Changes and Root Canals

So I realized that I'm the author of my own story.

Yeah, sounds trite and stupid, but the point is that if I'm not satisfied with a story, I should change it. It is true, that a balance must be struck between piddling around with the same story over and over again and putting stuff out. Well I've put lots of stuff out and its time, in my opinion, to notch up the piddling around with it until I get it to work.

I'll finish Earth and Water, but quite frankly, starting with Air, I don't do any more stories until I get it set up right, which I intend to do this week. I've also learned that when I compare novel 3 to novel 2 I do understand that it should all be written at once and quickly. I'm thinking that with air I write it all in three days. Which means I use the process I use with scripts, including putting down the entire plot ahead of time and THEN filling in the blanks. My stories come out much stronger that way.

My mother in law had as much difficulties with the 2nd novel as my mother did. Specifically the beginning. I'm going to perform a root canal on it, and radically change a few things whilst trying to save the core story. We'll see if it helps. If the foundation is not strong enough, I'll just have to move on, like I did with the first novel.

Which makes sense, since I usually have to do twice as much as anyone else to learn something, so if a natural writer doesn't really get to the good stuff until after their first novel, why not expect me to require at least two?