You ever get that feeling, in the middle of a project, that you’re missing something? The same one that grinds your progress to a halt while you think about how you can try and fix it? I’ve been stuck with that feeling for awhile.

Unfortunately that same feeling has been striking Crimson Sands and the entire series that it starts. It’s made the story feel hollow and lacking any real direction. It’s hindered my progress with the story, making penning even a few words seem like an ordeal.

Until now.

I had a little epiphany the other night which has set the Dark Stars universe on fire. The introduction of a single character, along with expanding the role of another from a later book to throughout the series, has turned the entire idea upside down. It makes a formerly subtle storyline become much more prominent, along with helping change the role of the two protagonists.

This simple idea has changed my outlook on the Dark Stars universe, along with the New Horizons series (the arch that follows Jacob and Vaerys) within it. It excites and invigorates me, but it also requires me to sit back, stop the proverbial presses and think about how this change will truly shape Dark Stars. With that, I’ll be stepping back for a little while I plan my way through this.

Hell, I think a bloody flow-chart might be in order for this. The codex is also gonna get a bit fatter in the meantime.

In the meanwhile, I got a couple other story ideas I am kicking around that I’ll see about working on while I brainstorm Dark Stars. Not everything will be grinding to a halt, you understand. Particularly since my couple of days of vacation where I sat on my backside and didn’t pen a single thing.

Yeah, violating the golden rule of writing, “Write something every day.”

Either way, I’ll keep working and keep you folks updated as things progress. For now, it’s back to plotting my dominance and/or demise while working on random one-off shorts.