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Why the hell is it taking you so long to finish writing Hidden Demons?
There are many reasons, which I'll hopefully be able to explain here. To start with, I first wrote Hidden Demons way back in 2017. It was the third book I'd ever written from start to finish and I was still finding my feet when it came to... well, everything really. I didn't have a clue what I was doing back then, and if I'm honest, I still don't have a clue. I know a hell of a lot more now than I did back then, but there is still so much for me to learn. From craft to marketing and everything in between. Have I made mistakes along the way? You bet I have. Some small, but also some absolute whoppers (if you read Connor's book before it was revised in June 2021, you'll know what I mean). Anyway, after writing Hidden Demons, I set it aside while continuing to learn all I could about writing and the publishing industry. I still hadn't published anything yet. Connor's book was still going to be my first, but it was a long way off from being ready. So, in January 2018, I dove head first into getting Connor's book ready. I cut out big chunks and then rewrote the majority of the rest of the book (if you thought the first published version was bad, you should have seen the original first version. It was shocking, to say the least).
Okay, I've just realised I missed a bit of info that'll be handy for you to know. As some of you know already, I started writing in November 2015 for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month or NaNo for short). If you haven't heard of NaNo before, the goal is to write 50k words in 30 days. I wrote (in this order) Connor's New Wolf, Midnight Unchained, Hidden Demons, Heart of the Hunted, Heart of the Damned, and Heart of the Cursed for NaNo between 2015 and 2020. All but the last 2 were written before I'd published a single word.
Right, now back to 2018. I had 3 books in a series written, but they all needed work done to them before they were anywhere near ready to be published. Because I knew the stories were likely to change, I didn't want to write any more books in the series until I'd fixed the ones I already had. So, as I said earlier, I dove head-first into Connor's book. It took me all year to get that book ready. But when November hit, I was lured in by the shiny virtual badges on the NaNo website (okay, it might have been a bit of my competitive nature spurring me on. It's a good job I'm only competitive with myself), but I still didn't want to add to the series because I still had 2 more books to fix. Enter Heart of the Hunted. After spending so many years on the Guarded by Night series, and Connor's book in particular, this new series was the fun distraction I desperately needed at the time. I had so much fun writing that book, I knew straight away it wasn't going to be the standalone I'd planned on, but a 3 book series. A month after finishing Heart of the Hunted for that year's NaNo, Connor's book was finally ready for publishing (well, I thought it was at the time. I soon found out otherwise). I knew Midnight Unchained was calling for me to finish it next, but I wasn't ready to let go of the new world I'd created. So, I decided to work on both Midnight and Hunted simultaneously.
What does all this have to do with why it's taking you so long to finish Hidden Demons? I hear you ask. I promise I'm getting to the point. After finishing Midnight Unchained, it was obvious that I needed another book between Midnight and Hidden Demons. So, I started work on Darkest Bane. At the same time, I had people screaming at me for the next Infernal Hearts book. I didn't know that cliffhangers were a big no-no in romance books when I published Heart of the Hunted, especially when the other books in the series weren't ready. You can probably guess what I did next. I rushed to get the next book in the Infernal Hearts series written, which meant Hidden Demons was pushed back again and again (yep, because of another cliffhanger).
Fast-forward to November 2021. I'd had enough of pushing Hidden Demons back. It needed finishing, not just for me, but for you as well. To give myself that added push to get it finished, I put it up for pre-order. Bear in mind, I hadn't looked at it since 2017. On top of that, between November 2017 and November 2021 I'd rewritten and published 2 novels (3 if you include Connor's revision after it was published), wrote and published a further 3 novels and 1 novella (and a few short stories and drabbles), and I was still working on the final book in the Infernal Hearts series. I shouldn't have set the pre-order, especially without looking at the book first, but I was stupid and determined to get it finished. I'm still just as determined to get it finished, that hasn't changed. What has changed is how long it's taking. I'd hoped to have it published on time, but when I finally picked it up, I realised it needed a shit ton of work doing to it.
Unfortunately, I couldn't dedicate all of my time on fixing it last year. I was still finishing up with Heart of the Cursed and writing Dreaming of a Yuletide Wolf. Not to mention, I was also home-educating my daughter (and still am). That didn't stop me from trying though. Even with everything else going on, I started the rewrite. By the time I made it to chapter 3, it was obvious the entire book needed redoing. I ended up cutting roughly 95% of the book. The only part I kept was the first 3 chapters, everything else was cut. I wish I could have saved more from the original story so it would have been ready on time, but I just couldn't do it. After everything I've learnt since beginning this journey, I knew no matter what I did to it, it wouldn't have been good enough. Am I a fantastic author? Probably not. I'm certainly not the best. But that doesn't mean I don't want to put out the best book I can produce. I don't want to keep you waiting for Hidden Demons or any other book I write, but I want to give you the best book I'm capable of writing. I'm learning something new every single day about how to improve my writing, and I'm implementing what I've learnt into every new book I produce. In fact, to help me learn where I'm going wrong, I've recently started working with a critique partner.
Okay, back to Hidden Demons. After cutting roughly 95% of the story in the autumn of last year, I managed to rewrite over half of the book by December, but there was no way it was going to be finished on time for the pre-order date, so I had no choice but to cancel it. I knew Amazon was going to punish me for cancelling, but I refused to rush and put out a half-arsed book, so I took the hit. But worse than being punished by Amazon (I'm a big girl, I can take the punishment), I was letting you down. I wanted the book to be published by now. I wanted it published in December last year, but it's not ready.
I'm not going to lie, this year has been incredibly difficult. After cancelling the pre-order, imposter syndrome hit me hard. On top of that, I've been feeling burnt out. I have managed to get some more of Hidden Demons done, but it's been hard to get in the right head space. Saying goodbye to my pooch, Boots, took a lot out of me, as well as a few other things. But, I have a plan laid out and ready to go to help me get Hidden Demons into your hands as soon as possible. I won't be putting it into action this week because I have a few other loose ends to tie up before I go away next week, but you can bet I'll be diving straight in as soon as I'm home.
If you made it this far, thank you. I know that's a massive info dump, but hopefully, it explains what's been happening with Hidden Demons. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. You can either leave a comment on this post, message me on Facebook, or email me at authorgeorginastancer@gmail.com.
Until next time, much love and happy reading
Georgina x
P.s. I'll be posting regular updates on my Facebook page and in my reader group from May.
