I have devised a cunning plan

After deep and profound brain things inside my head, I at last have a plan in place for completing Secession Island.

*I have made a final decision on point-of-view. I've decided to go with third person, and I'm determined to stick with it to the end this time. (I've already rewritten it about 3 or 4 times, just changing the p.o.v.)

*The plot shifts back and forth between present day and the Civil War. I've struggled with how to cobble the two together in a readable way. I've decided for now to write the two stories in two separate files and then segue them together after both storylines are complete. Right now, I have finished neither storyline mostly because I am unsure what should go where. Hopefully this will eliminate the problem and allow me to get the story down on paper. I can work on arranging it later, once the writing is complete.

*I've decided I will no longer be using diary entries to tell the Civil War portion of the story. It seemed manageable when I started, but I found I wanted to include more and more back story for the Civil War character, so the diary is just getting too unwieldy. I'm going to rewrite those parts (in a separate file) also in third-person point-of-view, allowing me more freedom to explore this character and some of the other characters from the Civil War era.

*Once all the writing of the two storylines is complete, I will figure out how to integrate them into one single story. I want to follow the style of one of my favorite authors, Kate Morton, who shows a mastery for fluctuating between past and present in her novels. I think this will be a more successful way for me to tell the story of Secession Island. (Although I doubt it will be anywhere near as good as Kate Morton's writing when I am finished!)

I have already been working on a few new scenes this morning (made possible by the above changes), and have finished editing chapter one. Chapter One was actually much better than I had thought - I was pleasantly surprised. Cy always tells me that I am too hard on myself, and maybe he is right. Although when it comes to writing, I don't think it's possible to be too critical of your own writing!