I am happy to report that I have made significant progress over the last week on Dark Medicine. The re-plotting is finished. Ok, that is kind of a lie. If you remember, or want to turn back in the blog, several months ago I discussed that I was using a new plotting method to re-plot Dark Medicine. I proceeded to use that method, but there came a point where I felt I was chasing my tail. Maybe I am impatient to get started—actually, I know I am impatient.

Yet, I feel like I have enough of a map to work through my the errors I made in the original plotting and writing of this novel that led me into a corner I could not write out of.

As of this moment I am closing in on page 200 of the novel. To put that in perspective for non-writers, that is double spaced, 12 point, Courier New font. For fellow writers who count things by words I am closing in on 50,000 words. While, this sounds like a lot, I know that Dark Medicine will be a long novel. In some ways I can imagine how Tolkien might have felt when he wrote the Lord of the Rings trilogy—as those three books were originally one novel—as Dark Medicine is a complex character driven tale with a main plot and three subplots that are strong enough nearly be full main plots.

I now go back to writing and working this novel up to its new rough draft. I will provide an update next week on where the story is.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for more information on the articles, blogs, novels, poems, and short stories I am writing.