After a crazy couple of weeks since the launch of The Defender of Rebel Falls, I have finally returned to working on the second novel in the series. I have yet to come up with a working title, but I’m happy to announce that the basic outline is complete. Of course, I’ll probably change a few things along the way, but the main plot points are mapped out. This, for me, is the hardest step in writing. I’m not the sort of person who can simply write from the seat of my pants–I need an outline in order to be productive, and I have to know where the story is going before I can type a single word of prose.

Why is it hard? Because I’m starting with next to nothing. Sure, I might have an idea, or even a few full scenes in mind. But once I sit down and try to make all the pieces fit together, I can’t really tell what’s useful and what’s not. It’s like working on a jigsaw puzzle where you’ve never seen what the picture looks like and half the pieces don’t belong. It’s fun, but frustrating, and rarely done in one sitting. More like thirty.

My next step is to go through each of the scenes (there’s 104 of them so far) and add detail: what’s William’s goal, what are the conflicts, what sort of success does he have, and what’s his reaction? And what leads him to his next goal? Adding these serves two purposes: first, to make sure these things exist. Without them, the scene would be boring, and potentially not fit into the plot. Second, it gives me a great starting point when it comes to writing the first draft. At this stage, I also try to add notes about what each character is doing in this scene, or if they are not in the scene, what they are doing elsewhere. This serves to maintain continuity, and prevents me from writing a scene where a character enters when they should be three hundred miles away.

After that comes the Great Slog: the first draft. I have to constantly remind myself that the first draft is not supposed to be good writing, and to think of it as shoveling sand to build castles later. I’ve set myself a huge goal: to finish the first draft by spring. Half a year to write over a hundred thousand words is not an impossible task, but when you work full time, travel a lot, and do most of the cooking an shopping (by choice!), it seems somewhat daunting. Plus, I need time for World of Warcraft!

But having finished the outline will make it easier. I’ll be posting weekly with my progress and word count. If I fail to do so–or if my word counts seem low–please feel free to cheer me on.

Happy Reading!

Erik