The Biggest Delete In History!

Well, I’ve just deleted every word in Once Friends, A Hollywood Love Story that I had written thus far. That was 33k+ words.  Gosh, I’m so happy I have the time to recover from what I had just done. I moved my editing date to January 31, 2018 for this book and release date to March 6, 2018.

What happened?

I think what happened was I pulled the story out of my file cabinet so to speak. It was something I had written in screenplay format years ago as a TV series. And just like then, I had too many elements going on and the whole story got away from me. I had grandma, and her nemesis and a family curse on the Hester girls to never marry. Then nemesis had like a hundred cats living his her apartment. I had one Hester girl as an artist, one as a struggling writer (main character), one as a fitness guru and one as a reluctant over-achiever, who is on her fifth wedding day. Yes, wedding DAY. She is always being left at the altar.

And I still want to write all of this about the Hester women, just not in one book, or as I did back then, one episode. So, basically, I became so overwhelmed by trying to mesh the old with the new, which included the love story, that I just started to bore myself. And I can be easily borked when it comes to stories–my own and those from other creators.

And so… For the last two weeks since I first stalled out, I knocked my brain against the wall trying to figure out how to proceed.

Let me tell you, it was a dramatic affair. I laid on top of my black leather ottoman, curled up in a ball, thinking…thinking…thinking. I paced back and forth across the room. I climbed into bed a number of times and pulled the covers over my head, thinking…thinking…thinking. I drove without music. I sat on the sofa and let my mind take my story in a hundred different directions. Of course I tried to push on, forcing some sort of story out of what I already had. I mean, it’s not easy throwing all those words and time spent writing them in the trash. A lot of my writing was good. A lot of scenes were okay. A lot of it just went on and on and on, like Z, what are you writing girl??? Sigh. BOR-ING.

And then like yesterday, I think, I had a break through. I figured out a few weeks ago the I had to start the story a little a different. I had to build the components, which made my hero and heroine’s fateful meeting legitimate. So, I started with the hero having a dream that makes him want to change his whole life. Every had a dream like that? I have. But then… Naw. I didn’t want that to be motivation which becomes the foundation of my entire love story. I wanted him to have long been arriving at the decision to leave it all behind. I wanted to start on the day when he could no longer ignore the void inside of him. He was sinking, and he doesn’t want to swim but he doesn’t want to sink further and die either. He lost, confused, famous and hates it. And then BAM. Fate. Hope. And maybe, just maybe, Change.

So…

This is the story I’m telling now. Sonja Hester and Jay West, A Hollywood Love Story. Grown people coming of age stories–by the way it’s never too late to come to age. 30. 40. 50. Beyond. After divorce and three children later, ladies and gentlemen you still have the opportunity to truly come to age. Remember that. I will be constantly reminding you and encouraging you and nudging you towards bravery in my stories. 🙂

I think that’s why I had to start over as well.

Anyway… So. You can now pre-order Once Friends, A Hollywood Love Story on iBooks. Yay!
And you know me… A Z.L. Arkadie books always has to have some sort of mystery going on, one that ties all the stories of the Hester sisters and cousins together.

Okay. I’ll wrap up my work for Sunday but tomorrow
I’ll be starting at page 1, word 1 all over again, and guess what?

I’m excited about it!

Have a wonderful rest of your evening/night/day! 🙂
Z