CreativeLife update: fixing a boring novel, and Inktober

 Hey there, creative friend!

    I caused a problem for myself on multiple levels: the book I had planned to publish in December, is not finished yet. This means that it is too late to send to my editor, but the bigger issue? If you have read any of my Nations of Peace novels, you will know that somewhere in each story there is usually a binding ritual of some kind to tie the romantic partners together for life. With uneven lifespans, and not-quite-human characters, this was my solution for a happily ever after.

   In case you are not familiar with the series, these binding rituals vary depending on the type of characters. Spoiler alert: my books are only intended for an adult audience.

Back to the problem...

The novel I am talking about is the first of the stories of the High Lords. The Lords of the High Council made their debut in Michael's Mystery. It is the story of Anoré D'Exelmante, the Guardian of Dreams. His abilities include telepathy and telekinesis.

He meets the love of his life. And as things typically go, they want to be together for always, hence the binding ritual. Anoré is immortal, but the woman is human. And here is where I dug myself a proverbial grave: the binding ritual. I couldn't figure it out.

When I wrote the story, I decided to skip it (leave some space in the file) and then carried on with the story. You know stuff that goes wrong, and issues that need to be fixed and talked about, etc. When I started editing it (before sending it for a professional edit) I realised that I didn't like the story. Okay, it became boring. I hate boring, and so will you, my reader.

I do like the characters, so I had to fix it. Period.

I then deleted all the words from that space to the end. Okay, I just moved the words to my Deleted file, because you never know if they would be useful. Then I started to rewrite the story. And I figured out the binding ritual almost immediately- imagine that. 😉

With Novel November just around the corner, I will be finishing the story of the Guardian of Dreams. Do another edit from the start in the new year, send it off to my editor, and then publish it in 2026.

What did I learn from this situation? I need to trust myself. I have been writing for 25 years, and the best stories come from letting the process lead the way, not my engineering brain.

The High Lords are fascinating characters, but Anoré's lady is turning out to be a surprise ... to him. And me, when I started trusting the process.

I have included a few of my Inktober 2025 drawings, to give come colour to this post, but it's not been an exciting challenge for me - mostly because of severely limited available time. Maybe I will bore you with that story next time. 😉

Until then, life creatively!

💜🇿🇦Linzé