Whose story is it anyway?

When I met my publisher for the first time — well before he was actually my publisher — I was incredibly nervous.  Would he like my idea?  Could I persuade him to take me onboard as one of his authors?  I knew that he liked what I’d written — the first 50 pages at least — but I needed to convince him that I could come up with a great rest of the book.

So over coffee I pitched my first book.  I must have done okay because he not only took me on as one of his authors but he also paid for the coffee!

During the pitch I made it clear that this was the first in a trilogy — and part of that pitch was to say that the next two books would each be from a different character’s point of view.  This sounded like a great idea at the time and I have even begun writing the second story with this in mind.

However, the feedback I’m getting from people who have read Mis’ka: Rite of Ascension is that they are expecting the story to continue with Mis’ka as the central character — the hero/protagonist.

Mis'ka

And I think that they are right.  Although the other dominant characters, Hetat and Gable, are intrinsic to the story — they do not need to lead the action.

So what’s a writer to do?  I have gone back to what I’ve written and am rewriting to tell the story through Mis’ka.

Right now she’s in a really bad situation — can she survive?  Only time will tell…