Clusterfuck Chapters
Bitter Secrets Snippet
Roth smacked the laptop closed and handed her a fork. He didn’t appreciate the intensity of her glare because he was writing down figures as he talked. When she tried to stand, he gripped her sweater and said, “Hold on,” before he pressed mute and focused on her. “You don’t eat, you’re going to feel like shit tomorrow on the flight.”
“I didn’t say I was going!”
“You are,” he said, eyes fixed on her mouth.
“Roth.”
His eyes flicked up to hers. “Eat before I feed you something else.”
Her heart slammed against her ribs. She picked up her fork. He didn’t release his grip on her sweater until she put something in her mouth.
“I’m back. Go,” he said into the phone, pen poised over what looked like twelve acronyms.
Draft of Bitter Secrets © 2021 Mia Knight
The raw draft of Bitter Secrets, PT 1 is available on Patreon and I'm posting weekly snippets of PT 2, which is what I'm currently working on.
Book update
This clusterfuck of a chapter in Bitter Secrets almost defeated me. I've been working on this chapter for... I don't even want to say. This chapter is the turning point for the whole book. It's vital that I get this chapter right or the rest of the book won't work. (A wee bit dramatic, maybe... but maybe not.) I was initially so excited to get to this point because of all the revelations, but when I actually got into it, I realized it was a hot mess.
A part of this chapter was written in 2019, when I had a totally different idea for this story. Over the years, this chapter has kind of been a catch all for ideas so when I actually started combing through, I was inundated with material. Some of the ideas from before were irrelevant because the story has morphed so much. Other fragmented scenes had merit, but I didn't know if this was the right time to reveal such a thing. Other stuff was amazing and I spent way too much trying to make it fit because a punchline was so damn good, but that just led to more frustration.
I swear, I have maybe 12 different versions of this chapter and they all vary wildly. I finally had to be cutthroat and just ruthlessly delete massive chunks and just machete my way through to find a path that was halfway decent. It's still gonna need a lot of editing and refining in the future, but at least I can see light at the end of the tunnel... and then I have to complete the rest of the book. LOL. It's weird how some chapters flow and others are like pulling teeth. I don't know why a chapter does or doesn't work, but I can't remember ever having this much trouble with one. Maybe it was because it was such a mishmash of ideas that I liked too much and couldn't choose between? I have no idea what happened with this 11k word behemoth, but I'm glad it's over.
This chapter has led me to believe that maybe a blank page is better than a starting point of fragmented scenes because you naturally want to use what you've already written, which can cause a lot of heartache. It might be better to start with a clean slate and just move forward without regretting what you discarded.
Personal
No big, personal updates for me. I'm just working like a madman to the point where everyone around me is quite uncomfortable. LOL. Also, I will be transferring my site either this week or next so if it's down at some point, that's what's going on. Hopefully, it will be much more user friendly and better for both of us!
Hope all is well with you guys! See you next week!