Break Through

Update 45: April 11-17, 2022

This was a good week, and not just because of my birthday.

In the last update I actually forgot to mention one of the problems I was having with outlining. I realize that my anecdote from last week swerved me off course and I forgot a whole section. But since I solved that problem this week, I can talk about it now.

Outlining Issues

I mentioned having trouble with the outline but I didn’t go into the details.

The problem I had was I kept coming up for ideas for the main story but not for the overstory. And I will admit that my “overstory” is a little weak still.

To clarify—since I can’t link to a single post on this one—the way this series of books is laid out is each of the five books has its own problem and main story. While there is a second story that involves a group of people that “move” into each book’s story while they are trying to deal with the series enemy and problems.

While outlining both stories two week ago, I just had problems of where I was going with both stories, and also, I had nothing for the overarch story at all. I kept asking myself why I left them in a certain city. Why I couldn’t just portal anywhere? Why? Why?

Stalemate.

Working the Time Line

But then I sat down this week to work on the outline. I had nothing, but I did have a timeline. So, I started to work on the timeline a little further.

The first thing I did was throw out my original main characters for the main story, and replaced them with characters from my thesis novel. Once I did that I smoothed their timeline and looked into their lives. Building on the time line I realized that I had a perfect window for a bunch of events and that I could make both stories cross over if I worked it intelligently. And then epiphany.

In the previous book I had to redo the manuscript three times. The first big change was in adjusting the “weights of the story.” That first outline was 50-50 A and B story. But over time I adjusted it to be more 75-25. Where the main story of the book took center stage.

I did that here, and Epiphany!

Break-Thru

And this is where the break thru happened. I put all the weight on the main story and pushed the secondary aside and just worked on the timeline. Everything started to fall into place. Next thing I knew, I had a 36 chapter outline that was just a single sentence for each chapter.

I then transferred this to my notebook specifically for the outline, and it became a 37 plus pro- and epilogue. I looked up and it was just a little after lunch time. So, quick meal and then I opened a new Scrivener project and created my cork board.

Now 38 chapters plus caps.

Its an 80-20 split. And I still feel like the end I have outlined to is perhaps not the real end of the book. I haven’t dealt with the other problems in the book, just the main one. But we’ll see what happens when I start to write. I might have to split the main party again, and send characters in different directions. (But I totally have nothing planned for one of those directions).

Great Writing Week

The new cork board is the header pic, so you can get a glimpse of the layout and see the colors of POVs on each card. I originally had it as only three POVs and one of those was merely the Pro- and Epilogue storyteller. But as usual I decided to spread the love a little in each group and share the POV duties between several characters in the main arc and only Slater in the “overarc” group.

I will admit I became super excited and really wanted to get started on the manuscript. But I have a lot going on with the holidays, work, and my health which has been a little spotty. I am holding myself to not starting the new manuscript until May… and I still need to work in the first round of revisions of the first book.

Add on top of that I should be getting the prequel (thesis) novel back from a beta reader soon, and then that manuscript will also probably see another round of revisions. I have to budget my time between two revisions and starting the new manuscript. Plus, I still have a ton of mapping, character sketches, and detail work to get going. In either case, these journal entries will once again become more about writing and less about my entertainment for the week.

Speaking of which…

Toku Talk

I finished Denziman this week and started Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan. I have been debating writing a series of essays, or one long essay about my journey through the 70’s and 80’s in Tokusatsu. Mostly just looking at the details and how things change in each series. The path of evolution.

I might start to work on that too… but only if I spend a few minutes on it. I promise not to let it creep into my writing time.

And Gaming…

I’m also fighting off playing to many video games, ha ha… I went overboard and bought a bunch of games right up front. But I’m the type of gamer who only plays a single game and tries to go to completion. Meaning my other games tend to languish and gather dust. If I let my attention wander too much, I have a habit of not going back to games if I take too long a break. So, I need to focus and power through a bunch of these games. As is I’m currently playing through two games at once and that’s just not like me.

Anyway, I have a ton of side work that needs doing today so I will leave you all here. Thank you for reading.