Book 2 Solution?

This was a Book 2 week. Before, I'd been going through it looking for what to keep and what to save with the idea of adding a timeline that included Calliope that would replace whatever I cut. Along the way I was fixing things and polishing prose and dialogue not sure what I would cut and what I wouldn't. I thought the beginning was slower than Book 1. How could I fix that? Hmm, not sure. From plot point one to plot point 2 is much faster. It slows down some after that but not drastically. How to improve pacing? Hmm, I'll have to figure it out.

I think I have an overall solution. The more I work on Book 2 the more I think it doesn't need to be cut. It just needs an overhaul. However, the transition between it and Book 1 is sharp due to the almost 3.5 years that pass between books. The transition has to be fixed. A while back I read a series in which the author went back and added a novella between two books in a series and labelled it Volume 3.5 or whatever the number was. It wasn't essential to the series. It just filled in a gap in time between books and was something extra for readers. My new idea is to save Book 2 and add a novella( Book 1.5) after Book 1. That would save a whole lot of time and effort. All I have to do is develop a plot to cover events immediately after Book 1 and tie up any loose ends. That fixes the transition problem pretty nicely without taking the time for a complete rewrite. With that in mind I've already begun the overhaul of Book 2.

While I was typing this, I thought of another way to do it. Almost half of Book 3 is already written. Instead of a novella, maybe I could do a new first half for Book 2 and move the end of Book 2 into Book 3. Book 3 flows very smoothly out of Book 2, so it wouldn't be noticeable that they used to be two books. However, Books 2 and 3 use a three-act structure. Plot points would have to be fixed, or I could change it to a try/fail cycle. I've been contemplating switching from the three-act structure anyway. This might be my chance to experiment.

Thinking about which way to do it won't take time away from working on Book 2. It's something I can ponder away from the computer and write down notes for. The important thing I'm pretty sure I have a solution that works.

Have a great weekend.