Aha! I think I figured out why I was having so much trouble with book 2! I tried for a year to get this to be something that worked, but no matter how many changes or what characters I added, it still was a mess. The plot never really goes anywhere and no one really does much. It was boring me so much that I kept getting burned out.

The reason is now obvious: I'm trying to base a story/plot around a character who is by nature and circumstance a sidekick. I mean, in book 1 he's important, but always secondary to two of the more main (POV) characters. (He even ends up supporting the 3rd POV character who had been apart from some of the main storyline.) That's his role. He's the bodyguard. The one who looks after the other two. He's the brains and the logic that get them through tough situations. He's the support they can always rely on because no matter what, he's there. He's trustworthy and loyal to the point where it becomes a flaw and compromises his logical judgement.

But he isn't a hero. He isn't a protagonist in his own right, which is what I was trying to make him into for the second book. No wonder he wasn't seeking out plot on his own; he's perfectly content to stand behind the other two while they find the plot. Forcing him into doing it himself just wasn't working. (This is a problem with the character, not the sidekick role. One of the two POV characters shares the position of bodyguard with him, but while being a bodyguard could make her a sidekick, she doesn't have the personality to be secondary. She finds plot easily and has a tendency of doing her own thing, not that that's always a good idea.)

So I think I have a way of fixing book 2; I have to shift the story so it’s directly affecting other characters. Too bad NaNo starts in a week and I haven’t had time to outline that one yet, so I have to put my focus on book 3 without really knowing what book 2 is going to become. This could be a disaster or it could mean that book 3 gives me my answers for book 2.

~Meri