been a difficult to live their lives without a parent. But they have been able to move on and find the person they are meant to spend the rest of their lives with.

This book however is about how their father goes on after loosing the love of his life.  The woman he planned on growing old with.  That I'm finding is a whole different level of pain.  The main characters in this story have lived through life's ups and downs, they have baggage to work through.  They don't have the option of carefree love.  When they meet and fall in love it effects more people in more ways.

I knew writing this book would be different, more difficult, but I had know idea how difficult, or that would affect me so differently.  Part of this book is based on the relationship of a dear friend who passed away, her marriage to her husband was and is truly inspirational and not just for the book.  It was a marriage where both partners were not only on the same page but on the same sentence.  I have never met anyone who had actually found what I consider a soulmate.  It has brought up many tender feelings for me.  Then the heroine of the book is based on my oldest and dearest friend.  This is a woman I have known for all of my adult life.  A woman who has known very real heartache and pain.

That's why this book is so difficult but important to me.  That's why my characters seem so real.  Because to me, the experiences they have are real.  I want to be true to those women in my life who have experienced excruciating pain and come out on top.  Who have inspired me to be a better person.  To look my trials in the eye and face them head on.

So this book is for these women and for those women who have become family.  I hope I do them justice.

Until next time.