Months ago I became lost in the writing of Dark Medicine. I declared the rough draft finished, put it in the tomb and thought what it needed was a re-plotting. Once I took it out of the tomb and began to rethink my plot I have come to realize that it was not a need for re-plotting that had driven me to close the draft, but a problem I had with the original plot. I had become lost in where the story was going and how things were really come to a climax based on what I was writing.

What I learned as I was restudying my story is that I did screw up the plot because I misidentified the story’s primary antagonist. This may sound like a stupid mistake—and you are right, it is one. Yet, I see how I did it and maybe have a sense of what Herman Melville may have felt when he wrote Moby Dick. You start writing a story thinking that this character and that character are the crux of your story only to discover that it actually is another character that is the key.

What I have truly discovered is that I do not need to re-plot, but shift the plot and rewrite the last half of the story. This rewrite will not be a full 2nd draft and not count as such, but a reworking of the first draft. Why does that matter? I take my stories (novels or short stories) through at least 12 drafts. Once I am done with the rewrite of the last half of the rough draft, it will still have 11 drafts (or more) to go.

To quote Shakespeare from my favorite play by him, “Once more on to the breach, dear friends . . ..”

Thank you for reading. Please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for up to date information on the blogs, short stories and novels that I write.

Why do people think that to forbid something makes it impossible for it to happen? If that was the case, then the history of man would be altered in ways we cannot imagine. Regardless of religious preference, we are told in various creation stories and myths of how man will defy divinity to attempt to have what is forbidden. This theme is seen in the Torah, the Bible and the Quran. It is seen in Greek, Egyptian and other uncounted mythos. If, as the myths and the religious stories describe, man will defy the will of the Divine to obtain what he desires, then why would he not defy the will of society to do the same?

When the emotion behind the defiance is love, then the drive of disobedience can become an obsession. Who can truly blame the sinner for their sin when driven to obsession? They may fight it, they may push it away so they do not have the opportunity to disobey. But, what if they can’t? Further, what if what they desire was once theirs to have? Is it right to judge and to curse them?

This is how Alexandre Levreau finds himself accursed to be a vampire. Like the ancient hero, Odysseus, Alexandre leaves his wife and home to fight. Like Odysseus, he is cursed to wander in his quest to return home. But, unlike noble Penelope, Alexandre’s wife believed him dead and agrees to marry again—Alexandre’s own brother. Once Alexandre returns and finds his only love married to his brother and dearest of friends, he tries to avoid the passion he feels for own whom he is forbidden to love. But, is it really his fault when he succumbs for he and his former wife still are in love.

But it is this forbidden love that unlocks a curse—a curse that he did not know hung over his head like an executioner’s axe—to make him one of the living dead.

Had he known, would he have given in? Would you have?

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for up to date information on blogs, short stories and novels I am working on.