Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! What have I done? Someone should put me on a procrastination ban!

Whilst sat at work, I was passively thinking about my novel, Seas of Vengeance, and, out of absolutely nowhere, thought to myself, “Hey, I think this story arc would work better than the existing one”. On my lunch break and on my way home on the bus, I got to tapping the keys of my laptop as I always do and drafted a synopsis for the massive chunk of the story I would have to change.

I like it. I like it a lot. So much so that I’m now running with it and have created myself a tonne of work. I think this change will massively benefit the story going forwards and, more importantly, water down the good and wholesome aura of William Hart, who, I’ve always feared, comes across as far too perfect. It didn’t bother me massively as I know he’s not perfect at all and that will show in spades as the series continues; however, people would only have Vengeance as a reference point to start off with and I know many readers are put off by a protagonist that is nigh on infallible.

Another very good thing that will come of this change is that we’ll see more of the antagonist, Admiral Hernando Ortega. It’s plagued me that he features rather little as a physical presence in the story. Sure, his presence is always felt vicariously through Hart and his friends and he still performs acts that impact the story, but I’ve always felt he should be physically in it more. With this change, that will happen. Everything can still more or less follow the path it does now, it’s just that it’ll take more of a scenic route in reaching the conclusion.

This will naturally bring word count back into the equation. That’s not something I’m wholly too concerned about as I’ve become a much more economical writer. Time was that I’d be scrambling to keep short stories below the 1,500-word mark as I strove to write down everything that came to mind in as flamboyant a style as I could. Nowadays, I’m getting everything in that I want to, realising I haven’t even hit 1,000, and then have to flesh it out. If you’ve kept up with A Survivor’s Apocalypse Story, you’ll have probably noticed that there are still a similar number of chapters in Survival of the Fittest as there are in New Black Plague, though the overall word content in the former is only just over half that of the latter and there’s just as much action and story progression. I feel there is anyway. The third instalment is the same. Did I mention I’ve already written it? *Winks*

I suppose, on one hand, I’m a little aggravated that I’ll have to get back to writing Vengeance when I thought it was finally all done and dusted after so long. It is rather annoying that, from conception, the novel is about nine years old. On the other hand, I feel a rush of excitement that I’m about to greatly improve the work I feel more pride in than anything. It feels as though I’m about to breathe new life not only into Vengeance, but into The Escapades of William Hart in entirety. The experiences Hart’s about to have will shape him and the series in wonderful ways.

It perhaps doesn’t need saying that the blog could suffer as a result of this decision. Vengeance will always take precedence over any other writing I do unless by some miracle one of my other stories gets picked up. I can’t see that happening though. ASAS would be the strongest bet in my mind and I plan to return the stories to at least Smashwords in the future. No, Vengeance will have to be the one that receives the lion’s share of my attention, so another break from blogging is likely to occur down the line. I’m sure you’ll all appreciate my reasons.

Times have been tough, mentally speaking, since the start of the year and I’ve often found myself questioning my writing future as reader numbers and interaction tapers off. Even a host of my regular readers and most avid supporters have gone AWOL and it’s left me questioning whether I even want to blog and if I have the strength to carry on trying to make it as a writer. Thanks to my lovely mental health issues, I’m unable to simply take the positive stance of just doing it for me and balls to everyone else. I take it personally that those whose support I’ve fed off don’t show said support anymore. I take it personally that new people won’t give my work a chance. It leaves me questioning myself, my abilities, and whether I even want to continue.

The decision to make this change has pulled me right back into the game and I feel somewhat invigorated. It could be a decision that saves my fledgling career as a writer, which would make it arguably the biggest decision of my life.