Getting Realistic

d1/26,000 words

Although I have a decent chunk of words on paper right now, most of my effort so far has been outlining. I wrote some discovery scenes and backstory scenes, to get the hang of the characters, and I jumped ahead and wrote a couple of the scenes I am excited about. Other than that, I am going through the mechanical process of dividing the action into chapters, assigning POVs, and checking the logistics (scene-sequel, and motivation-reaction units) to make sure when I write out these scenes, they work. And they go somewhere.

It sounds boring and technical I am sure, but I am actually loving it. I create a possible story vector, then just pull it this way and that, add characters, twist, what-if, until I end up with something cool. Then I break down that something cool into its distinct parts, making note of where each character is in their arc, and try to figure out exactly what part to show in a given chapter.

One thing this process has clarified for me is the difference between an epic fantasy, and a single novel. I am writing the latter, but my original outline was meant for the former. 6 POVs is too much. WAY too much. So I’ve narrowed it down to just two: alternating between Nick and Evaya. I’ve also trimmed the plot arc from 4 parts to just 3. I have part 1 outlined in detail, and part 2 and 3 outlined in general. Time to start writing these out.

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