How many times can you re-start a novel? I don't mean editing, adding or changing a few things to make the opening scenes more grabbing, a character more life-like or a location more atmospheric. I mean a complete overhaul of the plot. I have been working on my current historical novel for a few weeks now, and it's the fourth time I start over from scratch, with a new time frame, new opening scenes and locations and elements to the plot. So far only the hero and heroin have escaped my rewriting frenzy. Every time I feel I'm doing better, and every time it seems that I'm not. A few chapters into the new 'improved' version, I stall... and wonder where I've gone wrong again.
Being an optimist, I have today started the fourth - and I hope the final - version of 'Dancing for the Devil'. I still believe in the characters and the storyline, but it feels by far the hardest story I've written and I wonder why.
So there... This time it starts on a very stormy day in Cape Wrath in the North of Scotland...
