What a difference a story makes!

I'm working on my current WIP and I can't help but compare it to the last one I just finished.

I wrote that one in the summertime and it felt like pulling teeth to get it on the page. I knew the characters well (this was the 3rd book with them), but the plot felt choppy to me & I wasn't sure it was going to work. I had to do a lot of backtracking and layering in the clues to make it all work out.

This current WIP is totally different. I'm still doing backtracking, but I'm doing it to layer in character details. I'm basing the book on an old draft, so I'm cutting a lot but I feel a real connection to the characters. What's the difference? This one is a 3rd-person book and the other, earlier one, was a 1st-person book. I'm having fun doing 2 points of view.

NOTE TO SELF: intersperse the occasional 3rd-person book in among your other ones. It's a lot of fun!